When I built this rack, it was perfectly square, the saddles were all tight, and it didn’t move at all. 3 months later, I guess the pressure-treated wood has shrunk and it’s sagging.
So what’s the right way to build something like this? Just let the lumber sit for several months to dry out? Don’t buy from Home Depot? Is there a way to tell when the wood is “ready”?
Based on this photo, it looks like it is failing in shear. It’s not a wood problem, it’s a design problem. The upper joint on the far right in the photo has clearly rotated and not a single brace for shear is visible. Think triangles and fix the design. It looks like this could be saved
Yea. Square it up and add braces.
Removed by mod
Not necessarily. If you want it free-standing, you could move it out from the wall a bit, redo the bottom to extend it behind, then add pieces between the top and rear bottom.
That’s why I didn’t have braces in the first place. I figured if the joints were tight enough, they’d hold. Wrong, because the wood has deformed. I really don’t want to anchor it to the wall unless absolutely necessary.
Plan was to put braces in the lower square portion.
I came here to say, “put bracesin the lower square portion.” Mounting it to the wall wouldn’t hurt either. Belt AND Suspenders thinking.
Thanks. The plan to fix it was to basically put shims into the joints as a temporary method to square it, and then add some additional braces.
I designed this assuming specifically that the square cut joints would be strong enough, which was obviously wrong. But it does seem like the joints have expanded, or the beams have shrunk. Or both. Because each joint was a tight fit when I built it.