Track Saw Track Rack

I’ve been saving an ash cut off from the bed swing project to use to hang my track saw tracks from the wall so they’re not just leaning up against the wall. I used some stainless rod to make the hangers. A quick project to help beautify and organize the shop.

This piece of ash had a pretty large bow in it.  I flattened it at the jointer and squared up the bottom edge.

The piece then was planed to thickness and was cut to length.  It was a bit longer than the space I had so I removed the pointy end.

At the table saw, I created a rabbet where the tracks will sit.  I wanted them to be recessed so that when they are hanging, they wouldn’t be too far from the wall.

For fun I cleaned up all the milled faces with handplanes.  I used a shoulder plane to clean up the rabbet and my No 4 to smooth the surface to remove the mill marks.

The live edge is cleaned up with a random orbit sander and finished off with some hand sanding to further smooth things our and break the edges.

I laid the tracks onto the holder and adjusted them so they were roughly evenly spaced.  I also added a spacer between the tracks and the top of the rabbet so the tracks wouldn’t contact the top of the rabbet when installed.  When I found the position that I liked, I transferred the locations of the mounting holes with a brad point drill bit.

The holes were a bit closer to the edge than I was hoping so I held a piece of mdf up against the edge as I drilled.  This helps to support the fibers to keep the bottom of the hole from breaking out.  I also angled the drill so the tracks wouldn’t be able to slide off but I’m not sure that really made a difference in the final result.  The posts could just as easily be square to the surface.  The tracks don’t slide by themselves.

I gave the holder one coat of Arm-r-Seal.

While the finish was curing, I moved onto the studs.  These are made from 3/8″ stainless rod.  I used the bench grinder to put a bit of a chamfer on the end thinking that this would make it easier to slip the track’s mounting hole onto the stud.

Regardless of whether or not this is actually functional, I really like the swirling scratch patter on the end.

I set a stop block and used my abrasive chop saw to cut the 4 studs from the piece of rod.

I was going to epoxy the studs in but they had a decently snug fit so I just hammered them into the holes.

I hung the holder on the wall with a couple of Tapcon screws.  I had some ideas for a hidden or decorative hanging solution but decided to just screw it directly to the wall in a counter sunk hole within the rabbeted area.  When the tracks are hanging (which they will be the majority of the time), you can’t see the screw heads.

The tracks fit nicely behind the shop door.  I mounted the holder so the long tracks would be a few inches off the ground.  This leaves me with a large amount of space above the holder that I could do something else with.

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