# Wine Rack Expedition



## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Planning process*

Well folks, this is the first time I've ever attempted to document any project that I've done, so, hold onto your hats and hopefully I won't make any major mistakes! I'll attempt to bring you through the stages of my project with me!!

*Dreaming Stage / Research Stage*
My brother's wedding is coming up in about mid-May and I decided that I wanted to make a small (but tall) wine rack for him and his newlywed. I did some reconnaissance work and found out that his favorite wood is cherry, and I shall thusly use that as my main wood. I started the whole process scanning the web and, of course, Lumberjocks for some inspiration.

Two pieces have stood out to me for the majority of the project,


By drumpriest and…

By Pheirendt

The first image was the piece that inspired me to do a wine rack in the first place. I love the fact that it will fit in a small apartment and still hold a ton of character. The second, I feel, simplifies the design process (in my own head) since I don't have to fool with a cabinet door or anything of that sort. With the designs examined, (and believe me, I looked at a ton of others!) It was time to move on into what I call, the napkin stage.

*The napkin stage* is basically the first step in moving from inspiration to application. It's where you scrounge around for the nearest writable surface and spill your thoughts onto it. This really helps you conceptualize the fist little budding of your own project. As you draw it, you may realize that it looks completely stupid. Don't Worry! Just sketch it up again. This is where you put your own personal flare into the project and go crazy! I also marked the pieces with letters representing the woods I was planning on using (cherry and maple).










After you feel competent enough with your sketch up- its time for another sketch up! I downloaded Google Sketch Up for free and it seems to do the trick of getting all the dimensions ironed out. Plus it just looks cool.
This is also the stage of the project where I get the wine bottles out and gather some critical dimensions to make the whole thing work. There are a few details left out, but only the ones that I need to figure out later.










One of the great things about putting it on the computer is, I can easily log this away and bring it up later if I ever need to make another one. Instead of jamming those napkins into my project folder, I'll put a copy of the Sketch up model, cut list and basic procedures into one little section.

*Cut List Stage*
Speaking of cut lists, I moved all the pieces around so I could more easily wrap my head around the material needs of the project. 









After the fact, I would recommend putting the dimensions somewhere on the sketch up image so that you don't have to piddle around with drawing them on later. I can't remember why I didn't, but there was a reason. I enjoyed the piddling on my lunch break though.

So I took the parts list and drew up my best figuring of what amount of lumber I would get in order to have minimal cut off waste (but not too little  !! ) This stage is absolutely essential to the final look of the piece since you might want to have pieces match. 
For example: The actual racks of my wine rack will be four pieces (2 sides, one front and back). I want the front three pieces to wrap around and have the same grain. I also don't want to use too many separate boards because I want to have a pretty uniform color throughout.


















If you can make sense of all that- Good for you!! I was lucky to understand it myself. The important thing is to understand it for yourself. I feel like I should note that I didn't know what length of board I could get at the planing mill when I drew up the plans, so some of this has to be rigged on site at the mill. I have since found out that most of the boards are in the area of 8' long.

*Wood Selection Stage*
Now, you can't see it from my sketch up model, but I played around with a few different contrasting woods to get to what I wanted. I decided early on that I wanted to pair some curly maple ($3 a b.f. at my place) with some cherry. When I got there I saw the last bits of spalted maple go out with another customer. I loved it! I asked the fella what the cost on that was and when it would be back in… he roughly quoted me a price of $2.75 per B.f.!!! I'm still waiting for him to get more in. 








I spent a pretty penny on an 8/4 board of Cherry but I think it will be worth it to have solid, uniform legs on this piece, no laminations. The board is there behind the vacuum. 









*Milling Stage*
I milled down everything but the legs to a smooth dimension. I'll come back later and plane it down to finished dimensions later. What I wish I would have taken a picture of is how I marked the lumber for cutting. When the board was rough I drew on it with a piece of chalk so that I knew how I could cut it down to a manageable size to work with. If you want info on how to mill stuff down, check out www.thewoodwhisperer.com - Check out the basics videos.










*Piecing Stage*
For lack of a better term, this is the stage where you start putting crap together. I put to parts together for the top of the wine rack. I doweled these two pieces together. I took a long time just trying to find the best way to put the two together so no one would even notice (later) that they were two pieces. You can see some mill marks on there that I have to remove with my card scraper. I wanted to get this done and out of here first so the lady can do her designing magic. (She is helping with $ and some planning/work for my brother's wedding) I'm figuring on doing an inlay on the top of some grapevines with some woodburning. I asked her to draw something and this is what she gave me!...










Cool huh?? I've never really done any big time inlays like this so, it should be interesting…









Thats about it for now!! Upcoming might be another trip to the mill to get the spalted maple and snap some photos of the place (if they let me) and working that massive board into legs!

What do you all think? Any design comments or suggestions? Lay it on me!


