...And I still have all my fingers!!

Here's my most recent rack that I built--my first made from melamine. The previous ones I made out of solid wood and had to stain and varnish. Using the melamine is definitely a lot quicker. My brother was in town for the weekend and helped me put it together. We started at midnight on Saturday with a stack of boards and a roll of heat tape and finished up right around 5 am. (that was pretty much my free time for the weekend, lol) Anyway, it holds 21 of the Iris "boot boxes" which are really more the size of blanket boxes. My brother kept asking me, "Who the heck has boots this big?!"

It went a lot smoother than I thought, and despite being rather accident-prone I managed not incur any serious injuries. This is always a plus. All 21 of the tubs slide in and out effortlessly, but a piece of corrugated cardboard still won't fit between the top of the tubs and the bottom of the shelf.

Okay, I'll shut up. Here are the pics:

Paul, it looks fantastic. Melmine really can make the job a heck of a lot easier!

Have those spots been spoken for, or are you looking to fill them now?

Paul, it looks really good. 10 more of those and you'll be all set. LOL

lol... hopefully someone would have me committed before I made 10 more.

Jeremy, I took your advice and put casters on the bottom, too. GOOD IDEA, especially when 10 sheets of 24x48 melamine weigh as much as a small car.

Amanda, these are actually "upgraded" tubs so that individuals can have more space than just sweater boxes. Plus, I'm going to need all the room I can get for next year's anticipated offspring. I used to have a bias against melamine and wouldn't buy/use it for anything, but I was recently persuaded into giving it a try. I'm glad I did.

oh, and don't you love my ugly green-painted basement floor?

The previous owners even painted the garage floor orange. ORANGE!!

darn 70's hippies...

It looks great!! Is the heat tape in a routed groove?

Nice, Paul. I'm getting ready to build another rack for me. And I agree with you. The casters are the best thing I added to mine.

Lucille, instead of routing out a groove for the heat tape, I decided to run the tape about 1 1/2" up the sidewall and then pass the cords out through the pegboard back. This way, the tubs aren't sliding over my lovely soldering job.




Then I decided to cover the heat tape with clear contact paper to hold it in place. It stuck down really well w/o wrinkling and the tubs slide over it w/o a problem. I was worried that the little "feet" on the tubs might catch on metal tape, otherwise I would have used that like I usually do.



Karen, the casters really make it more convenient, but you have to get really good, heavy-duty ones. The ones with rubber wheels roll easier than the hard plastic wheels, and having brakes on them is nice when your basement floor is pitched to a floor drain. They're not cheap though, I think these were $17 each.

very nice work Paul!

Wow! I love that....very nice set up.