A Barrel-Style Wine Rack - a 2x4 Project

This year I decided to join a 2x4 Contest. But what to make? I always had a wine rack on my list. Not for myself, but something nice I can give away. Unfortunately I was a little late and had to rush a bit through this build.

Please also watch the video on YouTube about this build and subscribe to my channel!

First I had to make a sketchup model to get all the dimensions, so that
all pieces fit on a 2×4. The 2×4 was the first problem.

There are no 2x4s where I live so I had to buy a 5 meter long 50mm thick and 100mm wide board. Is was a real adventure to put this thing through my little bench-top thickness planer to get a 2x4.

Due to my small workshop I had to cut the 8 feet 2×4 into more manageable pieces and in order to waste no material I cut it by hand. The Japanese Handsaw runs through spruce like through butter.

Then I had to make some rip cutting. Some pieces had to be more than 70 mm wide which is the capacity of my band saw. So I had to use my Japanese rip cut handsaw. It took some time to make these cuts but fortunately I could use my band saw for the narrower pieces.

In the end it cut 102 pieces plus quite a lot offcuts.

The base of this rack are two oval frames. A back and a front piece. Each is made of 6 pieces and joint with simple half lap joints.

Both frames were connected with 48 strips after I cut a rabbet into the front and back. The strips also had rabbets on both ends. The ones for the curved part also got a 5 degree angle on the long sides.

At this point I want to thank my father in law who helped me out and made about 200 cuts on the table saw.

It took a while to glue up all the strips. I did this in several steps.

1. I lined up the angles strips on tape and glued them together in a quarter circle.
2. I had to glue two quarters together to get a half circle. To get good even clamping pressure I used tension belts.
3. Due to my small workshop I had to cut the 8 feet 2×4 into more manageable pieces and in order to waste no material I cut it by hand. The Japanese Handsaw runs through spruce like through butter.

Now it was time to attach all the features. First of all, the feet.

This wine rack should have a compartment for a bottle opener or for casters, so I put some hinges onto a cap piece.

The wine bottle holders are positioned in two layers. One is on the top of the compartment, the other is on a shelf.

I made some typical wine glass holders. My design idea was to have the
glasses angled by approximate 15 degree but due to space issues I glued them in by eye.

After adding them an two shelves for shot glasses or coasters, the wine rack was finished.

In the end I finished everything with a mineral oil and beeswax polish.