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## Ampeater (Feb 21, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Planning process*
> 
> Well folks, this is the first time I've ever attempted to document any project that I've done, so, hold onto your hats and hopefully I won't make any major mistakes! I'll attempt to bring you through the stages of my project with me!!
> 
> ...


What an awesome wedding present. I am sure they will love it. I am looking forward to your next blog. That inlay should look beautiful.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Planning process*
> 
> Well folks, this is the first time I've ever attempted to document any project that I've done, so, hold onto your hats and hopefully I won't make any major mistakes! I'll attempt to bring you through the stages of my project with me!!
> 
> ...


Thanks Ampeater!


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## Blondewood (Mar 30, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Planning process*
> 
> Well folks, this is the first time I've ever attempted to document any project that I've done, so, hold onto your hats and hopefully I won't make any major mistakes! I'll attempt to bring you through the stages of my project with me!!
> 
> ...


Hey,
You are doing a fantastic job and I am enjoying your blog. It's neat to 'watch' someone else build something. Thanks for taking the extra time to do the documentation.

Just my 2 cents….......I love the top rack with the grapes on the doors, but not the metal glasses holder on it. I think the wooden glass rack on the bottom one looks better.
Vicki


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Planning process*
> 
> Well folks, this is the first time I've ever attempted to document any project that I've done, so, hold onto your hats and hopefully I won't make any major mistakes! I'll attempt to bring you through the stages of my project with me!!
> 
> ...


I thought the same exact thing, I am trying to merge a grapevine inlay on the tabletop and use the wine glass holder of the mission style one. See my new blog (coming soon tonight) to get an idea of the finished result.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Rough Milling and setting up for detail*

Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!

I went to the planing mill (Hicksville Planing Mill) and bought quite a bit of wormy maple. (I believe it is the Ambrosia bug that crawls in the wood and makes all sorts of colors in the surrounding wood. It is also called Ambrosia Maple)

I was in for quite a surprise! I was looking for some spalted maple, but this stuff was only $1.75 a B.F.!!!
I bought all I needed (and then some), they even surfaced it for me at no charge!










I figure that this will look pretty nice with the cherry, especially when it ages.

I made some templates to cut out the different wine rack portions. I simply drew up the plan on the template and cut close to the line with a band saw. I don't have an oscillating spindle sander so I just chucked up a drum sander on my drill press. Worked just fine!









and the bottom detail…









I ripped the large 8/4 cherry board into 3 strips for the legs. One strip was cut in half to be the shorter front two legs. I cut five 31" pieces (4 maple 1 cherry) for the front and sides. I wanted the grain to wrap around the front so I cut the front and side pieces out of the same board (7.5", 16", 7.5"). The back rail was from a different board because I didn't have enough to make four back pieces. It doesn't matter as much as the front three pieces anyhow.

Here are the pieces all laid out and ready for shaping and joinery.








This shows the grain flow from the front to sides

















Notice the chalk triangles. I do this simply to keep my pieces aligned and in order. You can see some mill marks that I will have to get into order here later with my scraper.

That's about it for now, up to come… cutting the shapes in the rails, cutting the top, joinery and who knows what else.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


Construction blogs like this convey more information than simply posting pictures of the completed project. The maple has a lot of character and will add visual interest to the rack.

It will be interesting to watch the progress as you work towards completion of the rack.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


Thanks Scott!


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## toddc (Mar 6, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


Nice progress photos and description to follow.

Ambrosia and spalted maple are among my favorite woods.

I look forward to seeing the final project.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


I can only imagine what a beauty this will be once finished…! thanx for sharing. looks fantastic


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


We use a lot of wormy maple and ambrosia in our cabinet shop. I know how pretty it will be. This will really look good when you are done. Keep up the fine work you are doing.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


What is the board foot cost to you all for Wormy maple? I am trying to get a feel for the true cost. I saw an add on the net for $9.00 a board foot. I think I really got a deal at $1.75 a board foot! Is that normal?


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## waterskier (Aug 24, 2010)

Demowen said:


> *Rough Milling and setting up for detail*
> 
> Well folks, I've got almost all of my stock milled down and ready to go!
> 
> ...


Demowen, where abouts are you from? I've been looking for a place to get decent price wood and some of my buddies told me Hicksville Planing Company (or Mill maybe, not sure)...in Clear Spring, MD. Is this "your place"? If so that would be a big coincidence that I just looked at your post! Are their prices pretty much the best around (if it is the same Hicksville that I've been told about).

Thanks, and great wine rack!


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Dowling and.... more dowling*

Well, unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of content to go through for this step since it is pretty much doing the same thing over and over again. I marked out on the legs where I want the rails to go. I had to alter some measurements from the plans since the rails are now 3.5" instead of 4" wide. I wanted to get all of the front and side pieces out of the same board and this was the price I paid. No biggie, will look about the same in the end.

