I wanted a nice finish on them so I used some Polyurethane clear
semi-gloss made by Zar. I've used this for a few other projects and it
works great. To apply it I used some cheap brushes and give each one
two coats. This is an oil base product so I end up using two brushes,
one for each coat and throw them away after each one.
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I had one end up with what looks like a finger print. Now
I wonder who that was from? I sanded the finish off in this area and
reapplied more in this area only. It came out fine and you can't see where
it was after two more coats.
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I cut the heads off some finishing nails and hammered them into some
scrap wood (arrows). Once I had the bottom surface coated with the
Polyurethane, I placed the rack over the nails and into the screw holes to hold it while I
did the other five sides. You might say I made a rack to hold my
rack....barrel rack that is!
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I let the clear finish dry for a few days and then needed to clean out
the magnet pockets. The clear finish had a little build-up in each one
but with the aid of the end mill that I used to make the pockets with, I
cleaned out each one by hand which worked great.
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After a few twists of the 1/2" cutter the pockets were cleaned and ready
for the magnets again. I bought these from
K & J Magnetics which has
a huge selection of magnets. And not just any magnets either, they are
incredibly strong neodymium rare earth magnets in all shapes and sizes.
I bought a few extra just in case I broke one which I'm glad I did
because sure enough that's what happened.
I bought ten and when you receive them they are all stuck
together in a row. That's not a problem but when I was taking two of
them loose from the others I ended up getting three. But when I was
placing the one back it got away from me and smacked the others causing
it to break into a few pieces. Note to self: don't let it fly out of
your hand while placing two or more together.
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Here are the finished barrel racks. You can see at the top left the one
made out of maple that is slightly smaller than the others. But it
really doesn't matter because they all do the same thing, steady a rifle
barrel so the gun doesn't fall over.
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Black walnut sure is pretty!
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Here is the one made out of oak.
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Maple and black walnut with the maple having some very
cool looking wood. BTW, I gave these two away: the black walnut went to
my son Tony, and the maple to a good friend.
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A view from each side.
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And here are two of them in use on the side of my safe. These barrel
racks make it easy to safely place a firearm out of the way so they
don't fall over. And it sure beats laying them on the floor like I have
before. They work great!
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