Why am I doing this?
Elspeth (my lovely wife) remarked lately that the shoes on the kitchen floor were getting a bit out of hand and we wondered if we needed another shoe rack like the plastic affair we have in the front porch. That idea was quickly followed by my resolution to build a wooden one. I don't do a lot of woodwork because my past attempts have met with mixed success. My dad was once a joiner and when I was little I was fairly in awe of his Jedi-like wood skills. To some extent I think I naturally assumed I would somehow inherit these skills, perhaps genetically, and would demonstrate my own mastery without putting in the required effort. Needless to say it doesn't work that way! Anyway, this time I have an electric, circular mitre saw to help make neat cuts and a determination to take the time I need and not rush things as I'm prone to do.
So, off to Wickes to buy a load of wood. I'm using 34mm square planed timber for the frame and lengths of Ø15mm dowel for creating the shelves. I tell you what though, it might grow on trees but it's not cheap that stuff! I reckon it'd have been cheaper to buy a bloody rack, ready made. Mind, I suppose that's not the point as this will be made by me and to my specifications.
The Work
First task was setting up the fence on my cheapo mitre saw as the angles are not right as it comes from the factory. It was pretty tricky to measure 45° accurately against the blade so I just made a couple of trial 45° degree cuts and put them together to see if they made a nice square 90° degrees. Took a couple of goes but after that, I decided it was close enough.
After making all the mitre cuts I needed, I set it to 90° and cut all the straight bits. I clamped a bit of wood onto the end of my 'bench' so that all the peices were the same length since consistency and precision is more important than accuracy here!
Here are all the cut 34mm square pieces:
To join the two side assemblies, I just used glue and 6mm dowels. It's tricky to get holes drilled accurately. I just used ordinary HSS drill bits rather than the 'brad point' bits made specifically for wood - and the general purpose bits do wander a bit on wood. I don't have a drill press - which might have been handy.
One tip I learned off You Tube is to always do a dry fit before glueing anything:
Now for the front and back 'bars' that will support the shelf dowels. I ordered a 15mm forstner bit (pictured) from Ebay for this. So many holes...