I got the frames up and laid the track in place on the lower level. The distance between the top of the lower frame and the bottom of the upper frame is 14 1/2" on the near side and 11" in the back. The last track is 30" from the aisle. The upper level is fairly easy to reach because I can lean over the benchwork. The lower level on the other hand has no way to lean over it and I believe I would knock everything over on the front tracks if I had to reach in.
I will stop work for now while I ponder my options.
One option would be to turn the bench 45 degrees about half way in. This will give me the ability to get behind to the back tracks if needed. It just puts a curve in all of the tracks.
Another option would be to run a single track on the upper level past the lower staging and then build the upper staging. This would give me the ability to reach the lower level. It would just be a much longer run in an area that would basically be hidden.
Another potential would to trim the side frame from 3 1/2" down to a thinner board or remove it completely to give me more head room.
Looking at the lower level track.
Side view of the to staging areas.
This is a crawl in space anyway, correct? How about raising the upper level a bit and giving it a hard right turn as it comes in (thereby avoiding the drain pipe)? I can't see what the other side of your space looks like.
ReplyDeleteMake that left, not right. :)
DeleteThere is a lot of room in there. I was trying to keep it simple. What you said is one of the options.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you stopped before proceeding. Too often we build away and regret not fixing issues sooner.
ReplyDeleteI tried a few ideas I wasn't completely happy about and I realized I had not done one thing....remove the frame from the upper level. This would give me 3 1/2 more inches separation. To make it stable I would have to hang more drops from the ceiling.
ReplyDeleteI will do the lower level as is and plan to do the upper level almost per the first plan.