Making my own pipe rack

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Sherlock2010

Sherlock2010

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I have looked at a few online and have discoverd how expensive they can be so have decided to try make my own. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this and how well did it turn out? any tips would be greatly appreciated aswell.
 
EJ, that is a nice design! I always thought racks and humidors were way over priced. I luck out and bought a nice wall mounted, glass cased rack from a B&M who got it from the previous owner and wasn't going to carry pipes, for a song.
 
My girlfriend (who is very handy with woodcraft) made me a rack that turned out beautifully. My one quibble with it is the indents where the stems rest are a bit narrow for many of my pipes.

If you're purely looking to save money, scour antique stores before you start a DIY. There are lots of old pipe racks in all manner of sizes and styles to be had cheaply.
 
What Doc said. Racks are a lot more hassle to make than they look, and old ones can be found for a song.
 
LL":xjf1m2cf said:
What Doc said. Racks are a lot more hassle to make than they look, and old ones can be found for a song.
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True, If I were to charge by the hour to build this thing It would cost $500.00.

I already had the wood and finishing material so that cost is nil.

But with 1.5' of snow on the ground and temps around 20-30 degrees I'm looking for little indoor projects.
I'm also converting an old microwave cabinet I built 15 years ago into a liquer/tobacco cabinet. I'll post some photo's of that when I get it done as well.
 
Thanks guys. I didn't think about looking in an antique shop. Will have a look round before I decide what to do.
 
Ok as promised here is my pipe rack, no pipes on it cause the final coat of poly was still drying when I shot this. I'll post photo's of it loaded up with my pipes later.
 
Suggestion for EJ: A filled rack is heavier than you expect, and the center of gravity high. If that rack was mine I'd either put a base on it or fasten to a wall. Letting it stand freely is inviting a mini-disaster.
 
That's a beautiful rack you made. How did you make those pear-shaped (more or less) holes, and how did you make them consistent?

-Andrew
 
Sherlock":xlnd72w0 said:
I have looked at a few [pipe racks] online and have discoverd how expensive they can be....
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What do you guys think a good price would be per pipe for a pipe rack? The least expensive racks I've seen cost about $3/pipe. The prices go up from there....
 
All of my vintage racks have been around 75 cents/pipe slot--that's competitive with those plastic foldup piperests.
 
Well my currency is Pounds and the cheapest one is £5 a slot. which is 7.83300 US$ Thats for 8slots which seeing as I am new to pipe smoking is big enough for now.
 
Thanks guys,
LL, that's a good suggestion, especially with two active kids and a dog running through the house. I'll have to fasten it to the cabinet it sits on.

adauria, those holes are more keyhole shaped, like for an extra large skeleton key. I layed out everything first, then predrilled the centers and used hole saws for each end (7/8" small end, 1-1/8" large end (I think)) , then connected the tangent of the small hole perpendicular to the edge of the board till it intersected with the larger hole marked it and cut each one with a with a scroll saw. Then used barrel sanders to smooth it all out, then alot of hand sanding... (and their not really all that consistent)
 
You have inspired me! I bought a pipe rack from Two Cousins a while back. It's not bad, but I had in mind creating a coffee table expressly dedicated to my pipes. I figured I'd buy a cheap, plain, coffee table and then buy two plain (unpainted) pipe racks from Tim at Two Cousins and bolt them to my table. I was met with a rather snippy response from Tim who told me he would not sell his pipe racks unpainted or unstained. If you haven't seen Two Cousins racks, they have some pretty neat designs, but they paint them with the worst colors imaginable. Most look as though they were found in a barn after the firefighters put out the flames.
I guess the days of giving the customer what they want are truly dead. So I figure for what I was about to pay him, I'd invest in a couple more tools and do it myself. I already have a number of saws and a drill press. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, but I'll put it down to laziness. I'll post the finished result when I get it done.
Cheers!
 
Sherlock":248fdu14 said:
I have looked at a few online and have discovered how expensive they can be so have decided to try make my own. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this and how well did it turn out? any tips would be greatly appreciated as well.
Click to expand...
I know this thread is a bit old but since I had some experience in the matter decided to throw in my $.02. I got tired of my relatively few pipes just sitting on a shelf in a cupboard or on a table in my office so started collecting pictures of various racks I would see on eBay or other places. I've got a lot of wood in my barn where what I have of a workshop is. I hate burning up a piece of wood with beautiful grain so had a couple of small pieces of quarter-sawn oak that weren't good for much. It ended up being enough to make what you see in my avatar. The rack for the meer is made of cherry.

Making my own I can fashion it to hold a particular pipe or make it generic. I usually stain the wood before finishing to bring out the grain and add some additional character. My finish of choice is either clear or amber shellac, at least partially because there's a very short cure time between coats and I can get it into service just that much faster.

As already mentioned, if I were to count my time and put a reasonable value to it the racks would be inordinately expensive but the satisfaction of the end result and ability to customize, plus using a nice piece of otherwise useless wood makes it worth the effort. Right now I've got no empty spaces so if/when I buy another pipe I'll be looking in my archives for an idea and headed back to the shop in search of another piece of wood to put to use.
 
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