Design Advise

[Tom Schmidt]

I'd like some design help from those of you who are more experienced at this than me. I've designed a wine rack, and I think it works pretty well on paper. You can see what the dimensions are from the picture, and it'll be about 10 or 11 inches deep. The wine storage section consists of 1 x 1 x 10 pieces interconnected by 1/2 dowels drilled through. Although it doesn't show in the picture, the bottom will have a curved cutout feature with legs at the corners, if that makes sense. Are there any things I failed to consider? Are the dimensions OK? I checked them to make sure everything works, but did I forget anything? This is based on a design I saw in, of all places, an Ace Hardware store in Solvang, California. Thanks so much for any insights you can offer.

P.S. The colors in the picture are just for clarity, not what it'll actually look like.

[Matt Day]

Tom,

Just an FYI, but there is a forum dedicated to Design, aptly named Design Forum.

[Tom Schmidt]

It didn't even occur to me. That's not a forum I usually look at, so I never thought about it. Can I move this post over to that forum?

[Jamie Buxton]

How does that grid go together? Are the dowels long -- like 24" -- and penetrate through the 1x1x10? Or are they short -- like 4" -- and socket into the 1x1x10 without passing through? I ask because when you're assembling something like that, holding the spacings accurately is a big deal. Mistakes are obvious when you stand back and look at the pattern.


If the dowels are long, what fastens them at each 1x -- a nail?

[Tom Schmidt]

My original intent was to use "through dowels", as it were. But the more I think about it, assembling that would be a major hassle. I'll probably use "stopped dowels, 4-5 inches each. I'll try the through ones first, and if it's easy I'll do that, because that would give the whole structure more strength than the stopped dowels.

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's what I think. If you go through-dowels, you'll have difficulty getting the spacing consistent. If you go socketed dowels, there's a million parts to make and assemble.

How 'bout making two diagonal grids with 1x1 material, with half-lap joinery as they cross each other. You need two grids -- one near the front of the bottles, and one near the back. There are three good things about making the grids this way. First, there aren't a lot of parts. Second, the joinery is pretty easy. Third, the spacing in the grid is going to be nice and regular.