Avery Todd writes: > I want to build a large shelving area to hold grand actions and >smaller type of case parts, screws, etc. while other work is being >done. Piece Rack ....... Two designs come to mind. A pair of 2x4's, measure down the skinny side, and make a mark about every 12" for the top couple of shelves, and then space them apart farther for the remaining lower 3 or four shelves at 16" or better. Center each mark side to side and drill a 7/8 to 1 inch hole with a spade bit. If you drill all the way through, you can drive a dowel all the way through and have a two sided piece rack. If you go only part way through, you attach the 2x4 with all it's holes to the wall spacing them apart at about 4 or 5 feet and level in referrence to the holes, that should have a matching pattern on each 2x4 by the way. A third one can be made for more support. Now put a matching diameter dowel in each hole, cut off at the same length, say about 2 feet or so. For long pieces, such as fallboards, key slips, vertical piano lids, knee boards, grand music racks, and the like, just simply cover the dowels with pipe insulation and presto, instant padded piece rack. A piece of piano crate plywood makes a nice shelf for the remaining ones or can be used to place on top of the padded ones. Rip it to the same length as the dowels and pile one of top of the other to free up the padded dowels when you need them. I have one of similar design in my shop attached to the exposed trusses above, positioned out of the way of passing traffic, including an occasional piano here and there, but still in-between to two work benches ..... a short walk either way. This same idea can be incorporated into a roll around unit, and small triangular pieces of plywood make excellant shelf braces if you need them. I have found the dowels to be sufficient to hold some really heavy loads including grand actions. The other design is similar, but a bit more permanent in location. At the PianoDisc/Pianomation installation stations I have dowels glued in the wall located at the studs, starting at about 6.5 feet up, covered with pipe insulation. These handle the storage of the grand music rack, keyslip and fallboard while I'm installing the playback unit. They are the first things to come off, and the last things to go on. An extension cord dangles from the ceiling at each station with a heavy duty grounded three way adaptor, at about 2.5 feet from the wall and they dangle such that they end up at about the junction of the keybed and the backposts when a grand is on it's side positioned against the wall. The wall is padded with that thick white firm foam found in grand crates, to protect the lid should it happen to hit the wall without a pad. With three stations that makes the entire shop covered for power where ever I need it. When the stations aren't in use, or I don't need the cord dangling in my way, I have a clip, or hook attached to the wall to hold the cord out of my way. These cords are in addtion to the usual wall sockets every 8 feet or so. The fourth corner is where the bench is. It's a metal bench commercially available, about 32 inches by 5 feet or so. I found mine used, with working casters, and a lower shelf for about $50 I think. I attached a power strip to one end and a very small bench vise on the other end. This bench is covered with a thin moving pad, similar to a wool blanket. The walls are a collage of storage variety. What ever I could dream up to store things in, it's there. I have vaulted ceilings and so the two 5 sided walls are covered with storage. The higher up stuff is for "dead" storage (stuff I'll never need for the next 10 lifetimes is at the very top), and the lowest shelf is just above a grand on a skid. The shelf brackets are the commercially available ones that come in heavy guage sheet metal, stamped into brackets, at various lengths. I then put piano crate plywood on them. I also have made my own brackets out of whatever my torch will melt together, typically left over QuietTime rails, left over 7/16 round stock, them square piano crate lag bolt washers for bracing, threaded rod left over from, ......... yep, PianoDisc installations, and so on. I've taken shipping tubes, ..... ahem ...... like the ones they used to ship sensor strips for PianoDiscs in, and cut them at 12 inch intervals to make pidgeon holes. You attach the first few to the underside of a shelf, and then attach the rest to each other. I've taken one, cut about a 1/4 round out of it lengthwise (about 2 feet long), and made a nice bit storage rack for all the driver bits I've been accumulated over the years. > Do you recommend a peg-board system on the wall for hand tools, >rather than shelving? A previous shop of mine had pegboard 4x8 sheets with holes starting at about the 3 foot level off the floor and painted white. Nice idea, it helped sell the house really fast, but I'll never do that again. The special hangers fall off the wall, they cost a bit more than piano crate plywood and brackets, they almost never make the exact bracket you need, and there's an awful lot of wasted space at the studs and also because you can only store things so close (not close enough for me) with that system. With shelves and lots of boxes that are labeled, you can store lots of stuff. Hand tools are in my tech case, and it sits on a stool near where ever I'm working, and the not so commonly used hand tools, or shop only hand tools are kept in a small metal chest of drawers (Kennedy), or for the larger tools, a tool cabinet just like the ones auto mechanics use (Sears, Snap-On, Homar, etc). > Right now, my new shop is basically a decent size room with a sink Mine is 13 by 30 attached to a 30 by 30 garage (no you can't park a car in there). The 13 by 30 is heated and the vaulted ceiling is no higher than the apex of the garage. Sure makes pianos sound nice in there. The garage is where all the dirty work is done, drilling, sawing, torching, BIG BENCH VISE type stuff, explosive chemicals are kept out there where the breeze blows freely through the leaky walls and such, the big bench is there, and some pianos are stored in there (all mine). That's also where my compressors are and all that other hefty manly stuff is out there, smelling funky and looking tough. My sink consists of some scattered one gallon milk jugs full of water. One at every bench and one near the welding area, in case my shirt or jacket catches fire while welding ...... the rest of the shop is insured. These milk jugs double as a drinking receptical, and make a great sound when they are thrown and actually happen to hit the occasional visiting possum, bear, or lovely neighborhood children. It's that kind of sound that would only satisfy the excremating ear (ooops wrong word, oh well, can't think of the right one, and this is close, eh?). Also, milk jugs are cheaper than plumbing, you never have to clean them, not that anyone ever cleans their shop sinks, and they promote brotherhood/friendship and all that kind of soft gooshy stuff. It's totally cool to hold it for someone while they wash their hands under it's flow. If you've had a particularily difficult day with this person, you can ooops a little on their shoes, or pant leg ........ not that I've ever done this or nuthin. Shops are fun. Mine is not only a nice place to work, and an efficient place to do nice repairs, but for me, it's a place to express myself through storage mediums, static displays, name tag collections (from PTG functions only), box labeling (Jack's Prings, Used Charps, Whippen Butts, Convention Gimmies, etc.) and on one of my walls I have an APOT Tilt Guage. Yep, a genuine first issue. All them goof balls that chequed out of "The LIST" sure missed a bunch of useful info with this post, I'll have you know!! lar Larry Fisher RPT specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96) Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water
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