| Project by scottb | posted 1590 days ago | 1410 views | 7 times favorited | 4 comments |  |
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I’ve made a couple of these before out of oak, right off the firewood pile no less. This one was modeled after the one I kept, rather than go and search for the (missing) plans from Wood magazine.
What should have been a nice easy project, ended up being quite an exercise in patience and determination.
Despite having a model to work from I had a heck of a time getting this one cut and drilled at the proper angle. The block of maple I used was a hair shorter than the plans would have called for, and getting the angle on my (nearly dead) drill press was, well not fun.
At least the height changes didn’t effect the geometry that keeps this balancer upright (and very sturdy) with a full (or empty) bottle of any size.
Here it is, with lots of thanks to the shopsmith in disk sander mode. The faces cleaned up beautifully, and the edges are nice and crisp. Unlike the plans straight lines, I put a rounded profile on the “downward” side for interest. An intentional design element, or the result of my bandsaw that hasn’t been playing nice (when it chooses to play at all)?
Hard maple, sanded smooth, oiled and waxed.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Van Gogh -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
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4 comments so far
Karson
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34369 posts in 2568 days
#1 posted 1590 days ago
Looks great Scott. So these things can be made with anything. Huh!
-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
davetermite
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9 posts in 1595 days
#2 posted 1588 days ago
When did Wood magazine print the plans for these?
Moron
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4433 posts in 2061 days
#3 posted 1588 days ago
the secretary at a buddies shop made something like that and I happened to be there when she made it. It was her first project and I near died of shellshock when the it worked!!!!!
-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso
winecountrywhimsy
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95 posts in 1516 days
#4 posted 1475 days ago
I made one this weekend out of a barrel stave. The trick I learned from another post was to drill the hole straight at 90 deg. but then router the edges on both sides of the piece with a 1/4 in. roundover bit. That allows you to move the bottle back and forth and change the distance and angle that the bottle sticks out of the hole. You can then use if for different sizes and weights of bottles.
I just have to put the finish on it then I will post pics. It was a little tricky with the barrel stave because it is curved from end to end and side to side, but that gives it an interesting look, along with the wine stains and natural marks from the barrel.
Thanks for the ideas.
-- Todd @ winecountrywhimsy Sonoma County, CA
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