So the lines were all laid out, I decided to dowel all the rails into the legs since I am on a slight time crunch. Mortise and tenons would have taken too long, so this seems to be a strong, good looking, and quicker alternative. 
I go my self centering dowel jig from Grizzly (birthday gift) and it is turning out to be quite a help! Compared to some other doweling jig prices, this one was pretty good at around $30-$50.










Here is a picture of the pieces marked and ready for dowels. Sorry, but you can't really see any layout lines…









I have 5 rails that wrap around all four sides. Two dowels to each side of the rail. And two drilled holes for each dowel. That means I have to drill 160 holes for 80 dowels. A snapshot of me doing one of the 180 holes that need to be drilled…. I look so enthused…









I got the front legs and the front rails all drilled out. Time for a dry fit!!!








It was surprisingly difficult to line up 10 dowels into 10 holes on each side, so one side only has 1 dowel per rail in it for now. When I glue up I think I will do it one side at a time, too much difficulty during a glue up is unneeded stress. I don't do stress. (notice the lovely rust-colored freezer behind the dry fit)

The fit was pretty good, I have to cut the dowels a little shorter because I didn't figure in the fact that the drill bit is tapered at the tip. I set the depth to 1/2" but the actual depth without the taper is closer to 1/4"-3/8". Oh well, easy fix. The picture also has mineral spirits on it to get a small idea of what the finish will look like.

Speaking of finish, I bought some Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) today at work. I've never used it so I'll have to try some samples. Any recommendations on the finish???! I thought BLO with shellac but I can't do that since this table might be near alcohol (shellac=alcohol based, bad to spill booze on it). So perhaps a BLO with a couple wipe downs of Poly and Mineral Spirits mix.

Next up… Hopefully no more drilling… Some band sawing for shapes, some template routing with a flush trim bit and an immense amount of card scraping. (oh joy)


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Dowling and.... more dowling*
> 
> Well, unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of content to go through for this step since it is pretty much doing the same thing over and over again. I marked out on the legs where I want the rails to go. I had to alter some measurements from the plans since the rails are now 3.5" instead of 4" wide. I wanted to get all of the front and side pieces out of the same board and this was the price I paid. No biggie, will look about the same in the end.
> 
> ...


This is looking pretty good so far. Your finishing routine, applying wipe-on poly over BLO, will work well. You could put on a seal coat of shellac over the BLO and then topcoat it with wipe-on poly if you wanted. This would eliminate the alcohol problem. But that is largely a matter of personal preference.

Enjoy the card scraping. By the time you are at this stage the end is in sight! 

I am looking forward to your next installment.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Dowling and.... more dowling*
> 
> Well, unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of content to go through for this step since it is pretty much doing the same thing over and over again. I marked out on the legs where I want the rails to go. I had to alter some measurements from the plans since the rails are now 3.5" instead of 4" wide. I wanted to get all of the front and side pieces out of the same board and this was the price I paid. No biggie, will look about the same in the end.
> 
> ...


Thanks Scott! What would the Shellac do for the look of the piece that just going from the BLO to the poly wouldn't? Why the extra step?


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Result of Monotony*

Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…








Now, notice the markings on the end grain. This is important to me so that I don't keep having to second guess myself when I am putting things together. I have those pieces marked 'L' or 'R' for left or right and numbered from top to bottom. I mark all the pieces on the right side so there is no question as to which side is the front or the top.
Here are the dowels on the legs, awaiting their rail counterparts..








Now, one leg only has one dowel in it for a reason. When I line them up, it is really a pain to get them all. If I can do one side for a glue up, then focus on the other side later -then that is okay with me!

After the dowels were in, I decided it was time to clean up some mill marks








look at the speed! (haha)

While I was scraping my brains out, I convinced the lady to start transferring some pattern marks to the rails.








Unfortunately, the ark on the bottom of the rails gave us a lot of problems. I think we got it worked out in the end. I tried to just use a pencil tied to string to get the ark, but it is near impossible to have accuracy since you are bound to pull too hard, tilt the pencil, or have your string slide on your pencil. So for future reference, I will have to make a jig for this kind of patterning.

Once the lines are down and checked 20 times for accuracy, it is time for a lot of this..








You can see some of that numbering take place here in the dry fit. Notice I am not done sanding to the line, we were just getting antsy to get a peek of the final project.

and a lot of this…








Okay, I know I made all those templates for a reason! honestly, by the time I would have set up my router and clamped each piece, I would have sanded right to the line with the drum sander. I followed my sanding up with a little scraping to remove any spots that I might have not gotten smooth. (I am a poor college student so I don't have a router table yet (or an oscillating spindle sander))

We had to part ways for the night soon, so we dry assembled the pieces just to get a vision for the next step (after cleaning up those lines). 








I think it will come together nicely








Look at her go!









