Several riders from our barn will be competing at the Devon Horse Show this coming weekend and the Barn Owner asked me to make some portable bridle racks that can hang over the edge of the rental stalls. I agreed quickly as I knew it would be a relatively quick and easy project and one that would also be interesting. Further...it's both "flat" and "spinney". (I haven't been on the lathe in a very long time due to a great many other distractions...)
The first step was to create the half-round pieces that the leather goods would actually hang on. These are better than plain hooks because they don't allow any kinks in the strap-goods as they hang down with the pull of gravity.Well, how to do that? Simple turn them. But wait...he said, "half-round" and turning gives you "whole round". Yup. The solution? Take two boards and glue them together with paper between them to make your turning blank. Some screws at both ends to insure the blank doesn't come apart on the lathe are a good idea, too. Mount it up between centers and turn to the desired profile. As you can see, said profile is a radius of about 3" with a raised outer rim to retain the leather.
bridle-rack-1.jpg
Once that deed is done and as much sanding as possible is completed the round surfaces, the screws are removed and the construction is split apart at the bench.
bridle-rack-2.jpg
Since there is now have a flat surface, the individual pieces can be cut apart at the bandsaw.
bridle-rack-3.jpg
A rare moment for me...using the combo sander...but it was the perfect tool to smooth the "show" faces of the pieces as well as clean off the remains of paper and glue from the surface that would be fastened to the "flatwork" part of the project.
bridle-rack-4.jpg
After a little hand-sanding to clean up things as well as soften the edges, a total of 10 "hanger" pieces are ready to go.
bridle-rack-5.jpg
A backing piece was made 4.5" x 36" and milled on the edges with a quarter round and a little step...similar to what you might use for a plaque. Five "hanger" pieces were then assembled to the backing with glue and a couple of deep threaded screws from behind. The screws are absolutely necessary due to the end-grain glue surface on the back of the turned pieces.
bridle-rack-6.jpg
The final work for that day was to apply some water soluble dye to the wood surfaces. Looks like caa-caa at that point, but that's the nature of using dye. Trust me...it gets better.You'll also notice the hanging brackets on the bench that were made from aluminum stock. Easy to work with, "flexible in the field" and certainly strong enough for this application.
bridle-rack-7.jpg
The next day, after some time at the barn riding, I set up and sprayed on a few coats of EM6000 gloss. I think these will do the job quite nicely. (And I am "fan fee free" for the summer on both of our stalls for a few hours of enjoyable work in the shop)
bridle-rack-final.jpg
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Andrew Schlosser
