Scrap plastic-coated wire shelving makes a great drying rack in your shop. Here’s how to go about it:

  • Use a hacksaw to cut a piece of shelving a bit longer than the utility sink in your shop.
  • Put the wire shelving on top of the sink with the lip on the shelf locking over the front of the sink.
  • Place the items to be dried (such as paint rollers, sponges, and rags) on the rack so that air can circulate around them.

To dry paintbrushes in your shop:

  • Cut a piece of short wire from a metal clothes hanger.
  • Bend the wire into a hook shape.
  • Hook one end over the wire rack and the other end on the paintbrush handle.
  • Suspend the paintbrush over the sink so the bristles will dry straight.

Watch the video above to find out more.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

If you’re fortunate enough to have a utility sink like this in your home, you know how useful it is for washing up after painting projects or home improvement projects. We often call these slop sinks, and if you take a look at this lovely picture you can see why. This has been used for cleaning up some staining and painting projects.

Now, besides washing up after jobs, this is also a great place to dry items, especially after a painting job. What I did is, I took a section ventilated shelving that was left over from a closet remodeling job, and with a hack saw I just trimmed it so it’s a little bit longer than the width of the sink. And you can see it sits right on there. The nice thing is that because it has this downturned lip, it really just sits on – locks right on – it doesn’t move around.

So now I can take like paint roller sleeves, sponges, and rags used during a project and lay them right on there. They dry pretty quickly because of the ventilated shelving, right, the air goes right through this. And these a vinyl coated so you don’t have to worry about them rusting.

Even paint brushes dry quickly off of this rack. But rather than laying them flat, what I like to do is – it’s just a piece of wire from a bent clothes hanger – and just hang it on the back there, and it keeps the bristles up off the bottom of the sink so they dry nice and straight.


Further Information

Editorial Contributors
avatar for Joe Truini

Joe Truini

Radio Show Co-Host

Joe Truini is a contractor, author, and the host of “Simple Solutions” on Today’s Homeowner TV and the weekly Today’s Homeowner radio show. He has worked on both large commercial projects and residential remodeling, and has written for national publications such as This Old House and Popular Mechanics. He has also written eight books, including three best-selling shed-building books. Joe lives in Connecticut with his family and enjoys hiking, traveling, and baseball in his spare time.

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