Some woodworking questions

[Seattle_Ben]

I'm going to do some of my first woodwork and have acquired, I think, most of what I need as far as the physically required materials. I don't have much in the way of finish carpentry experience but do work in construction and am familiar with carpentry concepts and have access to some tools. I'll try and explain what I'm going to do and then ask a few questions.

Firstly I'm going to try and make a display rack but one that's going to go on the wall rather than the angled counter units that I've seen. I'll be drilling the pegs out partway into the wood and gluing them in place. It'll be about 25" tall and will be occupying a space on the wall that is 14" wide. So the rack will be about 9" wide at the top and 12" at the bottom unless I just decide to have it go vertical the whole way. I have 8' feet of Sapele wood in a 1x2 purchased at Crosscut Hardwood in Seattle, fun place there.

Due to tool limitations I think I'll be standing the bottom of the rack off the wall with some of the scrap wood from the frame to get some sort of angle to ensure everything stays where it should rather than drill the pegs in at an angle. I do have a drill motor just not one that I trust myself to replicate a 5-10 degree accurately over some as of yet unknown number of holes. I'll play around with the size of block to get the stand off that I want. The question I suppose is twofold, is this a good idea, or how hard is it to reliably freehand that many holes at an angle?

The pegs are a bit of an adventure, they don't sell any roundstock at Crosscut, and I currently have a few 1/4" balsa dowels that I'm considering using to hang the knives from. I'm not sure that they're the right thing but they were right in front of me and were a dollar a piece so... I have some. I was told about another woodworking store nearby that has roundstock in better woods and I might well go have a look today. My question, is again twofold, is the balsa viable and how much better would it be to use a different wood for durability reasons?

To finish this project I'd like to just put a stain or clear varnish on it, I think. I'm really curious about suggestions and also should this be a food grade product and if so where should I start looking around?

While at the lumber yard they had some scrap wood that they were selling and I picked up a piece of cherry wood that was a 2x12 that split in half lengthwise. It's now pretty close to a 2x6 and I think I'm just going to take a dry saw across it a few times at about 1.5 inches deep and turn it into a cleaver block and stain it. The piece that I've got is about 21 inches long. Am I missing anything about doing this one or is it really about as easy as that? I have a few times that I can mess this up and start over since 21 inches is way bigger than I need.

All told I'm not sure that I'm going to exceed $35 usd for this and am really surprisingly excited about this. Thanks for reading what seems like a mountain of text.

[Bensbites]

The cleaver block sounds about right.

You should google how to make dowels from square stock. That might help.

You might want to look at drilling Jigs to help you with your depth and angle.

[Seattle_Ben]

Also if anyone wants whatever leftover cherry I have it'll be available. Not sure if it'd be worth the cost of shipping but that's out there.

[Cahudson42]

Here is a reference on the old forum site for a 'katana sword'- style wall rack:
https://www.chefknivestogoforum.com/vie ... na#p131796

If I were to remake it today, I would probably recess the vertical magnetic knife bar at least halfway if not entirely into the backboard. Or, I might use individual doubled-up rare earth small circular magnets at each knife position. The support pins are cut from home center dowel rods, 1/4 maple. I used a simple jig - a right-angle triangle block cut from a piece of scrap 2x4 with a 1/4 hole drilled in it perpendicular to the hypotenuse to get consistent 45-degree angles on the peg holes in the backboard.

I think I simply finished with Zinsser spray shellac...

Questions - ask away...

[Seattle_Ben]

I've just got the 1x2 and I think I'm just going to use that. Though the extra holding of the magnet sounds nice I think standing it off the wall enough to get a 15 degree angle ought to suffice. Especially if the dowels stick out 3".

[Cahudson42]

Having the board at a 15 degree angle should work as well. One advantage of the bar is that it keeps the knife away from the board..If you happen to put a knife back that isn't completely dry, most of it remains 'in the air'..to dry..

[PaulME]

If you stay with drilling angled holes a bunch of things you can do.

