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Okay, I told you about how Ms. Betty told me to get my act together and "GET RID OF THOSE BUCKETS!". Well, after I had made my rock fence, I was feelin' pretty proud of myself and thought to myself..."you know self, you ought to go one step further and get all those piles of rocks down stairs put up somewhere neatly, so you can walk down there." (Really, that's what I told myself! Hey, I'm like that... I often talk to myself! And don't tell me you haven't done that!) I mean, this was my good stuff. I couldn't just take THOSE rocks out to the new rock fence! I just had to come up with something...
Wellllll, again, after much deliberation, I came up with an idea. I would make myself a storage system for all my pretty rocks and still be able to keep them downstairs. (My sweet Ms. Betty really isn't into rocks... except for those she can wear on her fingers.. and doesn't have my appreciation for all my lovely rocks!)
What I came up with is what I call my "CARDBOARD DRINK-FLAT STORAGE RACKS."
Like a lot of rockhounds, I store a lot of rocks in the cardboard drink flats that you can pick up for free at most any food or convenience store. They work great, except, you just can't have them laying around all over the place. You gotta store them some how..!
Well, anyway, here are some pictures of the racks I came up with to hold those cardboard flats. All of these storage racks are made of scrap 2 x 4's and 1/2" waferboard (often called OSB board.) All the 2 x 4's are cut 10-1/2" long. Naturally, the length of the waferboards depends on whether you make a rack with one section, three, five, or whatever, but it should be 10-1/2" wide. |
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You could use plywood instead of waferboard, but the waferboard is less expensive (unless y'all got indoor plumbing and don't need the outhouse any more... you might get some plywood from it for free!) [Editors note: "See!!! Milk, cookies and vitamins... and he come up with these great ideas!"]
What you want to do is make the racks with openings that are 16-1/2" wide. If you'll put the 2 x 4's on 18" centers, this will give you 16-1/2" openings. Almost all the cardboard drink flats that you get are 16" wide by 10" deep by about 2" high. These flats fit nicely in the storage rack openings.
Once you make the individual storage rack sections with the 2 x 4's and waferboard, just stack them up on top of each other where you want them. You might want to attach them to a wall or to each other if you stack the sections very high in order to prevent them from falling over. I have one section of these storage racks in my basement that is 25 sections high and has five spaces each. That's 125 flats of beautiful rocks I can put on this one section. (You can never get too many rocks you know...) I have this storage rack anchored to the wall about every 5th section with just a couple of 16 penny nails.
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Here are some working storage racks built to hold some of the Great South Gems and Minerals fossil inventory. As soon as we move into our new warehouse, we will be building rows and rows of these.
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If you want to build one of these rack systems for your beautiful rocks, other collectibles, or whatever, and have a problem working out the dimensions, drop me an E-mail. I'll try to assist you.
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I made this single-wide storage cabinet and put waferboard on the sides and top. Then I made a waferboard door for the front to make a neat storage cabinet out of it. It has a piece of 1/4" plywood on the back. (We got indoor plumbing!) Add a little stain and it looks pretty good!
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This set of racks was made to organize my hand tools. Makes an excellent tool chest! Why, there's no limit to what you can store in these storage racks.... buy why would you want anything except pretty rocks?
By the way.... the choice specimens that are in my rock and fossil collection are arranged neatly in wooden chests with pull out drawers. The material in many of these cardboard flats is overflow that I just can't part with. I know some of you can relate to this. Hehehe...
Well, now, you don't have any more excuses for not getting your rocks put up and stored away neatly. Go ahead, give it a shot. If your mate is anything like mine, she will appreciate your efforts!
Ray Hill
Copyright: Ray Hill, 6/2000 Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc. |
Rock clubs have permission to use the photos and text published in this article but must give credit to the author, Ray Hill, and GREAT SOUTH GEMS & MINERALS, INC. |
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