Project Information
My son mentioned last year that he'd like to have a nice wood gun rack to display some rifles. Well, I planned to make it for him last Christmas but other projects took longer than expected. So, I finally got it done for his birthday which is tomorrow.
I couldn't find a design that I really liked overall so I took bits and pieces here and there from different ones I've seen on this site and others and scaled everything to the size I wanted and here's what I came up with. The biggest thing I didn't like about the many designs I looked at was that they were either fully closed on the back or fully open. I came up with the side pieces with the large radii that I feel like tie the crown and the base together well and give good proportion without closing the whole back up.
The wood is some nice Cherry I picked up that had a little bit of curl in it. You can't really see it in the pictures but the grain on this wood is subtle but quite nice. It was, like most figured wood, a PITA to smooth the surface after milling. A LOT of scraping on this one! The bottom door frame and lock bar are Walnut. Joinery is all dados and rabbets except the shelf is joined to the side pieces with tee-bridle joints (I had to google it to see what it's called).
It took me a while to come up with a locking bar design that is effective but also aesthetically pleasing. At least I hope it is There is a dowel in the bottom of the bar that fits through a hole in the shelf and a brass pin in the top that fits in a hole in the top of the holder arm for the top rifle. When inserted, a cotter pin is put through a hole in the dowel inside the door to prevent being able to lift the bar up to remove it. The bar locks the lower 3 rifles in place. Once a rifle is designated for the top position, I'll add a piece that will lock it in place as well but I didn't want to do so yet for fear that it may interfere with the scope on the top rifle. The 3rd and 4th pics show how the locking bar works.
And no, I don't think that a wooden bar on a wooden rack hanging on the wall is going to keep any thieves from stealing his guns ;P I do think it will do it's intended job of keeping kids from being able to pluck a rifle off the wall and play cops & robbers with it though.
The door uses a combination cam lock 'cause he has a hard time with having the right keys in the right place when he needs them ;-) A rare earth magnet is inset on each side of the door. I put a couple of steel tacks into the rack aligned with the magnets so the door doesn't flop open whenever it's unlocked. The hinges are decorative surface mounts but you can't see them in any of the pictures. In fact, unless he hangs it pretty high, no one will probably ever see them which is why I didn't bother with mortise hinges.
I finished it with 3 coats of a 1:1 mix of BLO and MS then followed it with a coat of wipe-on poly to give it a little protection against wear.
Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome!
I couldn't find a design that I really liked overall so I took bits and pieces here and there from different ones I've seen on this site and others and scaled everything to the size I wanted and here's what I came up with. The biggest thing I didn't like about the many designs I looked at was that they were either fully closed on the back or fully open. I came up with the side pieces with the large radii that I feel like tie the crown and the base together well and give good proportion without closing the whole back up.
The wood is some nice Cherry I picked up that had a little bit of curl in it. You can't really see it in the pictures but the grain on this wood is subtle but quite nice. It was, like most figured wood, a PITA to smooth the surface after milling. A LOT of scraping on this one! The bottom door frame and lock bar are Walnut. Joinery is all dados and rabbets except the shelf is joined to the side pieces with tee-bridle joints (I had to google it to see what it's called).
It took me a while to come up with a locking bar design that is effective but also aesthetically pleasing. At least I hope it is There is a dowel in the bottom of the bar that fits through a hole in the shelf and a brass pin in the top that fits in a hole in the top of the holder arm for the top rifle. When inserted, a cotter pin is put through a hole in the dowel inside the door to prevent being able to lift the bar up to remove it. The bar locks the lower 3 rifles in place. Once a rifle is designated for the top position, I'll add a piece that will lock it in place as well but I didn't want to do so yet for fear that it may interfere with the scope on the top rifle. The 3rd and 4th pics show how the locking bar works.
And no, I don't think that a wooden bar on a wooden rack hanging on the wall is going to keep any thieves from stealing his guns ;P I do think it will do it's intended job of keeping kids from being able to pluck a rifle off the wall and play cops & robbers with it though.
The door uses a combination cam lock 'cause he has a hard time with having the right keys in the right place when he needs them ;-) A rare earth magnet is inset on each side of the door. I put a couple of steel tacks into the rack aligned with the magnets so the door doesn't flop open whenever it's unlocked. The hinges are decorative surface mounts but you can't see them in any of the pictures. In fact, unless he hangs it pretty high, no one will probably ever see them which is why I didn't bother with mortise hinges.
I finished it with 3 coats of a 1:1 mix of BLO and MS then followed it with a coat of wipe-on poly to give it a little protection against wear.
Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome!