Rolling Shelf

One project always leads to another, especially when you're ADD (self-diagnosed anyway).  I have accumulated a good bit of lumber in my garage from my periodic neighborhood raids on garbage night.  In our town the garbage collector will pick up anything and accordingly, that's what people put on the curb.  We also happen to live in a 50-year-old neighborhood so there is constant remodeling going on.  Which means I score lumber, plywood, hinges, etc.  I just have to pull a few nails out.  Do you know how hard 50-year-old rough cut pine is?  It's so well seasoned it's like oak.  

The future shelving location

At any rate, after several months of "lumber shopping" I've got a pile in my garage.  If I'm going to get the new garage door up, I have to fix the ceiling in the garage.  To do that, I have to move the pile of lumber.  To do that I've got to get some shelves built in the shop to hold it.  To do that, I've got to clear out the pile that's already in the shop.  To do that, the planets have to align... you get the picture.  Well, I have limited space in the shop and if I'm going to have a shelf that will hold any sizable weight, it needs support about every four feet.  That means I can't just slide 92" studs on the shelf from the side since there will be support beams in the way.  I could slide them in from the end of the shelves but there's not enough room in the shop to get a board to the end of the shelf.  But wait!  I can build a shelf that swivels on one end and rolls on the other so I can slide the lumber in straight from the door of the shop!  Enter five hours of work and a trip to Tractor Supply.

I came up with the hair-brained idea to use 3/4" galvanized pipe with floor flanges to attach the swivel end to the floor and ceiling joists above.  The joists are only six feet high around the perimeter of the shop for upper storage.  These are the parts I contrived for that end.  The tee fits into holes bored into two 2 x 4s that run the length of the shelves.

Lower flange with tee

Upper flange with axle

The lower flange bolts to the floor and the upper flange bolts to the shelves and then is clamped to ceiling joist by two notched 2 x 4s.  The other end of the shelf has two 150-pound casters screwed to the bottom at a slight arc to accommodate the swing of the shelf as it pivots.  I may end up swapping these out for 300-pounders depending upon how well these perform with a fully loaded shelf.  Being cheap gets me in trouble sometimes. 

Casters mounted on an arc

After assembling the contraption, this is what the ends look like.  

Lower flange assembly as pivot point

Casters mounted at rolling end

You'll notice I'm not exactly using choice lumber here.  It's the straightest stuff I had lying around.  To mount the top flange and "axle" to the ceiling joist, I cut a vertical notch out of the joist about half an inch deep.  I then screwed two 2 x 4s about eight inches long together and bored a 1 1/8" hole between them.  After they are unscrewed from each other, that leaves a trough in each one.  I used these boards to clamp the axle to the ceiling joist.  Neither the axle or nipple on the lower flange are screwed in completely so the joints pivot.  A little graphite should help them stay mobile.  Once completed, I was pretty proud of myself... except I forgot to screw the vertical supports to the middle of each shelf.  I'll go back and do that at some point.  Here's a video of the "finished" self in action.  

Backup video:  Rolling Shelf on Youtube

You'll notice there's not much lumber on the shelf yet as I haven't brought any from the garage in yet.  Man, I hope it's enough room or the wife's gonna make me get rid of some.  That's like deciding which child you want to keep.