Now, when I actually glue this thing up, I will only do one part at a time. Trying to do all this at once seems like craziness! But, all said and done, here is what she looks like so far….








I think it looks better than I thought it would! I can feel some changes in the design coming on though…









This time I threw the rough top on to get an idea of the final product. I planned for an overhang from the rails, but the legs will not have much at all. I was going to notch out the top and the back rails to slip fit into one another, but now I think I am just going to notch the corners out entirely and forget about slip fitting them.

I also got an idea from the arch on the bottom of the rails. When I make the wine glass holders for the top (that span in-between the back legs) I think I will incorporate that arch horizontally on those rails too. That way the glasses won't be lined up in a perfectly straight row, the ones in the middle will be set back a some and give it an added depth. (I think/ Hope)

Now, to another matter…
I bought some Boiled Linseed Oil and tried it out for the first time ever. I LOVE IT! I think it will really draw out the character of the wood. The previous pictures all kind of look like the same color scheme, but when you add some wetness or oil to it - POW! The character comes out! 
Here is a snapshot of the cherry and ambrosia maple unfinished.. BLAH!








And with one or two wipe downs of BLO…








I left an unfinished one piece of maple in there to show you the immediate difference. I can't wait to see the cherry with the maple after it darkens in age! The maple spalting (I guess you can call that a spalting of sorts) really shows up nicely when it has the oil on it.

And last but certainly not least.. a random project that my girlfriend is working on in-between my needing her help,
















Not bad at all so far! I barely even gave her any direction. I think she is starting to catch the wood bug! 

Well folks, thanks for reading this mess of ramblings of mine. I'd love to hear feedback, both good and bad please! I can't get any better if you all don't offer some advice or criticism right? Thanks!


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## oldskoolmodder (Apr 28, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Result of Monotony*
> 
> Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…
> 
> ...


Excellent job by you both!

When you want that arc that's elusive, try tacking a couple nails at certain points, then bend a piece of 1/8" Masonite, and bend to your arc. It's got to be thin, as 1/4" will break if the arc is too much.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Result of Monotony*
> 
> Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…
> 
> ...


I watched a video of that not too long ago. I don't know why I didn't just do that. Puzzling. Thanks!!


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Result of Monotony*
> 
> Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…
> 
> ...


Hi,

The project is coming out great. Looks like you have mastered the dowel jig. Some might advise that when you go to glue up "in sections", reclamp the entire assembly together even though only the sides of fronts are in action. That way you know it is square to the entire work piece. 
Keep up the good work and the blog posts.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Result of Monotony*
> 
> Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…
> 
> ...


Yeah, John, I think that is what I will do. Especially since I don't think my floor (or any other clamping space) is exactly level. Thanks for the tip!


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## kenn (Mar 19, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Result of Monotony*
> 
> Well folks, 160 dowel holes later, I'm ready to call it quits. I don't mind hard work, but repetition drives me crazy! Here is a snapshot of some of those dowel holes…
> 
> ...


I am enjoying this project. Keep up the good worker, and keep your shop assistant busy with making sawdust.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Glass racks*

Well folks, I think it was another productive day in the shop.

The objective today was to get all of the parts created, but not necesarrily 100% ready for glue up or finish sanding. Misson accomplished- sort of.

The first obstacle was to figure out how I wanted to join the wine glass holder rails. They are positioned horizontally (like a shelf) where all the rest of the rails to this point have been vertical (like a skirt table). I've been using a self-centering doweling jig for my joints but all the other joints connected at two points on the middle vertical line of the legs. I could still use the doweling jig normally but I could only use one dowel, and I didn't want to do that since there is the potential for the rack to slip around.
I thought about doing a shallow dado cut to receive the wine glass rail with a dowel reinforcement but I can't do that if I want all the rails to be the same width. 
I decided to go ahead with the doweling jig, using a shim to offset the holes, that way I can use two smaller dowels.

The shim on the left…








and then moved to the opposite side…








to result in…









Now, if the jig was able to open wider I would have made the holes further apart, but it didn't so this will have to do. These two will at least keep the rail from rocking like it could with just one dowel.

Now to the wine glass rails…
My sketch up drawing had rails with a flat face, but I thought it would add an element of depth to carry the ark theme over to the rails. So I cut the front ark and placed the holes to receive the wine glasses accordingly. This was actually rather challenging since I had no idea what size wine glasses might be put on this rack. I tried to do some reconnaissance work but didn't find out much. I figure that if the base of the wine glass is any bigger than 3.5-4" in diameter then it won't deserve to be put on the rack (perhaps this will also be a limit to the volume of what he can drink too  ).









After the math was figured out the best I could, I drilled the holes at 1"diameter. The slot to the hole was then cut to a little under 3/4" 








Note that I chose to load the glasses in from the front. I thought the back loading was a neat idea but I didn't like the fact that it could possibly be hard to access them since the rack will probably be pushed up against a wall.

