This one’s a build-in-progress: a shop storage rack framed up from 2×4 dimensional lumber, with OSB panels forming divided bays down its length. It’s documented here at the framing and glue-up stage: clamped square in the driveway while the glue cures, before any finish or install decisions were made.
Project Overview
The rack is built as a low, wide frame divided into several open bays by vertical OSB panels edged in 2×4. Each bay is boxed in on the sides by OSB, with a 2×4 perimeter frame tying the whole thing together at the top and bottom rails. Small 2×4 feet lift the frame slightly off the ground. In these photos the frame is fully assembled and clamped at each corner while the glue sets. It hasn’t yet been moved into its final spot in the shop or garage.
Materials
The build starts with dimensional 2×4 lumber and OSB panel stock, staged on the workbench before assembly. Several of the OSB pieces were already edged with 2×4 strips at this point, ready to drop in as the bay dividers.
- 2×4 dimensional lumber (frame rails, perimeter, and divider edging)
- OSB panel stock (bay divider infill)
- Wood screws (visible at panel joints)
- Wood glue, based on the extended clamp-up time seen in these photos
Design & Construction
The rack’s structure comes from a series of OSB divider panels, each framed in 2×4 along its edges, standing upright and spaced along the length of the frame to create individual open bays. A 2×4 perimeter (top rail, bottom rail, and end pieces) ties the dividers together into one rigid unit. During glue-up, a clamp was set at each of the four corners to hold everything square while the adhesive cured.
Up close, each bay reads like its own small compartment: OSB on the side walls, open on the front and top, framed in 2×4 on the exposed edges. That repeated bay structure is what gives the rack its shelving/storage-rack character: separate, evenly sized slots rather than one open shelf.
Build Process
Assembly moved outdoors for the glue-up, with the frame set on the driveway against a block wall so it could be clamped from all four corners at once and left undisturbed to cure. Four bar clamps did the work of holding the joints tight while the glue set, one at each corner of the frame.
The rack got a supervisor for at least part of the cure time. Jeremy’s dog Sam settled in on the concrete nearby to keep an eye on things.
Where This Build Stands
As documented here, the rack is a completed frame: square, glued, and clamped, but it hasn’t yet been finished (no stain or paint is visible in any of these photos) or moved into its permanent spot. This post will get an update once finished and installed photos exist to show how the bays get used.