Wine Bottle Rack 1            10-2016

 

This current project came about while working on my sons hat rack using some deer antlers. After working with the antlers for a few days, it gave me other ideas of what I could do with them. What I'll be making this time are some 'wine racks'. 

I planned on making only two of these but once the word got out, I'll be making four now. The original two are going to be birthday gifts for my daughter Stefanie and my father-in-law, Jerry. The material I'll be using is black walnut and figured maple.
 

 

 
What you see here are a few antlers that I'll be using and when you combine them in just the right configuration, they'll hold a bottle. I have many antlers to choose from and what you see here is just a small sample.
 

 

 

When I was experimenting with these antlers on a wood base, I noticed they rocked around allot so I sanded a small flat on the bottom so they wouldn't rock around. Notice I also sanded the ends too.
 

 

 

I'm machining the sides of these two pieces of figured maple so I can glue them together, which will become the base for one of the wine racks.
 

 

 

After gluing them together I let them sit overnight.
 

 

 

The next day I placed the base in my vise and machined both top and bottom surfaces. I did this to all four bases.
 

 

 
To machine the sides of all the bases I hung them over the back of my milling machine table and used an end mill to machine them with. Note the two 5/8" diameter pins placed in the clamp slots. All of the clamp slots run parallel to the machines 'X' axis so when you bank something against them and machine it, you know it will be parallel. The piece of metal between the wood and 5/8" pins are called "parallels" which most machinists use. This is one parallel of a two piece set.
 

 

 
I'm giving this base a concave radius of 1 1/2" at each corner. I'm using an adjustable circle sheet metal cutter here that I won't use again. I didn't like the way it cut so in the future I'll use a different method.
 

 

 

I'm using my bandsaw to cut the shape of a wine bottle here. I'm going to give this one to my father-in-law.
 

 

 
I took the guard off my belt sander to sand this large radius.
 

 

 
I'm making a diamond shape base here and using the clamp slots again to keep these two sides parallel.
 

 

 

To fasten the antlers to the base I'm going to use wood screws to hold them. In order to make sure the holes in both of them line up, I'll need a way to transfer the holes I already put in the antlers. And to do that I made some 'transfer screws' out of a drywall screw.
 

 

 

By cutting off the pointed end and then deburring it, I screwed it into the antler so it sticks out a small amount. Once I had it placed exactly where I wanted it, all I did was push on the other side of antler and it marked my spot.
 

 
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