Coat and Hat Rack

I get it, it’s hot outside right now, close to 100 degrees this week. The last thing you want to think about right now is coats. But, that’s where you are wrong. Now is the perfect time to think about where your coat is going to be hanging. I mean think about it all your coat is doing right now is hanging in a closet or in my case piled in the corner of my room. You should be showing that coat off year-round, not just in the winter. As for the hat part, I mean come on, you always need a place to put your hat. So I’m going to teach you how to weld a quick and easy coat and hat rack. This whole project takes about 30 or 45 mins from start to finish if you don’t want to paint it. If you decide to paint it, it takes a little bit longer, but even then it’s still pretty quick.

10 1/2 x 4 plate steel thick enough to weld

Railroad spike

The first step, after you have cleaned up your railroad spike, is to drill some screw holes in the plate steel. I suggest bringing a screw the same general size to the drill press so that you can make sure it’s going to fit flush. Start by deciding where your holes are going to be and marking on your piece where to drill your holes. I put my holes centered width-wise, 2 inches from either side and 1 ¼ inch from the top and bottom. This should give me plenty of space to screw the screws in after the spike has been welded on. If these measurements don’t work for you then that’s fine, I just suggest you put 2 screw holes in so that you have more strength holding your piece up since it’s going to be heavy. Now find the appropriate drill bit, something slightly larger than the diameter of the screw but not as large as the head of the screw. Drill these holes all the way through your steel. After both holes are drilled through you can either find a drill bit that is the same size or slightly larger, as the head of the screw and drill the top of the hole just a little bit so that the screw sits flush with the top of the piece. This is where it is important to have a sample screw with you since you want to drill it out a little bit and then test the fit to make sure it’s deep enough to be flush but not sitting below the plane of the plate steel.

Now it’s time to prep your railroad spike for welding. I set our metal cutting miter saw at about a 30-degree angle and cut the spike in approximately half. Neither of these measurements is super important and kinda up to what you want. I personally think that a 45-degree cut makes the pieces have too much of an upward angle when you weld them on. I also will err on the side of cutting the spike longer on the top end. That way your hat will stick out a little further over your coat. But, all of that is how I like it and I always think a project is more fun when you have a little customization ability, so it’s up to you and how you want to make it. After you have cut your spike make sure to clean up the edges of the cut with either an angle grinder or benchtop grinder. Just take a little off the edges and clean up any sharp edges. Now you are almost ready to weld.

Before you jump on the welder and start connecting all your pieces together take a second and figure out exactly where you want the pieces to be. Remember it’s much easier to weld them in the right places the first time than cutting them off and regrinding everything. So now that you know exactly where to place your pieces make some quick marks and bring everything over to your welder and weld them together. Make sure that you tack all four sides of the spike before you fully weld them on. This will help keep the spike from moving towards the heat, as metal does when it gets hot, and will also allow you to fix small mistakes you might have made holding your piece when you weld it. After you tack all the sides down you can go ahead and fully weld the spike on. Do the same with the second piece.

You are getting close to being finished, in fact, if you really wanted to be done you could be. Your piece would easily hold up a hat and coat, but now is the time to really step it up and make it look good. If you are a sloppy welder you can grind away any of the extra welds to make it smoother, you can also tape off your spike and spray paint the base piece or tape off the place steel and paint your spike. I ended up doing both on this one. I painted the base black and then after it dried I taped that part off and painted the spikes a nice bright red color. If you really want to be extra fancy you can even paint the tops of your screws before you screw it to the wall.

Here is an example of a different horizontal layout. Instead of stacking the hat and coat hangers on this one, they are side by side and one is higher than the other. It's really all up to you and how you want to layout the project, so try several different placements and have some fun. Make it your own.