From stack ’em, to rack ’em

I’m finally at the point of my shop build where I’m tackling the secondary stuff. That’s a Good Thing in general, but it also means I’m getting rid of stacks.

Building a new shop from scratch – while continuing to do regular work – means it takes forever to get it all done. So, you do the essentials first and take care of the lesser things later, and by essentials I mean things like framing, walls, electrical needs, major tools, etc. But just because something is secondary, doesn’t mean it’s not important.

A case in point is the lumber rack I’m building today. Up till now my lumber has been stacked more or less neatly on the most gravitationally stable surface I have: the floor. I also have some lumber leaning in corners. And some in a tall barrel. That’s all been an occasional nuisance, but not a hardship.

But because almost all of my essentials are now done I can begin to address things like those stacks. As neat as I’ve tried to keep them, they’re still taking up floor space and still in the way of efficient traffic flow in my wood-processing area. But by the end of the day that lumber will be off the floor and up on the wall where it belongs.