My $50 door storage rack
 

If something similar to this has already been posted, sorry for the repeat. I already had some 2x4 laying around, so I went to the Depot and bought the following:

4 - 2" swivel casters
6 - .5" x 36" steel pipe
3 - .5" x 18" steel pipe
6 - .5" steel elbows
6 - .5" steel floor flange

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...%20001.jpg
http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20002.jpg

I made a roughly 2' square with the 2x4 and put a caster on each corner...

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20003.jpg

Then, using all the steel pipe, elbows and flanges, I made 3 vertical stands and attached them to the 2x4...

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20005.jpg
http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20006.jpg
http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20007.jpg

Then, added some pipe insulation...

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20008.jpg

Then, add doors...

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20012.jpg
http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20009.jpg

I'll probably add some padding to the 2x4, but for now it gets the job done.


Edit: I have since replaced my original 2x4 base with a furniture dolly to allow for some more room between the uprights. So, it's now my $70 door storage rack:

http://www.jasonbrownlee.com/images/...rack%20013.jpg

Nice job, looks good. If you have an old piece of carpet lying around you could just wrap that around the 2x4 and tack it on underneath.
I guess it'll cost us 4 door guys $100, maybe 2 like that or 1 long one.

Probably better to make two like that.

Add it that one suggestion of using a furniture dolly for the hard top and I think I may be in business...

...now I just hope I have the right sized tarps...

This Jeep-thing is a hoot!

Looks good CincyJK!
You got my wheels turnin'!

Very impressive :yup:

After looking at the rather expensive ones in the Quadratec catalog, I had been tossing around this same idea ... wood base with pipes for a nice stable cart and either swim noodles or pipe insulation for padding (2 of them for my 4 dr). Thanks for writing this up ... definitely the way I'm going to go.

Nice work!

I was thinking about making something similar out of 1 1/4" thick walled (high pressure) PVC instead. Do you think that will be strong enough, and very light, and non scratching?

Thanks CincyJk, I will make two of those for mine, while I wait another month for delivery.

Thanks for sharing your great idea! It's so simple, even a caveman (I) can buid it!

OK please realize that it was a slow day at work and I wanted to play with a new design application.

I've tried to sketch up a door rack similar to the above with a little less $$ and material. What I would use follows:

Qty 2: 36" 2 x 6 (already found in a dumpster)
Qty 3: 24" 2 x 4 (ditto)
Qty 4: 2" casters with mounting hardware
Qty 2: 48" 1.25 PVC
Qty 1: ~ 22" 1.25 PVC
Qty 2: "T" Connectors of 1.25 PVC
Approx 10' Pipe insulation
Qty 2: 5" bolts w/washers and nuts
Qty 24: 2.5" wood screws
Carpet scraps
Bungee cord that will be stretched tight at 48"
or
2 that will be stretched tight at 24"



The pics below should pretty much show how to build out the frame of the dolly.

For the middle 24" 2x4 drill a 1.25" hole completely thru to set your PVC into on either side.

Drill another hole (size?) lengthwise thru the board and the spot where the PVC would set into the hole. Bolt the PVC in thru this new hole so that it is secured. The plus side of this is that you can easily remove these bolts and have a nice furniture dolly to use or hang on the wall without the 4' PVC tubes sticking out of it.

Fit/glue the T connectors on top of the 48" PVC. Fit the 22" piece between them.

Wrap the PVC in insulation to avoid scratches, but leave the outward facing and open T connector spots accessible.

So now you have a nice little dolly. Your going to have your doors resting on the 2x6, butted up against the 2x4. So put some carpet scraps there or something. Lean the door into it and pray that the PVC holds while you get the other door. Do the same with door #2. Now the weight of the two doors is nearly equal and pushing into the PVC. The force on the PVC should be negligible.

Finally get out that bungee cord. Hook one end into an open T connector, wrap it all the way around the top and your doors. Hook it back to the end of the T. I guess at this point you could have used one elbow and one T, but you get the point.

Again I need to say I havent actually built this thing. I have gathered some of the mats from the local construction site. I may have missed one of those totally obvious things that you dont think of until it all collapses on you.

