# How Do You Stack Lumber?



## Router Forums (May 7, 2010)

How do you stack/store lumber? Horizontally? Vertically? 

Why?


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## Jerry Bowen (Jun 25, 2011)

With great effort.


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

majority of hardwood stock- horizontally on wall mounted racks 

sheet goods - vertically on the long edge, elevated off of the concrete floor


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Vertical until I cut it for guitar backs, sides, and tops and then stickered horizontally.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

kp91 said:


> majority of hardwood stock- horizontally on wall mounted racks
> 
> sheet goods - vertically on the long edge, elevated off of the concrete floor


same way...


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## dalboy (Jun 12, 2012)

What I do have I stack anything under 4' upright in two bays one for hardwood and the other for softwood. Any small pieces I stack on a shelf laying flat along with all of my turning spindle blanks, bowl blanks I pre-cut into rounds and they are also stacked on a shelf dry ones in with all other dry wood. I have a separate shed for green wood turning blanks and any that are still in log.
For very small pieces that I use for toy making I keep in a draw unit along with all of my pen blanks


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Vertical because I don't have the room to do anything else. I really don't like it but that is the way it is. :crying:


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

No more than 6-8" from each end and no more than every 2' in between.


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## PapaTango (Oct 9, 2015)

Since I mill boards from Pine, Douglas Fir and some Hickory, they are air-dried by sticker in the yard, then bought into the garage to fully dry. I'm envious of others' solid organisation of lumber indoors, as my shelves begin orderly & then drop into a shambles! My biggest problem is self-inflicted because I hate throwing scraps or off-cuts into the burn-box ... always feeling they'll be a use for that piece sometime!


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

@PapaTango

With you on the cut off pieces, they can be glued up and make great boxes, etc.

Agree with the horizontal and vertical stacking approaches but I seldom have enough on hand to worry about due to space constraints.


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## rrrun (Jun 17, 2014)

I fight the good fight of a small shop in my 2-car garage. The work area is about 16' x 18'; the lumber rack has 3 shelves that are 30" wide x about 2' high. It's 2x4 construction.

The lumber rack is a free-standing rack, 8' long. When I buy 10' boards, they stick out the front until they are processed. The top of the rack is 6' high, and it's covered with plywood to make a storage shelf.

6' & longer boards go into the rack. 5' & shorter are stored vertically until they are used ... and they are used first, to make room in the shop. Sheet stock is stored vertically while resting on its long edge, next to the rack.

2' & shorter boards are stored in various racks, cabinets & containers until I can use them to do what I do.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I don't keep a lot of lumber around, but what I do have is laid horizontally in the shop on a wire shelf, or if long, it gets stored in the house on the floor or garage on the exposed rafters.

Baltic Birch ply gets stored vertically in the shop, but I clamp several sheets together in 5-6 places to avoid warping. Cheap ply and thin (backs) I buy as I need it. I can pre cut on my truck so I have smaller pieces to store. 

Small offcuts get dropped into a bin.


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

I have a small basement shop with poured concrete walls and plumbing taking up space on two of the walls. I wanted to use one wall for board storage but since the shop is below grade I really didn't want to put anchors into the walls and risk a leak. Instead, I attached 2 X 2's to the floor joists with a corner brace and an a couple of mending plates. Then attached a double track bracket to the 2 X 2's so the shelves could be adjusted for height. I laid either pine or poplar boards down first across the shelf brackets as a base then laid the various wood species on the shelves. This approach has worked out well. 

As mentioned, I have a very small shop and most of my tools are on wheels. I used the same approach for sheet goods the largest pieces being 4 X 4. I found plans for a rolling sheet goods cart online and it holds all of my sheet goods and cut off.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

I stack my boards flat in the rafters of my garage, they are supported by plywood underneath. When I reclaimed this redwood from a fence that was removed I ran it through my thickness planer to remove the coatings on both sides then stacked and stickered the boards to help them dry. This tool cart works great by the planer and for moving the boards to where I will store them.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

These are some of the places that I use for storage.


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## mcmahondl (Mar 27, 2008)

I stack all my lumber horizontal with thin spacers placed at intervals along the length of each piece before another piece is placed on top. I alter the spacers from each other in the stacked lumber pile. The 1/8" spacers have been cut from scrap.This allows for air flow between each piece thus eliminating or at least minimizing warping and twist.


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