From Scraps to Racks! How to Turn Seemingly Useless Scrap Into a Wall Rack

Frequently I find that my pants and other frequently used clothes end up on the floor instead back in the dresser. A wall rack is a simple room furnishing that allows me to keep my clothes off the floor but still available for quick access.

A simple wall rack can be made out of strips of wood glued together and attached to the wall. I used Tech Shop as my main hub for creating my wall rack. It was a great place to work out of because of all the machines and helpful/friendly people there!

Materials & Tools

Materials:

1A. 16 pieces of a wood (1.5" x 7-9" x 0.75" each)
2A. 16 pieces of another wood species (1.5" x 7-9" x 0.75" each)

OR

1B. 1 wooden board (7" x 32" x 0.75" each)
2B. 1 wooden board of another wood species (7" x 32" x 0.75" each)

3. 47" x 1/4" diameter wooden dowel

4. Wood Glue

5. 48" Clamps

6. Sandpaper

7. Linseed Oil

Tools

Table Saw

Drill press

1/4" drill bit

Cut Boards Into Pieces (Skip This Step If You Already Have Wood Pieces)

Use safe operating procedures and use the table saw to cut 4 wood strips of 1.5" x 32" from each board.

Now, cut each strip into 4 roughly equal size strips of 7-9" long each. Having some short pieces and long pieces will make the finished product look nicer.

Align Wood Strips

Align strips next to each other horizontally, alternating between wood species.

Choose 5-7 pieces to serve as your wall rack pegs. These will be where you hang your clothes. Mark these pieces with a pencil so you remember them.

Now move pieces up and down slightly to create an interesting wavelike pattern among the pieces. Imagine a straight line going horizontally across your pieces. Make sure that the line goes through the bottom 3/4" of the marked peg pieces. We will thread the dowel through all these pieces along this line to strengthen the peg connection.

Once you have found an arrangement you like, use a ruler to draw a line across the wood pieces so that you know how each piece should be aligned in relation to its neighbors. Also number the pieces 1 to 32 with pencil so you know which pieces are next to each other.

Drill Pieces

Now we need to drill holes horizontally through the pieces so that we can thread the dowel through the rack and add strength.

Take each piece and drill a 1/4" hole horizontally though the piece so that the hole aligns directly in the center of the piece and follows the line you drew across each piece.

Thread the piece onto the dowel to make sure it fits and to see what the final product will look like

Glue Up

Apply glue to the side of each piece and inside the drilled holes and thread each piece in the desired order onto the dowel. Once all pieces are on, rotate the marked peg pieces on the dowl to point outwards. This will be the position they will be solidified into to hold clothes.

Now take your long clamps and clamp the gluing pieces together to keep them aligned.

Sand and Oiling

Once the project has finished glueing, sand down the wood to the desired smootheness and apply the linseed oil for a nice finish.