Tuba Shelf

[Robert_123spleeah]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. Although I've "lurked" about on this site for a number of years, I finally got about to registering only recently, and I thought I would share my tuba shelf/rack with everyone (pics below).

I currently reside in a small apartment, so storage space tight in general, especially for my tubas. I have a 4-foot square section near the end of my bed where I've kept my horns for years, and it was only about a year ago that I designed and built this. I thought to myself... rather than limit myself to owning just one or two horns, why not use vertical space?

It's designed to accommodate a total of eight tubas or cases in a 4' x 4' x 8' area. As you can see it's nowhere near as nice as the finished plywood display cases you might find in music stores. However it serves as a fine example of low-cost ingenuity for anyone who doesn't own heavy-duty power tools or who is unable to transport plywood panels. It was constructed using only a hand saw, a power drill, and about $50 worth of wood and materials, and took about 4 hours to build. It's a simple stick frame using 2" x 3" stock, with a 1/2" plywood shelf and a rail along the top, all unfinished wood. The shelf is non-adjustable, but there's 48 inches of vertical room underneath, which is plenty. Eventually I might put carpeting or something on the shelf, but I haven't got around to it yet. Take note of the angled wood beam bracing on the sides...that's what gives the structure its rigidity (buildings usually have triangles added to them for strength). I used 2 1/2" wood screws, about 3 or 4 in each connection point. Lag bolts would have also worked fine.

I designed the shelf as a "light duty" shelf since I don't plan to store any more than 150 lbs on it. I keep my big horns and my heavy flight case on the floor, and reserve the shelf for the lighter instruments. But, theoretically, if you needed the shelf to hold four big 6/4 BBb's in hard cases, then you would simply beef up the construction a bit more (just don't break your back!). And of course, the shelf also becomes a repository for other stuff and old junk, like my PVC tuba project I made years ago (which I'll probably never finish. By the way, it's currently pitched to approximately GG, and my plan was to cut it to BBb, make a bell out of galvanized sheet metal, and so forth...but haven't got around how to make valves for it yet. It's fun to tinker around, isn't it?).

I hope this inspires all of you who have tuba storage issues to build your own rack or shelving, particularly for college students living in apartments or dorms, and etc. But even for those of you lucky enough to have an entire room devoted to instruments, this demonstrates a simple, inexpensive way to reduce the clutter of horns lying about. And you don't have to limit yourself to this configuration. Plan for about 2' x 2' x 4' for each horn you own, then think of whatever configuration would work best for your instruments and your space and adjust your measurements as needed.

Anybody else have pics of their shelf/rack/closet they would like to share? We'd love to see them. Best of luck.

Robert

[Ben]

Great idea for those of use with multiple axes who live in tight spaces!

BTW is that a PVC "bugle" tucked away in white and black on the top shelf?

[Conn 2J CC]

Cool Tuba "loft". I'd like to build a rack like YORK-aholic pictured. We had one for Tubas back at Western Illinois University that I always liked since our horns were supported by their bottom bows and barrels, instead of just sitting on their bells.

[PaulTkachenko]

I put them on heavy duty shelves.

I've got 3 tubas, 1 sousa, 1 helicon, 1 trombone and mutes on there.

I have the tuba bells sticking out.

I didn't find storing them upright was that good space-wise.