How to Make a Wine Rack

Projects, Woodworking Crafts

Anthony Bailey puts his router to good use with this design for an unusual storage
rack for wine bottles

Modern wooden wine rack holding eight bottles.

Although I was never very good with physics at school, I did understand the principle of levers, loads and fulcrums – and this simple but rather wacky wine rack design shows I did learn something! It’s not an original concept, but rather fun. This is a prototype and there was a bit of experimentation involved. Although the plans give a specific design, you could choose whatever shape you prefer – the basic principle remains the same.

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Choosing and preparing the wood

Person using electric belt sander on wood surface. — 1. Just two boards are required: a thick piece of soft- or hardwood for the base and an offcut of ply. I suggest birch ply as it is nice and easy to work with. This wine rack will look better with a contrast of timbers. The baseboard needs to be flatted with a belt sander, particularly if you had to butt glue it from several sections as I did. I worked cross-grain in the hope I could eradicate the scratches with an orbital sander

Making the baseboard

Marking wood with pencil and ruler for measuring. — 2. The slot for the board holding the bottles needs to be about 60mm from one end grain edge – far enough to prevent the applied weight causing breakout. This slot should be on the ‘long grain’ for the same reason

Person using electric wood router on timber. — 3. A straight slot wider than the angled board is made in a number of passes with the router to depth. Really good control is needed to avoid the router wandering off course. It should go slightly deeper than half the baseboard thickness

Wood joint with sawdust on table — 4. A test fit shows whether the angle is roughly correct. However, the board won’t fit snugly and it will need to angle a bit more. Improving the fit will make it look better and be more secure

Black loc blocks arranged in a square shape. — 5. I fitted together a group of work supports to rest the baseboard on for the next operation, as I needed to use a large router anda fence that would not drag on the bench top

Router cutting groove in wooden board. — 6. Here I am using a large dovetail cutter to angle the slot on the side closest to the baseboard edge

Close-up of woodwork join, showing groove detail. — 7. The finished slot. The added angle will allow the board to sit more neatly. The breakout at the front edge doesn’t matter as it will be machined away

Carpenter using hand plane on wooden plank. — 8. The bottom edge of the angled board needs to be bevelled so it sits flat on the bottom of the baseboard slot. I used a 4½in smoothing plane

Wooden joint clamped on workbench for crafting project. — 9. The fit is better. As the weight of the bottles will hold the rack together, I decided not to fill the gap behind the angled board. You can see how much force eight or so wine bottles could
confer on this rather vital ‘junction’ – rather than ‘joint’

Wood being cut on a table saw. — 10. A large V-point cutter on a ½in shank is used to create a wide bevel on the top edges of the baseboard. I wanted an impressive ‘tablet’ effect. Make a number of passes to final depth. This operation will remove the tear-out

Person sanding wooden surface with electric sander. — 11. This is a good point at which to sand and finish the base before working on the angled board. Any suitable clear finish will do. At least one coat is needed so it is protected from marking; more coats can be applied later

Making the angled board

Wooden board with pencil markings, workshop background. — 12. My inspiration for the shape, without wishing to sound pretentious, came from Salvador Dalí and the cartoon styles of the 1950s – a sort of asymmetric wacky shape that doesn’t relate to anything and defies straight-and-square. I designed it with some simple pencil strokes

Wood being cut with a bandsaw machine. — 13. Even at the bandsaw stage I didn’t slavishly follow my drawn lines because I wanted quickly formed even curves that wouldn’t need a lot of cleaning up afterwards. I moved the board as quickly as I could without stalling the bandsaw

Hand drawing spirals on wooden board in workshop. — 14. I drew some bottle apertures on the board for an idea of how many bottles and what positions were required. In the end I drilled wherever it seemed right and rather ignored my own sketching out

Wood router and drilled wooden board on table. — 15. Before going any further I did some experiments to see how well a bottle neck would sit in a hole. A 35mm diameter Forstner bit used freehand in a cordless drill produced the perfect hole size for standard wine bottles. I then tried a routed roundover to help the neck fit in better, but it didn’t work as it wouldn’t hold the bottle so well

Forstner bit drilling clean hole in wood — 16. Although I drilled onto a sacrificial board, the ply face tended to break out around the holes. To overcome this I spray-mounted standard A4 paper on the underside before drilling, rubbing it down firmly. This seems to hold the wood fibres together as the bit breaks through

Woodworker using router for precise hole cutting. — 17. I decided to use a tiny bevel on both faces around edge-of-the-bottle apertures to tidy up the edges. At this point the board needs to be sanded to a finish including ‘breaking the arrises’ but don’t sand the actual edges, as the fine-tooth bandsawn finish is adequate

Applying veneer with glue on wood surface. — 18. I experimented with bottles and decided that the angled board sat better when it rested against the back of the slot, as the centre of balance then moved slightly also. I cut a very slim walnut wedge on the tablesaw, tapped it into the slit with some glue and left it ‘proud’ for effect

Finishing

Applying wood glue with cloth and gloves — 19. Once the rack is assembled, it is time for a final coat of finish. I used my favourite wax oil which gives a golden appearance. Don’t forget to lay out used pads or rags to dry away from everything and thus avoid any fire risk

Wooden sculpture with curved holes on base. — 20. Now you can display your wine bottles in an interesting way, rather than hiding them away in a cupboard to gather dust!

Further reading

Welsh Lovespoons

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