Journal Entry #6: Ripping and Chopping

Progress. The 2 x 8 lumber I scrounged from my brother-in-law's recent construction debris will be just enough to build a wood rack. Today I ripped 5 of these into 10 2 x 4's and cut down two more to form 6 arms for storing wood. I've been thinking about design for a couple of months now, thinking I would get to this much earlier than I have, and had good input from two friends who have built their own.

Most of the work was done on the radial arm saw. Ripping first, cross cutting second. my design involves a cantilever support that if my imagination is right should put most of the force on the vertical posts and the wall of the basement. This involved notching the 2 x 8 sections so that part will be mortised into the post, and the rest will rest directly on the side of the post. I could have built a fixture to notch these on the radial arm saw, but in the interest of time and of practicing cutting to a line I used a panel saw to cut these by hand. All that practice with the dovetail saw paid off: I stayed acceptably straight and square on all six arms.

I'll post pictures of my rack and possibly a few drawings of my design later (possibly tomorrow). In the meantime, here are pictures of my friends' wood racks, which inspired this design. If all goes well, I will be done sometime tomorrow.

Pictures courtesy and copyright Glenn Lyford and Sean Slattery.