The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

A friend of mine asked me to design and build a wall-mount hanging rack for a special quilt.  He asked that the rack be made of oak. I used Google Sketchup to design the rack.

Oak Finials

I decided to add oak finial's on each end of the 3/4" oak rod. The closest thing I could find was at Rockler........

I bought 2 of these. I sanded off the male dowel on the end. Then I drilled a 1/4" hole in the finial to accept a 1/4" diameter dowel.

 


I used a level to make sure the finial was vertical in both directions before drilling. I glued one finial to one end of the rod permanently. On the other end, I made it a slip fit, so the finial can be removed for installing the quilt.



Paper Patterns

In sketchup, you can print out full scale patterns of the pieces.  If the piece is bigger than 8.5x11 inches, you must tape/glue them together. Here are the paper patterns for this project:



I glue on the patterns using white Elmer's glue. After sawing, I wash off the remaining paper and white glue using a wet dishrag.

I sawed the 2 ends and the long curved center piece on the scroll saw. Then I used the drill press and drum sander to sand them exactly to the line on the paper pattern. This turns out to be much more accurate than you might think!

Assembly

I chose to use Kreg pocket screws to attach the 2 end pieces. Since I am going into the end grain of the main curved center piece, the Kreg screws do a really good job of drawing up the joint, and keeping it secure over time.  A while back I bought a couple of Kreg special clamps, one of which is shown in the photo below. You really need to clamp the joint securely before you screw it.



 I wipe off the yellow glue using a wet dish rag. I also use wood toothpicks to clean along any joints.

Here is the rack sanded to 220 grit and ready to stain:



Stain
I chose to use Golden Oak stain on this project.

Grain Filler
Because of success on past projects, I used Behlen's grain filler on this project. The first step is to mix up the grain filler. I used a paint stirrer on the drill press at the lowest speed possible. I used a bar clamp to help me hold the can from turning. I need to come up with a better way to hold the can from spinning in the drill press.

I stained the piece first. Then I applied the Behlen's using my finger. After 10 minutes, I wipe off the excess, in the direction across the grain, using burlap cloth from McMaster-Carr.  After it dries, I sanded to 220 grit, then re-stained it.

Key-Hole Bit

I bought a new key-hole bit, to make the keyhole to hang this rack on the wall.

The Finished Quilt Rack

1" Grid Patterns

I made two patterns for people that don't use Sketchup and want to make a quilt rack like this one.

Concluding Thoughts

The addition of the 2 finials really dressed up this project, and were worth the cost. The project turned out very nicely!

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