Make your own drill jig out of a piece of scrap, buy a drill bushing - these are just accurate steel tubes that guide the drill avaialabe from McMaster or just google it - drill one hole at the angle you need, press/glue in bushing and then just place this where you need the hole and it will guide your hand drill. For bonus points make multiple holes n the jig at the spacing you need, then all holes will be spaced the same - this assumes you have even spacing.
If you have a friend with metalworking tools this is easy to make.
Good luck
Paul

[Cahudson42]

+ on PaulME

Yet unless you are a complete klutz, you can make a one-time guide out of just the 45degree chop-sawed block with a hole in it. Place the hole in the hypotenuse such that only 3/4" or less of the drill bit comes thru - and you have a depth stop. If you want a permanent guide, take a 1/4-20 nut, fasten in a machinists vice, drill it out, set it with epoxy in the wood block, then drill the guide hole.

Place 'target' cross-hair marks +, on the sides/bottoms of the block centered on the hole exit, and you can easily align and line up with vertical and horizontal spaced lines on the plank for exactly positioning each hole..

[Seattle_Ben]

Speed square also gets me the required angles. It's making the cuts accurately with the jig saw that I have in my apartment or the dry saw that I've got at work, I guess I've also got portable band saws and sawzalls too but it seems like I'm asking for a lot of trouble using those two. Wonder if it's worth it to get a miter box?

[Cahudson42]

Are you talking about making triangular sides to go under the left and right plank edges to space the bottom out? Or??

Perhaps an easier way might be a French Cleat at the top of the plank, and two simple spacer blocks or pegs on either plank bottom underside to push it out.. You still need to cut the angle for along the French Cleat...If you use a short piece of wider 1x12 pine to start, you can safely rip strips with a circ saw and a straight board guide, with the base angled appropriately... after securely clamping the 1x12

But honestly, I still prefer angled pegs and mounting the plank flat vertical...

If you are talking about the angled hypotenuse cut for a drill guide, that can be sloppy/ wavey - jig saw fine. You are only going to drill a hole in it - the entire surface need not be flat...

[Seattle_Ben]

I'm, currently thinking, that I'll make a jig or two at work and then hang it off a french cleat. Thank you guys for the help with this.

[Hiroshima]

Second the use of magnets. I dont generally like imdisplay racks for sharp stuff not firmly attached as a bump putting things in and out of the rack could result in damage to tools or self. I use dowels around my shop for things like end-wrenches that don’t care if they fall on the ground.

For sharp stuff they are held firmly in place and pegs never get used.

Imho find a buddy with a decent table saw. Jigsaws won’t get you where you want to go and if it’s display you are gonna be starring at the thing every day.

If you are dead set on pegs I agree with the person that said making a jig is your best bet. It’s easy and you can set your angle and depth to be perfect every time. Hard part is securing the jig to the surface- double stick carpet tape can be your friend here.

Gonna close with; I still think you should use magnets over pegs.

[cedarhouse]

I am no expert and some of these other guys are so take this for what it is worth:

I just did a project where I freehand drilled a hole on an angle in a piece of scrap then used that as a guide for all the holes I needed to drill. It was not perfect, I could even see how it was off with my eye but all the holes were consistent and for my use it was perfect.

Getting a good selection of dowel stock, both size and species, is a pain that said, I would opt for something other than balsa. I suspect it would not finish up well or stand up to wear.

I have become a big fan of finishes that let the wood do the talking. A wipe on oil based poly is very easy to apply and get good results but it would not be food safe. Shellac is very cool and on paper is "natural" but I don't think anyone would call it food safe...at least not officially. The denatured alcohol used as a solvent has additives specifically to make it toxic though I think the additive of choice is methanol which should evaporate...I think... The big box stores around here sell a "butcher block" oil finish that is food safe. I think it uses some nasty solvents but they evaporate as the piece cures and the surface is supposed to be food safe. You could also just use an oil/bee's wax mix of your own creation or something like the Boo's pre packaged stuff. The finish itself would not be very durable but this is not going to be a roughly handled piece and this would DEFINITELY be food safe.

A point to ponder, does it need to be food safe. Your knives will touch it and then in turn touch the food but no food with touch the rack. A oil based poly would check a lot of boxes, easy to apply, good looking, widely available, and durable, but it is not food safe. Admittedly, I just made a knife rack for my kitchen and used the food safe oil finish from the big box store but if I didn't already own it, I would have used water based poly...cause I got that to burn right now.

Lastly, I LOVE french cleats. I keep fining I want to use them even where they don't make sense.

FWIW, here is a pic of the "coat rack" I made. The scrap with the puddle of glue was my angle guide.

I used a store bought knife rack as a template for the one I made out of scrap plywood. No idea why the pics are upside down on the forum....

[Ut_ron]

Awesome job!!