Plumb Style Axe Rack

In this Instructable, you will learn how to make an axe rack like the display racks that Plumb made.

The materials needed for this project are: A planer (optional), miter saw, circular saw, table saw, drill with dowel jig, pipe clamps, a chisel, mallet, sand paper, and wood glue.

My family and I went to our local lumber yard to find the lumber necessary for the project. We bought a 2x8 rough cut pine board and a 2x10 rough cut pine board.

We planed the rough cut boards so they would have a smooth finish.

This step can be skipped by buying finished boards instead of rough cut ones.

We cut the 2x10s into two 36 inch boards. The 2x8 was cut into a 36 inch board. The 2x10s were cut so that they would taper from 10 inches at the bottom to 7 inches at the top.

We measured the depth of the 2x8 and marked it out on the flat sides of the 2x10s. We used the table saw to cut the dado joint out by making cuts close together. We removed as much material as we could with out hands then smoothed the joint out by running the chisel on the joint until there were no more pieces of wood sticking out.

We took the excess material from the 2x8 and ripped it down to four 1 1/4 inch pieces. Two of these were cut into 18 2 1/8 inch blocks

In the dado joint, we drilled two 3/8th holes on each joint. These were drilled 3 inches away from the edge. We put a generous amount of wood glue in the holes.

After we joined the 2x10s and 2x8s together by a dado joint, we clamped the legs and backing together. Let this set overnight.

I sanded all 18 blocks with 120 grit and 240 grit sandpaper. Sand until smooth.

We measured 11/16ths of an inch in from the sides and edge of the ripped boards. We drilled a 3/8ths holes using the jig. We sanded down a 3/8th dowel using 80 grit sand paper so the glue would better stick to it. The hole went through the bar and into the leg of the frame.

After the holes were drilled into the legs, we put glue in the holes, and on the legs where the bars met the legs. We pounded in the dowels are far as we could then cut them off with a hack saw after the glue dried and sanded the area down. We used pipe clamps to clamp the whole thing together while it dried. Mark out the spacing for the blocks by drawing a line every 2 1/8th inches on each bar.

After you have the spacing marked out, put a block on every other space. Put a good amount of glue in the space and clamp it down. We waited 30 minutes for these to dry until we unclamped them. For the blocks on the end, we flipped the stand on its side and used pipe clamps to hold them in place.

You can be finished here, or you could stain the stand to get it more charcter