Yet Another Cylinder Rack

[NothingClever]

Inspired by @tbone1004 ’s handiwork with the cave country bench design from a while back, I decided to tackle the problem of cylinders sliding around the back of my cargo van by building a rack. The PVC pipe with O-ring arrangement (commonly available at dive stores) only works in confined spaces.

Mostly happy with v1.0 (square, dimensions never off more than 1/16”) but would assemble a few things differently were I to build a v1.1.

 

[NothingClever]

 

[NothingClever]

 

[NothingClever]

Plywood is 3/4”. IIRC, sande is the wood species. Bit soft. I think birch would’ve been better but I had a bunch of the sande in the garage from a failed cargo van floor project (too thick).

I wasn’t happy with the size of the brads for joinery so I added the corner braces on the underside of the rack.

The white furniture feet are to allow sand and water to escape when I use a leaf blower or compressed air to clean up.

The galvanized metal plates between the two twinset troughs are to protect against the twinset bolts. Some are long (like on my LP85 twinset), some are not (like my AL80 twinset). I put the strike plates on to account for a tired diver not paying attention and the twinning bolts coming down hard.

Abundant teak oil for finish. Bought some wax and intend to finish it that way. Too lazy / impatient for polyurethane.

The two handles (made of marine rope with PVC tube) in the center are for picking up the unloaded rack from the center. The rack isn’t heavy but a little awkward picking it up from a side. The rack is intended to be easily installed and removed because I often load a motorcycle in the back (track rat).

The SS turnbuckles at the aft end of the rack are not ideally placed. Wood’s a little bit flexy there but it’ll hold.

The fore and aft steps make it easy to move back and forth in the van without worrying about stepping on breakables.

Up next is my method to secure the cylinders to the rack.

 

[tursiops]

Nice job.

The PVC pipe with O-ring arrangement (commonly available at dive stores) only works in confined spaces.

Do you have a picture of what you are referring to? My PVC pipes are tied together with ropes; no o-rings on them.

Up next is my method to secure the cylinders to the rack.

Bungee....God invented bungee for this purpose!

 

[Johnoly]

The fore and aft steps make it easy to move back and forth in the van without worrying about stepping on breakables.

The cutouts look nice and professional. Great job !!

 

[Compressor]

Very nice job. Congratulations @NothingClever.

 

[NothingClever]

Nice job.

Do you have a picture of what you are referring to? My PVC pipes are tied together with ropes; no o-rings on them.

Bungee....God invented bungee for this purpose!

Thanks @tursiops.

Below is what I’ve been using that has proven to be useless in the back of a cargo van the moment I have to brake hard.

Thick bungee on the wood rack was my first thought and choice. However, I’m on the road for 3-5 hours to get to diving and that exposes me to a lot of bad traffic. While bungees are great on a boat, I don’t think they’ll hold a 70lb twinset in place in a collision at, say, 35 mph. I went with marine grade rope tested at 400lb breaking strength. That’s probably not strong enough to guarantee against failure but I think it’s an improvement.

 

[NothingClever]

The cutouts look nice and professional. Great job !!

Thanks, @Johnoly - upon closer inspection, there are some sketchy cuts. I used a router with a rasp to clean things up. I’m probably biased but everything I cut with my Dewalt tools came out great. Ryobi tools? Junk. However, I’ll admit I’m out of practice and it could have been a problem with the painter not the brush.

 

[NothingClever]

My solution to secure the twinsets.