Ill attach a couple screen shots of it and you can get the SKP file here . If you want to see more of it, download Google SketchUp at http://sketchup.google.com. Its free and pretty damn cool.

http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/dolly1.jpg

http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/dolly2.jpg

If anyone sees something glaringly obvious that I overlooked, please let me know. Ill try actually putting this together this weekend if time allows. Thanks again to CincyJK for the great idea. I hope my knock off is 1/4 as good.

turb0dog...looks good. I don't see any issues as long as you've got the bungee cord on there. I like your base, with the 3 cross boards, as opposed to mine. I may have to do that; that way I can put each of my vertical pieces on their own board. At the time, i was working with the 2x4 I had laying around.

yeah you really need the bungee. otherwise youre gonna be out two doors.

do you remember what the weight rating on your casters was? i think the 2" ones i saw the other day were rated 45lbs. i assume that means 45lbs each as they were packed 1 per pack.

This is a pretty cool design ... using the boards to hold the bottom of the doors in place instead of additional upright sections.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has used PVC for their door rack and how sturdy it seems given the weight of the doors (especially the front doors).

I am still trying to find the pieces that I need to make a corner (L shape with an extrusion from one side). It stinks to have to work so much. I will be looking again today. I would like to make it out of PVC, and when I get the pieces, I'll share.

I think you should be looking for a "T" shape rather than an elbow with an extra extrusion.

The front doors are heavy, but if both doors are leaning against the PVC opposite of one another, the weight of the doors (which is mostly resting at the bottom anyway) essentially balances out. The PVC does not have to take the full weight of the door leaning against it (for very long at least). The PVC only needs to not crush between the weight of the two doors on either side.

Im planning on giving this a shot this weekend. If you never hear from me again its because ive humiliated myself by ruining my doors.

I believe that's what mine were rated. They function fine w/ the weight of the two doors.

First off awsome work. & thanks for sharing.Something I would add to both of these designs is a solid bottom. Even if it's 3/8's plywood. I'm assuming since you have rollers on these things they are going from the driveway to a garage? I know if I was doing this, at some point one of my doors would shift & drop between 2x4's to the cement. If they are rolling around the garage only probably not an issue.

OK. I just returned from a supply house, and for all PVC the cost would be between 75 and 100 before casters, and I got contractor prices.:eek2:

Turbodog - The piece I was looking for is not a "traditional plumbing supply", and neither are crosses (X), so I would have to get them from somewhere else. I think I am going to use your idea, about the crossover with PVC and not steel, and cover the bottom with carpet (I can get scraps from a friend for free).:D

Holey moley. How big was that pvc? 1.5" ? You could buy the perfed angle iron at a big hardware store for that kind of money..

Ouch! For that money, I could buy the Saratoga steel door storage cart from Quadratec (part #12020.210).

Excellent! I'm going to make a couple of these!

My mod of your idea.
 

Here is some help for you -- I just arrived back from the depot and bought two of the following:
1/2" x 10' galv pipe (cut into 48", 30", 24" pieces, one of each from each pipe for a total of 6 pieces + scrap, they cut and re-threaded them)
Furniture dolly (included 4 casters each {1000 lbs load}, plus it is pre assembled)
and 4 of:
1/2" galv 90 elbow
1/2" galv flanges.
The total bill was about $80.
I came home and assembled the uprights
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_6185.JPG
put a piece of 1" x 4" on both sides of the dollies
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_6187.JPG
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_6186.JPG
then attached the upright to the dolly.
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_6189.JPG
All that is left is to carpet the exposed wood, and get insulation for the uprights.
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/IMG_6188.JPG
Both are using a 24" piece for the top part, and the short one is for the back door to lay down, and the tall one is for the front doors to sit upright. I can't take pics right now because it is raining, but I will as soon as I can.

I've en trolling the board for awhile now and decided to join this morning just so I could post in this thread. I made a door rack yesterday for $55 from home depot out of 1" PVC. The $55 includes a $10 PVC pipe cutter and PVC cement (which I didn't bother using, everything fit together real well). I also did the math wrong and bought one too man PVC pipes (I thought they were 8 feet, but they turned out to be 10) and 1 less piece of foam than I sould have. I didn't bother with casters. as I can just carry the doors to the rack in the garage.

