My newest bit of kit – the fab Erecta Rack
I recently had a hand painted kitchen project in Mirfield. The kitchen had 30+ doors and drawers and was going to take a few weeks so I offered the client the option of me painting the doors and drawers in my workshop to cut down on the time I would be on site. She was very happy with the suggestion so I figured I’d take the plunge and get myself an Erecta Rack from mypaintbrush.co.uk -what a great bit of kit!
The Erecta rack is simple to use storage solution for drying off painted kitchen doors, lengths of trim and other cabinetry. Its an easy to use, easy to assemble modular system that is both portable and sturdy. When fully erected my particular rack has 10 levels and could hold up to 500lbs of material. The whole system consists of the following –
(40) support blocks
(20) 40″ Pro-series cross bars
(4) stabilizer bars
(4) stainless steel stabilizer struts
(1) Custom carry bag
Fully stocked Erecta Rack
I’d heard great things about the rack from fellow TP’ers and the Mirfield kitchen job seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one and make my life a little easier. Normally I set up half a dozen trestle and pasting tables in my workshop and spare space is at a bit of premium. No longer….the Erecta Rack was really easy to assemble and once I’d set it up I had 10 levels to store my doors and drawer fronts on.
There are oodles of different ways you can set the Rack up depending on what you’re painting but in this particular case the 10 levels only took up about 6′ x 4”, leaving me loads of space to swing any number of cats.
I painted my doors on my plastic pasting table and stacked them on the Erecta to dry – easy peasy. In total I managed to get 7 drawer fronts and 15 doors slotted away, some of which were oversized. Once I’d painted the doors and drawers in my work shop I started work on the shell and had about a week and half on site, rehanging the doors and giving the doors a final coat in situe – all in all a very successful project. There are various things that needed to be completed in the kitchen once I’d finished so I will be heading back to take some final photos once the new floor has been layed and the walls re-painted. Here’s a couple of pics of part of the kitchen to give you an idea in the mean time. I’ll be blogging about the whole project and some other tricks I used soon, watch out for the full transformation!
The kitchen before it was painted
Painting the shell with the doors/draw fronts having been painted in my workshop and stacked on the Erecta Rack
I guess my only qualm with the system was that when you’ve got it maxed out and there is only one of you it’s very tricky to remove the doors without slightly scuffing the paint finish. The powder coated cross bars aren’t quite a smooth as they could be and don’t roll though this little design floor was easily overcome by wrapping the bars with some Blue 3M tape – simples 🙂
Even with this mini issue, this is a great bit of kit, a solid 4.8/5. The Erecta Rack is definitely one bit of kit I can recommend. If you’re a kitchen or furniture painter, working in a workshop or on site, make your life fair bit easier and get yourself one. Its not cheap but well worth the monies!