Here's a shot of checking the dowel joints…








I really like the look the curve will give this…









So I guess i have a question to whoever might be reading this.
What do you think about chamfering the legs? Round over? or just beak the edge with some sandpaper?

Upcoming… lots of sanding, a couple glue ups, working on the table top inlay and fitting. Thanks folks!


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Glass racks*
> 
> Well folks, I think it was another productive day in the shop.
> 
> ...


I say 1/8" roundover or break edges. Just wait to do some of it till you can see where the shelves touch. I have gotten carried away with edge treatments and then find that they are at a joint intersect where it should have been clean straight lines.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Glass racks*
> 
> Well folks, I think it was another productive day in the shop.
> 
> ...


yes, I have considered that all of the top shelves touch. I couldn't figure out how to route the corners without much time consuming setup. I think I will go ahead and do some glue ups and just break the corners later. Thanks for the reassurance!


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Glue ups and some other stuff*

Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).

Before I glued up the rails to the legs I had to take care of some cosmetic details. I measured 1" from every outer bottom corner of the legs and up 3" in the opposing side. I drew a line to connect these marks on the edges and cut them out on the band saw for the foot detail. 








As you can see, the band saw left things pretty rough, but after a little bit of sanding, no problem. No matter how precise I try to be, there is always human error, none of these things line up exactly on the meeting edge, Luckily the sander took care of that right quick… sorry for the blur








So when they were all pretty much done, you can get an idea of what this will do to the overall piece…









At this point I felt confident enough to get to scraping, sanding and filling. Now, I don't know what everyone else does, but since I already scraped all the surfaces earlier, I just jumped right up to a 220 grit on my Random Obit sander. I know that is probably not the right thing to do but, honestly, the surface felt great. I guess the scraper really just prepped it for me that much!

Now, I can't stress to you how important it is to dry fit everything before you go to your glue ups. I say that with emphasis because I didn't on my first step. I thought "ah, it's all good enough" and had to pay for it with unneeded stress in the glue up. A couple of my dowel pins were a hair too long so that it wouldn't pull in tight. I had to pull the rail out and saw the tip of the dowel off. Now I got glue on my saw, a waste of time in a glue up and just the pain of it not being exactly right. 
I glued one side and then put the dowels in to glue the opposing side. And, of course, since I didn't dry fit each peg, some of them were too difficult to line up in a short amount of time. So, some of the rails (just one or two) have only one dowel on the left side. I could line one up, but not both. It is okay thought because it is still going to be strong enough for it's use and will be parallel to the legs since the other side has all the dowels in it (luckily). So I finally got this bad boy clamped…








After a brunch break I glued up the rails to the back right leg. I only dry fit the left side in at this time because it was too many dowels to handle at once. I dry fit all the dowels before hand and did not have as many problems. 








Notice that I ran out of long enough clamps? I had to improvise with those black and yellow clamps. I thought it was funny.

When that glue up was finished I cleaned up any glue spots left over on the front assembly (legs and rails). Once everything was hunky dory I taped up the dowel holes that will receive the side rails.








I did this so none of my finish will get into the holes and prevent the glue from bonding with the opposing surface. I wiped on a liberal amount of Boiled Linseed oil all over the front assembly. I figured I might as well do this while I have full and easy access to both sides. Look at the difference between the oiled and un-oiled rails…








and then, after a few minutes I came back with a dry rag to wipe up any excess and half buff the finish.








oooh shiny!

Now it is about enough time to remove my clamps from the glue up. This time I set the clamps on my bench and set the assembly on top of it, I thought it would be easier this way, it was. 









While that glue up was drying I decided to work on some problem areas for the table top. The top has some hairline cracks on the bottom of one edge. I wanted to nip that in the bud so I used my brand spanking new Dremel router kit to do a butterfly inlay. That thing actually worked out great! 








You can see that the butterfly is still sitting proud of the surface, I have to plane it down once the glue cures. If anyone needs to see how that is done, just let me know and I will explain it later. Pretty easy.

Well folks, that's all I got done today. After all that I had to get going to work. To come is probably some more glue ups, more BLO finish and perhaps getting the table top ready. Eventually I want to get to the veneer inlay! Soon enough…


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *Glue ups and some other stuff*
> 
> Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).
> 
> ...


Looks like good progress. Keep up the posts.


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## willmego (Mar 27, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Glue ups and some other stuff*
> 
> Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).
> 
> ...


Man, I haven't been following this project much, not really into wine much less racks for it…but when I saw the wood after the BLO, I did a double-take! I had to look back and see what wood that was. I love that wormy maple, it almost looks like olivewood, but of course, it's probably got the strength of maple for the most part. And $1.75 a BF? Wow. Nice job, that wood with the BLO is just a stunner!