Parts List (corrected for extra pipe and missing foam):

5 10' X 1" PVC pipes
14 1" Socket to Socket 90 deg elbows
10 1" all Socket Ts
7 1" ID pipe foam (6' long)
1 PVC pipe cutter

The finished product is a little flimsy, but I think it will get the job done. The reaer doors need to be layed down rather than upright because the bottom is too narrow to fit across the pipe. Anyway, here is the finished product, I'm going to go take my doors off now and I'll let you know how it goes later!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2.../door-rack.jpg

Just built mine over the July 4th holiday. Very similar to previous posters. Here's my detailed bill of materials from Lowes. They cut the 18" pieces down to 13" and re-threaded them for free. Took about 30 min to drill and assemble.

Bill of Materials:

Furniture Dolly ........................... 2 @ 24.96 .. $49.92
3/4" x 48" Galvanized pipe ................ 4 @ 8.94 ... $35.76
3/4" x 18" Galvanized pipe ................ 2 @ 4.53 ... $9.06
3/4" Galvanized 90deg bend ................ 4 @ 1.17 ... $4.68
3/4" Galvanized floor flange .............. 4 @ 3.46 ... $13.84
Stainless oval-head phillips machine screws 4 @ 4.00 ... $16.00
5/16" flat washers ........................ 4 @ 1.80 ... $7.20
5/16-18 stainless finished hex nut ........ 4 @ 2.04 ... $8.16
3/4" x 6' pipe insulation ................. 2 @ 1.18 ... $2.36


Total: 146.98
Per cart: $73.49


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1390/...ab16138f23.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1122/...357d3be1dc.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1026/...a7da94931a.jpg

here's mine with the doors in it:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...011_edited.jpg

looks good :yup:

Thanks for the great idea Cincy! I finally got around to building mine this weekend.

http://my.project-jk.com/data/717/DSC_0792.JPG


Loaded with my doors
http://my.project-jk.com/data/717/DSC_0796.JPG


Loaded with extra set of tires
http://my.project-jk.com/data/717/DSC_08001.JPG

fullbore...that looks great. How sturdy is it, and can you provide the dimensions? I'd love to do something very similar! Thanks

Here is how mine came out. Did them last weekend for a cost of $130 total. All parts from Lowes.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...nc/Pic0001.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...nc/Pic0023.jpg

very cool and i got this in my work truck. sweet! all but the wheels. will show pics when i get mine done.

What a relief........I saw your thread title and the first pic and thought no way is this guy going to build his own storage rack ( I thought roof rack) out of threaded pipe, 90' elbows and those anchor plates and then mount it to your hardtop. That's what you get for reading these forum topics at 4:30am with no coffee.:rotflmao1:

geez, between your doors, hard top, and that toaster....looks like half your garage is used up. i'm glad i went with a 2 door and soft top :) considering i don't have a garage of course.

would letting the doors stand like that cause them to bend over time due to the weight not normally being placed like that. has anyone thought of making a set of hinges to hang them from?

^^^ I kept my doors off for 3-4 months straight after tihs pic and when I put them on again, they were fine. What's really funny is that when I first got the jeep, it would leak in the rain with the doors shut. Now it doesn't. I wonder if having the doos off for so long allowed the rubber to expand and create a tighter seal or something.

interesting.. that.. or they bent ever so slightly to create a tighter seal:thinking: im not sure. thanks for all the write ups though im gonna look into building somthing possibly combining everything. ill let yall know how it turns out

WOW!! Simple yet so effective. I will be building 2 of these or a varient.

Thanks!
 

Thanks so much! The instruction and material list were very easy to follow. I made one for myself about a week ago. The only thing was that it actually ended up costing about 100 bucks, but I enjoyed making one and it works great!

Great idea! I had never thought of using pipes from Lowe's for a mod... Now I'm having visions of cheap roof racks dancing in my head. :?: