Friday, September 17, 2021

Coat Rack, Part 3: Finishing Up

Last time, I had cut the required dadoes, shaped the sides and dividers and glued a front "lip" to the shelf.  Here's a dry assembly of the rack.  The top will be glued to the upper edge of the back.

Dry assembly

As a reminder, the two dividers are housed in through dadoes in the shelf, and I added a screw to each from below.  The fronts of those dadoes are covered by the front "lip".  The shelf fits into stopped dadoes in the sides.  And the back fits into rabbets in the back edge of the sides.  The back is screwed to the rear edge of the shelf, as well as to the rear edge of the dividers.  The dadoes joining sides to shelf were later glued, and to give more assurance that they don't come apart I drove a few nails at an angle through the back and into the sides.  I pre-drilled first because the nails were close to the back's end.  Normally, I like to minimize metal fasteners, but this time I decided to use them.

Adding a few coats of shellac before glue-up

Rarely do I add  finish to a project before gluing it together.  But this time it seemed like it would be easier if I did.  I avoided any areas that would get glued and gave 3-4 coats of shellac, sanding lightly between coats.  after glue-up, I added a coat of paste wax.

Take a look at the grain on the piece that is glued to the upper edge of the back.  Holy schlamoly, what figure!  It really popped with the shellac added.  When you walk past it, the dark areas turn light and the light areas turn dark.  When planing it, I needed freshly sharpened irons with a very light set to avoid tear-out.

Another part (underside of shelf and front lip) showing spectacular figure

The glue-up was uneventful - only four dadoes needed to get glue.  Mounting it on the wall was fairly easy, too.  I drilled holes centered laterally in the first and third upper spaces, about 3/4" up from the shelf.  Then with the rack held level up to the wall, I used those holes to mark the wall for drywall anchors.  A washer and screw through each hole hold the unit to the wall.

And here it is, mounted on the wall and looking messy.  The extra hooks that I'll mount on either side of the current five hooks should arrive this week.

The piece in situ

Frontal view

Now it's on to something else, but I don't yet know what that will be.  Catch y'all  down the road.

2 comments:

  1. I made one with enclosed cubby holes but I like the easy access of your open ones. I'll copy this on the next one I'm asked to make.

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    1. I guess the only downside to my design is the lack of another horizontal shelf above the cubbies. But we know what happens to horizontal surfaces ...

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