I received an unexpected magazine, The Family Handyman. I know someone else who received a copy, we both subscribe to Fine Woodworking, and we've concluded Reader's Digest purchased the list of FW subscribers. If it's a Christmas gift that arrived early (like last year's Audiophile magazine), then a big "Thank you!" to the sender.
There is a one-page mini-project in the current issue that interested me. I've been thinking we needed a shoe rack near the door, and Nicole agreed with me. This seemed really easy to build (about my level of skill). Then I realized that I had all the materials lying around, already. OK -- I did rip the lumber down from wider pieces of 1x, and the dowels are ¾" rather than the five-eigths specified (who'll notice the extra width?). But I claim that the only thing I lacked was a ¾" spade-bit.
It's really simple. 6 counter-sunk screws & some glue. The most difficult aspect was figuring the mitre cuts to make the angled brackets. The magazine didn't specify an angle, so I assumed 45º. This is construction-grade lumber, so it ain't the prettiest thing in the room. On the other hand, there's no point in building it from select-grade stuff. It's going to hold gritty, dirty, wet shoes. It'd be beat-up in 20 minutes, regardless.
Here's the back-side, showing the screws:
Now I need to stain some test-blocks with the stains I have on-hand (I'm not going to spend money on this thing now, it's become a point of pride!) to determine which best fits the trim in the room where it's going. And mount it to the wall, of course.
There is a one-page mini-project in the current issue that interested me. I've been thinking we needed a shoe rack near the door, and Nicole agreed with me. This seemed really easy to build (about my level of skill). Then I realized that I had all the materials lying around, already. OK -- I did rip the lumber down from wider pieces of 1x, and the dowels are ¾" rather than the five-eigths specified (who'll notice the extra width?). But I claim that the only thing I lacked was a ¾" spade-bit.
Here's the result:
It's really simple. 6 counter-sunk screws & some glue. The most difficult aspect was figuring the mitre cuts to make the angled brackets. The magazine didn't specify an angle, so I assumed 45º. This is construction-grade lumber, so it ain't the prettiest thing in the room. On the other hand, there's no point in building it from select-grade stuff. It's going to hold gritty, dirty, wet shoes. It'd be beat-up in 20 minutes, regardless.
Here's the back-side, showing the screws:
Now I need to stain some test-blocks with the stains I have on-hand (I'm not going to spend money on this thing now, it's become a point of pride!) to determine which best fits the trim in the room where it's going. And mount it to the wall, of course.
I have to say, I'm unusually satisfied with this one. I don't know why. The dog ramp I designed an constructed from scratch. That was much more complicated and difficult. I suppose it's the speed of execution. I saw it, went into the shop, and built it.
