Scrap Wood and Leftover Gerstner Green Felt Plane Rack
This is one of those times when we're living history, and it's also one of those times we know we're living it. Corona virus has hit our shores and there's a huge outbreak down in New Rochelle. I presume my colleagues and I will be deployed there soon. So this may be the last post for awhile. It'll be interesting what things will look like when we come out the other side of this thing.
Still just puttering around right now, and this time I built a small rack for my hand-planes. This is one of those funny things that happen to all of us at some time or another - I didn't even realize I needed a rack for the hand-planes until I happened by this picture:
Invention is the Mother of Necessity
Suddenly I wondered, how have I lived so long without having one of these?? Okay, that's a little dramatic, but the point is - once I saw one of these I just had to make one. Now, I like to make as many things from scrap wood as I can, but this time I didn't have any scraps the width I needed so I bought a board for $7.
Again with the Scrap Wood
This certainly wasn't a complicated project, but it was a fun excuse to spend some time in the workshop! After cutting the sides (which were totally marked out wrong in the picture above), I cut a small piece of 1/4" plywood for the backing, and used some small strips I had cut from boards on some long-forgotten project to make the dividers...
And here it is dry-fitted into the space which would become its home:
Pick a Color and Go
Then it was a matter of painting. I have FAR too many paints lying about, so I endeavored to, as randomly as I could, just pick a color and go with it. I have no idea what color it is, it was in one of those sample jars one finds on the discard shelf at Lowes. It's a kind of blueish gray I suppose...
Adapting and More Leftovers
See the little notch I cut out of the back of the panel? There's a bolt that's perfectly in the way on the shelf, so I improvised and just went at it with the saw. But then!...Then I thought, why not line the slots with some felt" Heck, it may even help keep the cutting edge of the plane irons sharp!
Besides that, I have a lot of Gerstner Green Felt leftover from the Gerstner Tool Chest refurb, so why not?
More Pictures
If you've followed House 173 for any amount of time, you know I take lots of pictures, so here's one from the opposite side from the picture above...
And here's the rack in its native habitat...
And straight on. So now 173 has a hand-plane rack - I can rest easily now!
There ya have it!
