Customer Reviews

2x4basics 11419 Firewood Rack System, Black

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What can you expect from 12 bucks worth of recycled plastic? I guess I'd gone and expected something a little more sturdy and ingenious, and while I was satisfied I was not impressed with what I got. This is simply a couple of plastic brackets that will allow sets of 2x4s to form whatever structure you're building. It'll do the job, but nothing more.

Note that this is simply two (2) of the exact same brackets that you can buy in a six pack (6) at lower cost from Finley.

I especially like that you can build a firewood rack that is 2 tiers. I put the small pieces on top and larger logs on the bottom. It went together in just a few minutes.

You really need 2 sets of these (4 total individual brackets) to make something useful. But with those 4 brackets, you can do more than the instructions (and some of the reviewers) tell you about and avoid some of the problems mentioned.

First and foremost, get 4 8-foot 2x4"s. These will be the vertical struts for a 2-layer storage unit. Then get 4 sections of 2x4 cut to fit your needs - cut to the width you want for your unit. I used 5' lengths, bought 2 10 ft 2x4s and had them cut in half.

When you assemble the units, don't pay too much attention to screwing in the horizontal (in my case, 5 ft) lengths from below. I suggest placing small pieces of 2x4 in the vertical slots, butt up the 5' horizontal 2x4s, drill a hole in the ends of the 2x4s and attach to the plastic strut with a 2.5" weatherproof decking screws. This eliminates a lot of fussing with the supplied screws that are supposed to go in underneath. If you wish to add those, which I consider optional, you can flip the structure over and do those for the bottom shelf once the unit has been assembled with the decking screws (not supplied).

Then, with bottom shelf positioned on the ground, take 2 of the 8 ft. 2x4s and shove them through the 2nd set of plastic racks, 2 at a time, so the plastic racks now serve as temporary spacers for mounting the 2 sets of vertical 2x4s. Now measure the height you want for the 2nd shelf, mark the vertical struts, slide the plastic spacers/supports up or down to the desired height and screw them into the 8 ft 2x4s. Then place the 2nd set of 5 ft horizontal shelf pieces on the plastic lips of the spacers, butt them up against the vertical wood, and again drill holes and attach with decking screws. For the 2nd shelf, forget about screwing underneath. It is superfluous.

Now you have, with 2 cuts, a double-decker shelf. If you wish to make it a bit more sturdy, place a 2x4 cut to size down the middle of each shelf, attaching it to the plastic from above with the drilling and decking screw method.

Again, this product was not really made to be used as a single decker. The double shelving gives great support. For the final support, use a bracket arm or two to attach this structure to an abutting fence, garage wall, etc. Then start stacking. Very sturdy shelving - for firewood or anything else that will fit on a 16" wide shelf. And easy to disassemble if and when you need to.

I bought these to make an 8' high shelving unit in the garage. The bottom two shelves use 2x4s and hold firewood, the upper shelves use 1x4s for general storage. I built the shelving unit, and it looks and works great. The final unit is much stronger than typical metal shelving. I don't have any concerns about stacking wood on these shelves.

However, the actual assembly was much harder than standard cheap metal shelving. The problem is that you need to be fairly precise in measuring the distance between the supports when you mount the shelf-top boards. If you get the distance wrong, you end up with shelves that don't line up closely enough to put the vertical 2x4 posts through them. It was also more difficult than metal shelving to level each of the shelves properly.

Still great shelves, and they are plenty strong enough to stack wood, but plan for at least 1/2 hour per shelf assembly time and measure, measure, measure.

I found the plastic/rubber end pieces to be structurally sound in fabricating my firewood rack using my own 2X4's. They made the assembly extremely easy to construct.

I bought this because I didn't want to spend a lot on a firewood rack. All the metal racks seemed like they would not last many years out in the elements. I built a 2 tier rack in about one hour.

The nice thing about the 2x4's is you can modify the instructions easily. Instead of 4' verticals I bought 2 10' 2x4's and cut them in half. I made the bottom shelf 3' high and the top would be shorter for smaller wood.

The rack was 8'long so I inserted vertical 2x4's between the first and second shelf to avoid sagging and blocks under the bottom shelf for additional support. I guess you could buy 2 more brackets and use them for the middle but I was economizing.

I'm not very handy but this was absolutely simple. It is very functional, study and best of all cheap. I totally recommend it.

I originally purchased this item from The Sportsmans Guide (You can get 2 sets there for about $18.00!) and the second set, which allows you to make a shelf halfway up, makes it very stable; much better thn just the one set at the bottom.

I have made 2 racks, each with shelves (so used 4 sets altogether), both 8 feet long. Be sure to use 4 horizontal 2x4's instead of the 3 shown in the instructions, and it helps to also place two additional pieces of 2x4's on top of each other together, to form a a 3 inch thick piece, that you can place underneath and in the middle of the bottom, so you have more support for the long 2x4's. I have done this and it's worked like a charm, and am very happy.

It was easy to figure out how to put together, and all the parts were there. I am pleased to have a low-cost, functional firewood rack.

I put together my firewood rack using the plastic brackets and it's a moderate success. The problem is that the vertical 2x4's get wobbly - seems like they need another bracket about a foot up to give more support.

The product works as advertised. I bought 2 sets, so that I could build a 2 level rack. This is really the only way to build the rack. It would be too unsteady with just one level. With the 2 levels, it is very stable. I followed the instructions, except that I used 3" deck screws (not included) to fasten the vertical 2x4's to the horizontal 2x4's on the bottom rack. This gave a little more stability. The rack works good and is very cheap to make.