Classroom Backpack/Coat/Hat Rack

My daughter’s 1st grade class desperately needed a new backpack rack. So I offered to build one. Today I did the installation and I think it turned out better than I thought. This replaces a bunch of dilapidated cheapo racks that had long pointy hooks, some of which were broken off. The pointed hooks are really dangerous so we went with some upper-ward turned hooks with blunt polished ends. These are a little safer. My wife must have bought the entire supply of hooks from Target, twice!

This was a very simple project. I used maple wrapped with cherry strips. The dimensions are 5” by 66” long. I cut a bunch of 0.25” cherry strips on the TS. Then glued up the edges on the maple. Then used my grandfather’s (God rest his soul) hand plane to clean up the saw marks and smooth the surface of the maple. I finally eased the edges with a router loaded with a round over bit. I finished it off with three coats of brushed on minwax poly with wet sanding (320) in between coats. The final finish was very smooth and clean looking. The most satisfying part of the project was helping out the school, which has no money for this kind of thing. I hope the racks lasts for another 20 years.

Thanks for looking.

Chad