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Glue ups and some other stuff*
> 
> Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).
> 
> ...


so do the butterflies pull the cracks back together, or jsut prevent further splitting? If the crack remains, does it need to get filled or is is just left as is? I've seen this on rustic benches, but not on this style of furniture and I'm intrigued. I could probably use this for some of my projects.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Glue ups and some other stuff*
> 
> Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).
> 
> ...


well, HokieMojo, if the crack is exceedingly wide, then it can pull it in. My purposes were mostly preventative. I clamped the board so that the crack pulls in tight when I copied the butterfly down. If you want to know how to do it, just let me know and I'll document the steps when I make the next ones. I love the look of them in contrasting woods, but not for this piece. The crack was on the bottom so I didn't bother mixing it up too much.


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Glue ups and some other stuff*
> 
> Well Folks, it's been a super-productive day for me (as productive as a full time student with a part time job, a ministry, a woodworking hobby and a girlfriend can be  ).
> 
> ...


thanks for the reply. it is pretty cool. clamping the crack down in size makes perfect sense. I should have thought of that. I'll be reading along as you wrap up!


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*The end in sight... yet...*

Well Folks, I did what I could today. It was a long day of work and hospital visits so shop time was certainly limited to a few hours late into the night.

I left a bit of a glue mess on my back assembly last night so I paid the price for it today.








Now, that picture was just to show the assembly without clamps, but this one should be better…








and some more….








I had a few pictures of my lady checking my sanding job but they all were too blurry. She walked around it and made sure I didn't miss any pencil marks or glue spots. I went ahead and finished the back assembly with the BLO.

Now, I had a big internal debate about when to do the last glue up and when to finish. I hate finishing beyond the first coat, so I wanted to make it as easy on myself as possible. I decided to go ahead and glue up the front to back rails on the back side for a couple of reasons. 1. It is easier for me to finish inside and out when I'm not reaching in between rails. 2. If the side rails are attatched to the legs, I don't have to worry about finding room to suspend them. 3. I wanted to see what it looked like together and finished.
So I glued up the legs to the back…








This time I made for darn sure that all the pegs fit great and the grain was matched up properly.
Just a note, if you have clamps that will mar the surface of your work, some leather patches work well. Make sure the smooth side is against the work or else you might have little rough spots in your finish. I've also used these leather pieces to spread the glue, it works great and peels right off later.








Once I finished glue up, I decided to take care of a little problem that everyone always has- glue seepage in corners.








and the solution… a water soaked rag wrapped around a flat head screwdriver.
















Now that the back was glued up to the side rails and the rails were finished with BLO, it is time to pretend that the project is finished!!!









I like my selection of wood for the table top back splash and the top decor. I tried to bring just a hint of sapwood into it since the table top has a hint of it too.

Now, not everything is glued up, there needs to be a couple of coats of poly on top of this yet and the table is nowhere near ready with all the inlays to do on it.
But if it were done….









We didn't have any wine in the house. I could only find 3 glasses too.








sparkling cider does the trick though!








I love the grain on this rail!

So, before I had to crash (and do this blog) I wanted to plane and chisel the butterfly (Dutchman, bow tie..). 









I think it looks pretty good! Any gaps are small enough to fill in with sawdust and glue.

I pulled the full assembly into the furnished side of the basement so it can dry in an area a little warmer than the unfinished side.

Next up, lots of poly (or whatever else people convince me to use), lots of work on the table top and inlay. And one more glue up (after the finish). Thanks folks, bye bye for now!


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *The end in sight... yet...*
> 
> Well Folks, I did what I could today. It was a long day of work and hospital visits so shop time was certainly limited to a few hours late into the night.
> 
> ...


This is the time that I always feel the adrenaline rush starting. Once you get into the finishing act, especially on a fairly involved project like this, the end does come into sight. The wine rack looks good and you are right about the wood selection. The ambrosia maple that you chose to use adds a lot of character and visual interest. It is going to be interesting to see the top with its inlays added to the piece.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *The end in sight... yet...*
> 
> Well Folks, I did what I could today. It was a long day of work and hospital visits so shop time was certainly limited to a few hours late into the night.
> 
> ...


Thanks Scott! I am truthfully a little nervous about the inlay, I've never done one before. I was thinking about arranging it onto a thin piece of ply then inlaying the ply with the veneer. I figure that this would give me some rigidity when I put the inlay in. It would almost be like a piece of marquetry that was inlaid.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Demowen said:


> *The end in sight... yet...*
> 
> Well Folks, I did what I could today. It was a long day of work and hospital visits so shop time was certainly limited to a few hours late into the night.
> 
> ...


I have never done an inlay either but there is only one way to learn- just do it. I really like the visual interest that inlays add to a piece. I plan to tackle them on some of my upcoming projects.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *The end in sight... yet...*
> 
> Well Folks, I did what I could today. It was a long day of work and hospital visits so shop time was certainly limited to a few hours late into the night.
> 
> ...


