Gear rack collapsed

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Zef

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We have been using the following for the past handful of years to store dive gear out in the garage:

61FQOHysfQL._AC_SL1010_.jpg


The only difference to how we had it set up is that we set ours up without the bar halfway up on the clothes hanging side.

This evening one of the plastic cross-members on the right side failed and the entire thing collapsed. Luckily there was no damage to any gear, at least not that we have noticed.

Soooo....does anyone have any plans for a DIY rack? would like to build something sturdy to hang/store the gear of a famly of 4 divers.....does not need to be nuke proof as it would be great if we can disassemble it to pack it when we eventually move.

-Z
 
Try metro shelving or the the equivalent generic brands. Can “customize” the shelving and are very sturdy. Costco has them occasionally.
 
I use IKEA wire rack shelves.

Holds everything.. rebreathers, HP130 and smaller tanks, repair station, etc...


_R
 
I use IKEA wire rack shelves.

Holds everything.. rebreathers, HP130 and smaller tanks, repair station, etc...


_R

Could you post a pic of your setup? there is an Ikea near by that I can see if I can replicate.
-Z
 
Easy to explain what happened: the structure has no diagonals. You could avoid collapsing by fixing this rack to the wall. A typical garage wall has 2x4's inside, you can easily find these and attach the upper bar of the rack where 2x4's are.
 
If you want to build it with wood, take a look at the RocketEngineer fish tank stand. Ridiculously strong, and easy and cheap. You can build it with just one 2x4 for each leg instead of 2 and it is still strong enough to hold scuba tanks. I omit the bottom horizontal 2x4 in the front and put the back one mid way up between the legs to provide some twisting support. I have one that is 3 levels high. Essentially, you build each shelf, then just screw legs in between each level. The real key is understanding that you want to rest the shelf on top of the 2x4 for the legs, not screwing the leg to the side of the shelf. Even with lots of screws, it's not nearly as strong as just dropping it on top. And glue is stronger than screws, the screws are just to hold it tight while the glue dries.

Rocket Engineer's tank stand plans

There are generally 2 types of metal shelves, ones with slots in the vertical sections, and ones with vertical tubes.
The slot type, there are heavy duty that are basically pallet racking (common brand name Gorilla Rack), and a lighter duty. You can find them with MDF shelves or metal grid. The MDF will warp quickly if it gets wet and over time even dry, so the metal is probably better, but you could also buy 3/4" plywood and seal it.

The tubular leg style are common in restaurant kitchens and look a little nicer, but I don't think they support as much weight. I would be fine putting everything except scuba tanks on them, though. They are easy to assemble and you can use them as bookshelves, general storage, etc.

None of those have tubes for hanging clothes and none of them have that split style where half is shelves, and half is for hanging clothes. The tubular ones are probably the closest you can get, and you can buy 2 and make either a dual-width one, by only using 2 of the legs from the second shelf, or a three-wide one, using all of the second shelf, and essentially using most of the shelfs on one side of legs, and just using a top and bottom shelf to connect either rthe 2 extra legs, or to span between the two shelves.


I'm assuming the Ikea shelves mentioned are that tubular type, because they do sell those there. I have 20 scuba tanks on a 3 level wood rack built with the guidelines above. I'd store everything but the tanks on the tubular shelves no problem but I don't know about anything bigger than a rebreather tank. But if it's working for you with HP130s that's good, I'm assuming if it looked sketchy, you wouldn't do it.

I think your plastic rack was doomed eventually, it might could have survived a little longer with additional supports, but it doesn't look very heavy duty to me.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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