A gift for my Dad

[wings]

My father wanted a gunrack that would hold 3 guns and hang on the wall. I'm sure this project has been done thousands of times before, but even so, it was fun and came out great. The real beauty was in having my own son build it with me and getting to spend all those hours in my shop with him.

The joints are biskited and re-inforced with screws. The holes were then filled with 3/8 " maple dowels made from stock left over from the maple drawers. The rest of the wood is black walnut. The finish is a satin wipe-on poly and tung oil mixture.

I put metal keyhole brackets mortised into the back of the top on 16" centers for attaching the gunrack to the wall.

Wings

[atgcpaul]

Wings,

Very nice. That finish is excellent. I sometimes have problems working with
the end grain of walnut but yours looks smooth as glass.

Paul

[jhart]

Very, very nice. Great to have your son help you. Those are super times he'll always remember.

[DonHo]

Very nice. Good design, great excution and the finish is very good also. Good job.

DonHo

[footprintsinconc]

cool. i like the maple detail. looks very nice.

i still dont understand for the life of me, how you are able to cut maple to the exact size of the whole and how you are able to make a perfect round so that when you put the two togather, there is no gap?

[mschrank]

Gun racks were one of the three of four "standard" projects in my high school shop class. They were similar in design to yours, but nowhere near that beautiful in the end.

Very nice attention to detail...the finish has that look that begs to be touched.

[LCHIEN]

cool. i like the maple detail. looks very nice.

i still dont understand for the life of me, how you are able to cut maple to the exact size of the whole and how you are able to make a perfect round so that when you put the two togather, there is no gap?

Two words: Plug cutters.

They're available both straight and slightly tapered for a really tight, hammer-in fit into holes you cut with forstner bits.

[SARGE..g-47]

Nice work wings and your finish job is really good. As MS mentioned, even though we could chose our project for HS shop back in 1963 when I first took it I chose a gun rack as many because we boys grew up with guns and hunting.

So... that was my first project I ever built other than carpentry type things with my uncle who never owned a power tool to my knowlege before he passed in 1957.

Hope your dad enjoys...

[wings]

The high school projects

It is funny after 30+ years we still remember High School shop projects. My folks still have the project I made back then. It was a four legged black walnut stool shaped like the State of Ohio. I will post a picture of it for laughs later on.

I did use a plug cutter for the dowels, but I did not use a forstner bit for the holes, I used a 3/8 hole cutter (counter-sink) bit from Rockler.

[crokett]

Wow! Super job. Plug cutters are the way to go. I have a few different sizes for various sized dowels.

[ejs1097]

Looks great with your wood choices and the finish looks super. Seems like that present was for both your dad and you, getting to spend good quality time in the shop with your son.

[John Hunter]

Very nice.

[SHADOWFOX]

Simply stunning, Wings! Great job and thank you for sharing!

[GPA61]

Great job!!! Beautiful finish.

[Pappy]

Beautiful. I love the use of contrasting woods.