I went and bought the router attatchment for my dremel tool. I think this will help with the small things. I did the butterfly inlay with it. I shouldn't say I've never done inlays before, I just have never tried to make an image or even put several together. I've also never used veneer for it either.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Finishing Process Begun.....*

Howdy Folks, It's been a little while since I posted the last blog on the wine rack and it will probably be longer yet till I get the next one out. Here are a few quick pics and such on the finishing process I'm experimenting with…
First I taped off the parts that will be a future glue joint. I don't want the finish the obstruct the glue's ability to bond the two surfaces together. 


Then I put on a coat of some good ol' BLO..


After a day or so (or untill totally dry) I mixed up some….

with…

in a glass Jar.

I used about a 50/50 mix but I after the first coat or two I thought it was a little thin so I added some more poly to thicken up the mixture. Also, in the future, I think I would put the mineral spirits in the jar first because the poly is thicker and will take less time to mix if the thinner material is on the bottom. This really is working out great so far. I can just wipe it on with a clean rag and barely have to sand it at all between coats. I'd always rather wipe on a finish than brush it on, but thats me. I hate painting and brushing. Wiping feels a little more personal to me. I think it can also be a little therapudic to wipe on, but maybe thats just the fumes . This deal with this is to do as many coats as you can stand! I've done three so far.

So after this all dried (I have many more coats to go) I moved it into another room because I have to help the lady with a big school project, -to synthesize two archetectural styles into one. I helped her chose both Classical Greek and Asian archetcture into a jewelry chest. This was quite a challenge to draw up!

Here's what I started out with…


I only drew one half because I stink at making the two sides match in sketches. I've sinced changed my plans a little to be more feasible to complete by the 23rd (OH BOY!) What do you guys think? Succesfull synthesis? I'd love to get some opinions on this one!


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Finishing Process Begun.....*
> 
> Howdy Folks, It's been a little while since I posted the last blog on the wine rack and it will probably be longer yet till I get the next one out. Here are a few quick pics and such on the finishing process I'm experimenting with…
> First I taped off the parts that will be a future glue joint. I don't want the finish the obstruct the glue's ability to bond the two surfaces together.
> ...


Looks good!

Sometimes, trying to keep to a schedule can take all of the fun out of a project.

Lew


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Finishing Process Begun.....*
> 
> Howdy Folks, It's been a little while since I posted the last blog on the wine rack and it will probably be longer yet till I get the next one out. Here are a few quick pics and such on the finishing process I'm experimenting with…
> First I taped off the parts that will be a future glue joint. I don't want the finish the obstruct the glue's ability to bond the two surfaces together.
> ...


Amen to that Lew! I can't stand schedules sometimes. It sure doesn't help getting my schoolwork done when I feel that project deadline breathing down my neck. It becomes way too easy to say "Oh, well, I HAVE to go to the shop .


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

*Inlay, wood burning and the finish line.... YAY *

Well folks, it has been quite a while since I've been able to get on here and talk about the project. If you haven't read any of the previous blogs, this is a wine rack that I built for my brother's wedding. If you want the basic construction, see the prior posts. From here on is the little decoration details…

I hope I don't have too many pictures . I think I'll let the pictures do some of the talking for me but I want to capture the whole process.

At the very beginning of the project I intended to do an inlay of a grapevine. I bought a pack of 50 veneer samples for about 25 bucks. I practiced on a few domestic species and got mad at it. I decided then to do a wood burning with a small solid inlay instead of veneer.

Start out with a design in mind. My girlfriend was kind enough to draw this for me. Quite talented if you ask me! (points scored  ) I copied her picture so that I didn't mess it up, then printed it out to the final size. 









At this point, it is time to get comfortable…. Grab all the essentials for the job. fine point pencil, the picture, a sharp razor blade, a little tape and a nice tall glass of Sweet tea (southern style or bust! another one of my girlfriend's talents) 









I like to tape the picture directly to the piece of wood. Piece by piece I cut out a little bit on the line and trace that edge with a pencil. If you have a bigger burning it would be a good idea to borrow a slide projector and a clear piece of paper to project onto the wood and just trace the lines that way. 









You can see that is is just a little bit of patience and a lot of relaxation!









Notice that I am cutting the line out on its edge. That way, when I trace the void, the pencil mark will be exactly where it is supposed to be and not bumped off to the side. 









When you cut, its a good idea to put a finger close to where you are cutting in order to hold the paper down. If you don't you will encounter some paper ripping instead of slicing. Just be careful to place your finger in a location that is safely away from the blades edge. 
Also, cut towards the edge with your blade. if you don't then the paper tends to buckle before it cuts. Here is what happens if you don't do that. Not a big deal if you can figure what the line is, but too bad and you might have some trouble.









