Redwood I can’t get too easily, so I made this from cedar. All the wood was surface planed to uniform thickness, generating an entire trashcan full of sawdust. (I saved it.)
This design fits in a corner, is light enough for one person to carry, and fits the smaller bottles. A lot of little parts, but a fun project.
I have a number of smaller “splits”. The original design did not allow for splits, because the horizontal rails were too far apart. With a little measuring and a little more wood, the rails were close enough. Norm had three supports, since his design was two sided. I went with one support. The only measurement I had at all was the height of the vertical supports and a tape of the show.
On a project like this, the two items that are most critical are 1) how to do a lot of things at the same time, and 2) absolute uniformity of wood.
The compound miter saw was used to trim all the pieces, sometimes five at a time, and make the angles on the front of the rails. The radial arm saw was used for cutting the rabbits for the rails. Four rails were done at one time, and there was a board used to absolutely align the rails. I advise using a new fence on the radial arm saw, which allows you to space the dado cuts very accurately, and since this is the only thing that it is used for, you know exactly where the cut will be.
I bought a brad nailer for this and other projects, so all the joints are glued and brad nailed. It’s a wonderful time saver, since you can keep working as the glue dries, if you’re careful.
The rack is mostly empty air, so it is quite light, and cedar is a light wood.
I had great fun trying to pick the best pieces of cedar at the local home store (sorry, no free adverts!). The quality of wood ranged from excellent to miserable, and all at the same price.
The cedar was rough hewn on one side, since it was intended for some sort of siding. I surface planed the 3/4 or so inch wood once on the smooth side, and then down enough to get a uniform thickness of 5/8 of an inch. This simplified the dado work considerably.
What is not obvious, and I suppose ought to be mentioned, is that I used the surface planer to plane all the long sides of all the boards. Not only did it guarantee uniformity, but that is the only finish that I used. Other than a little edge rounding, the wood is as it came from the planer. Considering that there’s over two hundred pieces of wood in this, some sort of shortcut was indicated.
The cedar is not finished in any way, and there is no surface coating such as polyurethane. This was a deliberate choice, which allows the odor of cedar to grace the room that it is in.