I needed someplace to store some rough sawed walnut wood i acquired from my Brother-in-law free grats awhile back. He inherited it when his Father passed and he’s held on to it for about 10 years and never touched it as he doesn’t do much woodworking. He and my sister were moving and he offered it to me; how the hell could I pass on a deal like that! It’s been in my garage for about the last 6 months and it needed a better place to live and in a climate controlled area, so… this is what I came up with.
Not really sure just how much weight there is but it has to be several hundred pounds of lumber, I’ll see if it makes any difference in how well my machine sits and operates. I might even make something out of it now that I’m getting my shop back in business again.
Nice! That looks like some nice lumber. I’m doing something very similar. I purchased some extra 8020 crossmembers and slapped some plywood on top. I bolted it all down and put a few 100 lbs of wood on it. I can certainly tell it has added stability\rigidity to my machine. Plus it gives me some sweet storage space back!
I decided to go cheap on the crossmembers and just got some stud length 2 x 4’s, cut them to length and notched them out with my jig saw. I left an inch and a half sitting on top of the aluminum crossmembers and 2 inches inside the aluminum. I had the melamine sheet so I just cut it to length, put a 3" screw in each end of the 2 x 4’s and started loading it up. Didn’t hear any cracking or creaking of the wood as the weight added up, so I guess I’m good to go. We’ll see if the bottom falls out! But it seemed to be a great space recovery AND added ballast! As far as the walnut, most of it is actually in pretty good condition considering it had to be rough cut over 60 years ago. As you can see, there’s quite a variety in thickness and size there. I didn’t get hurt taking it off his hands!
Well, I store a 4x8 water table under there when I am doing spindle stuff. I also suspend my Hypertherm plasma cutter and the vacuum motors for the dust collection under there as well. Great place to put things!
It’s been in my garage for about the last 6 months and it needed a better place to live and in a climate controlled area, so… this is what I came up with.
But it seemed to be a great space recovery AND added ballast! As far as the walnut, most of it is actually in pretty good condition considering it had to be rough cut over 60 years ago. As you can see, there’s quite a variety in thickness and size there. I didn’t get hurt taking it off his hands! 