Setting up the Warehouse Vlog 1

Welcome to the warehouse setup vlog. 

I have been asked by some people to document the process of setting up the warehouse and moving into that space. So that’s what this mini series will be. In case you’re not aware, I recently leased a warehouse space to help grow the physical side of the business. Right now, it is chair kits and the work bench kits. The only thing that’s really going to be happening over there is order fulfillment or things that don’t happen on camera. Everything happens on camera, such as the saw mill and the shop, is still going to be happening right here. 

I brought some stuff over to the space already. I’m also using it as overflow space for my own stuff. The entire lumber collection that I have, which is stored in my basement, will be moving over to the warehouse because there’s just more space there. In general, things that I don’t need every day or often can live there, and lumber is a big thing in that category. I only need to look at my lumber when I start a new project. 

A couple of days ago, I picked up some used pallet racking from a used industrial supplier here in town. I hauled that over to the warehouse space, just to get it ready to be set up. We’ll set that up when we get there. I have a delivery I have to be there for today, and I thought we could do a before shot, take a walk around the space, see where everything is, and talk about what I have planned for it at this point. 

Okay, here we are. Here’s the blank space. You can see the lumber and the racks I brought over. I got some chairs for the chair kits. So my space is essentially this area here…

And then on the other side of the aisle here, all of this is mine as well. I forget what the exact breakdowns are, but I think one side is 800 square feet and the other is 1600 square feet, roughly. So I’ve got some room to grow. 

I’m going to set up the racks, and that’ll give me some space to store things. And I can get some of this lumber up on some racks. 

This is just the first load that I pulled out of the basement. I’ve got some larger slabs, and one pallet that’s 12 feet long that has some boards and some other slabs. I probably have at least two, if not three, loads a similar size to that. 

Okay, so that’s the forklift that just got delivered. This is a uni-carrier, what used to be Nissan, because they rebranded some time ago. It’s a 7,000 pound forklift. It’s the same chassis size as the fours and the fives. The total width is the same, the only difference is the size of the counterweight. On this lift, the counterweight comes out maybe a foot longer than a 5,000 pound lift, but it can lift more. 

The biggest thing would be lifting capacity on this has to do with the setup of this warehouse. So if I take something off of my truck, and I’m not going to use a loading Bay, I have to drive it in through this entry door over here. That door is nine feet wide, so if I want to do something that’s 10-12 feet long, I’d have to pick it up from the end. You can’t lift nearly as much when you’re picking from the end, so the extra capacity on the forklift will allow me to end pick a little bit easier. Plus because it’s the same size, it’ll be a little more future-proof. I can lift a lot more in the future if I need to. 

There’s the counterweight. I did go with propane because of its cost. The machine itself costs less than an electric unit, and because it’s not going to see a whole lot of use, and because the other lifts in this building are LP anyway, I’m not super worried about it. Electric would be nice because it’s quiet, but that’s okay. 

This is a brand new forklift. I looked at some used ones, but they tend to see a pretty rough life, and I don’t really want to deal with someone else’s problems. I decided to buy a brand new one and not have to really worry about it. I’m trying to make this warehouse space as efficient as possible. So yes, I can fix a problem on a forklift and spend a half a day doing it, but I’d rather not have to spend half a day doing it. I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

So I think that should be a pretty good intro to the series. In the future vlogs, we’ll do some more stuff with the forklift, get that a pallet rack set up, and get chair kit shipping headquarters set up as well. Still a lot to go, but I’m looking forward to bringing you along. Hopefully you enjoyed this quick tour into what’s to come. Thank you as always for watching. I really appreciate it. Any questions on the warehouse, the shop, at home, or anything else in my life, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!