![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/img_0275_edited-2.jpg\" "\\"img_0275_edited-2\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is really about efficient use of existing space.<\/strong> To actually make more space would involve things such as moving to a new building or knocking down walls – difficult options for most of us. So to make the most of what you\u2019ve got, think beyond the square feet of floor space, look up, and think vertical and volume.<\/strong><\/p>\n Loving wood as I do, my small shop was getting cluttered<\/strong> with the lovely stuff and I was no longer at ease in my little playground. After a few minutes of sitting on my workbench and staring at the walls, I began to discern where empty vertical space<\/strong> could open up after only minor rearranging.<\/p>\n I installed two<\/strong> inexpensive<\/strong> Portamate wood racks<\/a> after being reassured by a structural engineer that the wall studs would easily take the 500+ pound loads. Instead of the shorter screws that came with the racks, I used 4″ TimberLok<\/a> heavy-duty wood screws (and grade\u00a08 hardened\u00a0washers)\u00a0since about 1 \u00bd” of the screw length is taken up passing through the brackets and spacers. The top photo shows a rack installed in a small alcove<\/strong> that was previously underutilized.<\/p>\n Because most of my woodworking is not large scale work, most of the wood I have in storage has been crosscut to about 4 feet long or less. However, the capacity to store some long boards<\/strong> for a long time is still necessary. In the photo above, notice the two utility hangers<\/a> toward the right, near the top of the wall. Without interfering with anything else in the shop, they make use of the space above the door<\/strong> to allow storage of boards 8+ feet long<\/strong>. The Portamate\u00a0rack has also opened up more space for the scaffold-type rack that is below it (beyond the frame of the photo).<\/p>\n I am once again at ease<\/strong> in my space. This helps clear my mind<\/strong> as I am working and makes the work more pleasant. Ahhh, the shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is really about efficient use of existing space. To actually make more space would involve things such as moving to a new building or knocking down walls – difficult options for most of us. So to make the most of what you\u2019ve got, think beyond the square feet of floor space, look up, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools-and-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/img_0272_edited-2.jpg\" "\\"img_0272_edited-2\\"")
<\/p>\n