Trace the line. Self explanatory.









Now, I'm not gonna tell you how to wood burn. I was never taught how and I think I liked learning by trial and error. Just get some scrap wood and practice a small design. Once you get better you can start adding curves and shading. Just don't touch the hot end!!!!!!

Now that I burned the lines of the grapes (with her help) it is time to start adding some shading. I think we could have ended here but I wanted more detail.









She looked at the original design and colored in the shading with a pencil. When you copy a picture it is difficult to get the shading to copy correctly. The design may have changed slightly too so it was a good idea just to transfer the shading by eye.

Isn't she beautiful??!









And very carefully executing the shading…









Just in the middle of shading so it looks a little rough. It's good to just do a little at a time and then go back over the whole thing because if you shade too much in one area you don't want to have to do it over the whole area. 









BURNING DONE….. INLAY START…..

I was by myself when I did this so there won't be quite as many pictures as there was for the wood burning. Sorry.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this picture is. I am obviously pointing at the area I've cut out but I think I was just showing off my cut. Not even sure how I did that.









Brittany drew a flower to go with the grape vine (not really a grape flower.. shhh don't tell!). I taped it to a piece of yellow heart that was about 3/8" thick. I cut it out the pedals individually on the scroll saw so that the pedals had the grain moving away from the center of the flower. 
Once I did that, I held each pedal down in its final location and traced it. You can trace it with a knife, but I had a hard time holding the pedal and tracing it with a knife so I just used a pencil. Once you have the lines drawn, just slightly scrape the wood with a sharp knife. Make sure that you are on the inside of the pencil marks! 
I have a dremel tool with a router base that I hogged the material out with so it is a good idea sever the top fibers of the wood. When you get close to the sliced line you will see the wood fray upward in a type of curly motion. When you get right to the line that fray will immediately disappear. (Marc Spagnuolo has a great blog on this with a sun inlay.)
In areas that were too tight for my dremel I used the smallest chisel I could (which happened to be a #2 3mm Phiel spoon gouge.)









If everything is just a tad too small you are in business. Just sand the inlay piece to a very slight taper or touch the cut out part with a little TLC. Or do what I did, see if it's close, put a drop of glue in the bottom and hammer it home with a wooden or rubber mallet! You might notice that there is a very thin gap between some of the pedals. That's okay. Wait till you plane and scrape it flush to deal with that. If it is much bigger you may want to consider gluing a shaving from a hand plane into the gap. When I planed this flush the gap disappeared somehow.









I finished the inlay with a 1/4" drill bit and a 1/4" dowel for the center. Then I put a couple of coats of Spar Varnish down. Why spar varnish? I don't know, I have a lot of it that I got cheap. I'd do something else if I did it again. Just make sure that if you will ever have alcohol near your furniture (I don't recommend drinking) then make sure that you don't use an alcohol based finish on like shellac. 









Now I guess that it is time to just show some beauty shots…


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Inlay, wood burning and the finish line.... YAY *
> 
> Well folks, it has been quite a while since I've been able to get on here and talk about the project. If you haven't read any of the previous blogs, this is a wine rack that I built for my brother's wedding. If you want the basic construction, see the prior posts. From here on is the little decoration details…
> 
> ...


Great Instructions and a beautiful piece. Your brother is very lucky!

Edit: After reading this, I realized I missed the entire work up to this point. Sorry for not responding. This is an awesome piece of furniture that anyone would be proud to have in their home. You did a super job. You and Brittany should be very proud!

Lew


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

Demowen said:


> *Inlay, wood burning and the finish line.... YAY *
> 
> Well folks, it has been quite a while since I've been able to get on here and talk about the project. If you haven't read any of the previous blogs, this is a wine rack that I built for my brother's wedding. If you want the basic construction, see the prior posts. From here on is the little decoration details…
> 
> ...


very nice , clean wine rack .
i like your style of learning by doing !
thanks for the tutorial ,
you both did a good job .


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## oldskoolmodder (Apr 28, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Inlay, wood burning and the finish line.... YAY *
> 
> Well folks, it has been quite a while since I've been able to get on here and talk about the project. If you haven't read any of the previous blogs, this is a wine rack that I built for my brother's wedding. If you want the basic construction, see the prior posts. From here on is the little decoration details…
> 
> ...


Love the way this came out! Great work by you and your "better" half.


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## drumpriest (Jan 23, 2008)

Demowen said:


> *Inlay, wood burning and the finish line.... YAY *
> 
> Well folks, it has been quite a while since I've been able to get on here and talk about the project. If you haven't read any of the previous blogs, this is a wine rack that I built for my brother's wedding. If you want the basic construction, see the prior posts. From here on is the little decoration details…
> 
> ...


You should be proud, that's a very nice piece, one that will stand the test of time in both durability and style.


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