Benchmark Fine Woodworking

The final piece of the shop cleanup puzzle before the new 10x5 CNC arrives at Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

After building the vertical sheet goods rack and the vertical lumber storage rack, we ended up with an entire wall cleared out and ready for something useful. The only problem? The vertical rack tops out around 8.5 feet, and we still needed a home for the longer 10–12 foot boards that inevitably show up for future projects.

For this one, I went with Bora wood racks. I've used them in my home shop for years, and honestly, they're tough to beat. A quick trip to Home Depot or Lowe's, a little assembly, a few SPAX lags into the wall, and you've got solid horizontal lumber storage without spending a weekend building it.

Now don't get me wrong—I love building shop projects. But sometimes buying is the smarter answer. The sheet goods rack? Build. The custom vertical lumber rack? Build. Simple horizontal lumber storage? Buy.

That's always the debate, right? Build it or buy it.

For this one, Bora won.

Now let's see how long everyone can keep the lumber IN the racks and the shop clean.

Last week's roller video absolutely took off, and there were a ton of great questions, so here's a quick follow-up on the vertical sheet goods rack at Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

The star of the show seems to be the roller. It's actually a heavy-duty gravity conveyor roller from Uline—the 33" version. When I built the base of the rack, I intentionally extended the framing in a few locations so the rollers would have solid support underneath.

A lot of people were concerned about the mounting screws, but the screws aren't really carrying the load. The roller shafts have hex-shaped ends that sit in the BX clips, and the weight transfers directly into the 2x4 framing below. The clips and screws are mostly there to keep everything located where it belongs.

The other common question was about storing sheet goods vertically. In our experience, thinner materials like 1/4" plywood and Masonite can develop a slight bow over time, but it usually relaxes once removed from storage. Materials 1/2" and thicker haven't been an issue for us, and the dividers help keep everything standing straight and organized.

As for the dividers themselves—they were actually repurposed from a material lift installation, so unfortunately I don't have a source for those.

Now it's time to do what this rack was built for—get the material off the floor and finally get this shop cleaned up.

Every shop project eventually reaches the moment of truth.

For the new vertical sheet goods rack at Benchmark Fine Woodworking, that moment was loading it up and seeing if all the planning, building, and side quests actually paid off.

The base was built. The dividers were installed. The cutoff bins were finished. The rollers were in place. Now it was time to move the mountain of plywood that had been staged in another part of the shop and finally put this thing to work.

Honestly, this is my favorite part of any organization project. Watching a pile of chaos turn into something organized, accessible, and useful.

And the best part?

It actually works exactly how I hoped it would.

The rollers make loading easy, the dividers keep everything organized, and now we can actually find what we're looking for without digging through a stack of sheet goods like we're on an archaeological expedition.

One project down.

Now onto the next shop improvement.

Wrapping up the new sheet goods storage rack at Benchmark Fine Woodworking, and I had one last idea that turned out way better than expected.

I picked up a pair of gravity rollers from Uline—actually replacement rollers for their conveyor systems—and built the rack around them from the beginning. When I framed the base, I intentionally left the 2x4 structure proud at the front edge and center so these rollers would have a solid mounting point.

The rollers sit just slightly above the finished deck, which means when you're loading a full sheet, you can drop the weight onto the roller and slide it in with almost no effort.

Honestly, I thought it would help...

I didn't think it would work THIS well.

It's one of those simple additions that completely changes how the rack feels to use. Moving sheet goods is easier, loading is easier, unloading is easier, and my back is probably a little happier too.

Definitely one of those upgrades I'll be adding again in future storage builds.

Wrapping up the small sheet goods bins for the new vertical storage rack at Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

Sometimes the final steps of a project require a little creativity... and apparently a willingness to squeeze yourself into places you probably shouldn't fit.

To secure the upper storage bin for 1/4 sheets and cutoffs, I had to crawl inside the cabinet and install a wall cleat from the inside. Turns out it was surprisingly comfortable in there. I briefly considered taking a nap, but Bill kept interrupting to ask where things were and insist we keep making progress.

Something about productivity...

The good news is the bins are now locked in, secure, and ready to handle all those plywood scraps we swear we're going to use someday.

One more step closer to getting this shop organized and ready for the next big project.

This clip is pulled from the very first long-form YouTube episode on the miter station build… but honestly, it’s bigger than just a miter station.

This is really the start of telling the story behind Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

The builds.
The shop.
The people.
The community.
The mistakes.
The wins.
The artisanship.
The chaos.
The process of trying to build something meaningful from the ground up.

This place was never meant to just be “a woodworking shop.” It’s becoming a place where people can make things, learn things, teach things, and hopefully feel inspired to go build something themselves.

And the truth is…
we’re just getting started.

The long-form series is officially live on YouTube now, and if you’ve been following along through the reels, this is where you really get the full story behind everything we’re building here.

If you’re not on board yet…
now’s probably a good time.

Mistakes were made on the miter station build at Benchmark Fine Woodworking… but honestly, that’s woodworking sometimes.

The end door ended up overlapping the neighboring door by about 5/8", and after looking back through everything, I realized the face frame dimensions were off in that section. Not ideal… but also not the end of the world.

This is the part people don’t always show—problem solving.

A quick hinge swap, a small adjustment to the face frame, and suddenly we’re back in business. No dramatic rebuild. No starting over. Just adapting and fixing the issue.

Woodworking isn’t always about getting everything perfect the first time. Sometimes it’s about knowing how to recover when things go sideways.

It’s been a hot minute… but the miter station at Benchmark Fine Woodworking is officially DONE.

…well… done for now anyway.

We got a little sidetracked with all the shop cleanup and organization projects, but once the shaker doors came out of the finish room it was finally time to slap everything together and call this phase complete.

Honestly really happy with how this build turned out. The storage, the workflow, the long support wings—it’s already changing how work moves through the shop.

That said… there’s still more coming.

I still need to fully finalize the dust collection, add some shelving and drawers, and dial in a few details. But that’s shop life—projects are never REALLY finished around here.

And big news:
the full YouTube series on this build is officially rolling out now. We’ll be dropping the build process piece by piece over the next few weeks, so if you want the full breakdown, behind-the-scenes process, and all the mistakes along the way… head over and check it out.

Now onto the next shop project.

Quick side mission during the sheet goods rack build at Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

I purposely left about a two-foot section off to the side for all the half sheets, quarter sheets, and random cutoff pieces that somehow multiply around the shop overnight.

Because let’s be honest… nobody throws plywood scraps away.
“We might need that someday” is basically woodworking law.

So instead of having cutoff pieces leaning in every corner of the shop, I threw together some quick plywood storage bins to keep everything in one dedicated spot.

Nothing fancy here—just simple construction designed to be fast, strong, and survive getting beat up in a working shop.

Honestly… that’s pretty much the philosophy behind most good shop projects.

The leftover freight elevator panels are officially going in at Benchmark Fine Woodworking.

After adding the 2x4 spacer at the bottom of the rack, I started prepping each panel on the workbench while everything was still low and easy to work on. Top spacer got lagged in first, then I added a rear spacer for additional support before standing the panels up.

For all the mounting points I used small 5/16" hex head lag screws instead of regular screws to get a little more bite into the framing. Pre-drill first… then let the impact do the talking.

Once each panel was prepped, it was stand-up time. Two lags into the base and one into the top brace to lock them in place. Secondary bracing is still coming once all the dividers are installed, but this thing is finally starting to look like an actual sheet goods rack instead of a pile of random materials.

Next up… Vertical Rack Side Quest #1.