How would you build this?

[capncarl]

A friend sent me a photo of a wine rack that he knew that I couldn’t resist trying to build. He was right, but how in the world would you cut this thing out with the normal home workshop band saw? Or any other way without spending all your retirement sanding?

[mpc]

Start with a large hole saw or large Forstner bit to make round holes in one layer of wood. Then use the bandsaw to cut from the outer edge to those holes. That gets the basic shape pretty much done. Sand it, possibly with an oscillating spindle sander or by hand, until it is perfect. This becomes a master template. Drill two or three 1/4 inch diameter holes through it.

Now use the template to make the workpieces for the project:
Clamp or use double-sided tape to attach the template to one workpiece and drill through the holes to make matching holes in the workpiece... these will be used for dowels to index each workpiece to the template prior to any further work. For the workpieces that will be the front and back of the final project, drill only part-way through the workpieces on the glue-side face.

With the template still attached to one workpiece, trace the template onto the workpiece. Separate the template and workpiece. Rough-cut the workpiece on the bandsaw or scroll saw or even by hand, just getting close to the line. Double-side tape that rough-cut workpiece to the template again, using 1/4 inch dowels to perfectly re-align them, and use a router (preferably a table mounted router) with a bearing guided pattern or flush trim bit to make the rough-cut workpiece a perfect match to the template. Repeat for the 7 or 8 workpiece layers. Then glue them together with long dowels indexing them.

That's what I'd do anyway. I would not start by gluing several layers together to make one giant/thick block and then try to bandsaw the whole thing at once. That would require a bandsaw with large resaw capacity (more than the 6 or 7 inches on typical 14 inch "Delta" style bandsaws... you'd need a riser block or one of the Euro-frame saws like the Rikon 10-325 with 13 inch resaw capacity) and a bit of skill to make the cuts. It would be much harder to get perfect circular sections and it'd take hours of sanding to remove blade marks.

mpc

[LCHIEN]

It is made of laminated sections.
Each section of maybe 7-10 of them needs to be jointed and then planed and sanded flat and 3/4 to 1 inch thick..
Cut the pattern into the first section using large Forstner bits for the circular openings for the bottles and then a bandsaw to connect them in the pattern desired. Use a spindle sander to smooth the transition from the curves to the circles.Take a lot of care as this is the quality of the shape of the finished piece.

Now place the finished piece as a template to mark all the other sections/layers. Cut all the pieces oversized by about 1/16 to 1/8".
I would be tempted to use a slightly smaller Forstner to drill each circular section.

Now you have one master and 6-9 slightly oversized rough cut layers.

Laminate the Master on top to a layer well glued together with the excess showing on all sides.
Use a 1-1/2" flush cutting bottom bearing (from a table mounted standpoint, the bearing would be on top) to flush trim the bottom layer to the master.

Now repeat for the rest of the layers... laminate a layer to the bottom then flush trim another inch. Until all the layers are used and its full thickness.

Basically you got a 8-10 inch lamination all perfectly matched using a 1-1/2 flush trim bit, one layer at a time. There's practically no limit to how thick the finished lamination can be with enough layers.

Use a spindle sander or sandpaper on a roller, and clean it up, then finish.
Anyway, that's how I'd do it.

The item in the picture has not had this done, but I'd consider a small radius roundover applied to the top and bottom layer of the finished assembly. prevents it from getting nicked.

As the router bits are described in the handheld position the bit would be called a bottom bearing pattern flush trim bit and I would use 1/2" diameter or larger with these big sweeping curves and no fine detail. The longest cutting length I saw in a quick survey is 1-1/2 inches so this limits the single layer height to less than 1-1/2 inches.

[twistsol]

Loring, That is exactly what I was thinking when I saw it as well. Thanks for the explanation that is far more clear than how I would have explained it.

[leehljp]

Yes, one master and then use the flush trim bit for the rest that has been rough cut. A single high quality 1/2" or 3/4" plywood for the template and you could make a bunch.

[dbhost]

LCHIEN saved me some typing... The method he is talking about sounds like about the best way to do it. The biggest issue I see here is sanding depending on the thickness, it may exceed the stroke of a spindle sander and you will have to do a good amount of flipping...

[capncarl]

Dang that sounds like a lot of work! That is what I was afraid of when I asked how to build this. I suppose that it could be built somewhat easier by using a CNC router set up and stack the pieces. This one uses 7 boards but will probably be many more thin boards.
NEXT QUESTION.
If I set up a precision router jig and am able to cut all of the boards accurately, how much sanding can I expect to finish the wine rack?

[LCHIEN]

Dang that sounds like a lot of work! That is what I was afraid of when I asked how to build this. I suppose that it could be built somewhat easier by using a CNC router set up and stack the pieces. This one uses 7 boards but will probably be many more thin boards.
NEXT QUESTION.
If I set up a precision router jig and am able to cut all of the boards accurately, how much sanding can I expect to finish the wine rack?

Cutting precision layers and then stacking them requires precise stacking. Whereas as I suggested, using the router to flush trim each layer to the previous is 100% self aligning to very high accuracy. If you've never used a flush trim pattern bit the match of edges is remarkable with the cutter slightly overlapping the template piece.
Using thicker layers up to 1-1/2"reduces the number of total operations.
Using a high quality shear or double shear spiral up/down cut (like the one I pictured in my post #3 in this thread ) should make a very fine finish near perfect match between layers requiring I would think very little sanding. A spindle sander of more than 3-4 inches is probably not available, but I suggested some sheets of sandpaper wrapped around some larger dowels will probably work pretty well.

[leehljp]

I agree completely with Loring. If you make one template perfect with the edges smooth, the flush trim bit (a quality flush trim bit) will make each succeeding one precisely the same. They should not be different nor require much, if any, sanding.

[LCHIEN]

Is it done, yet?

[capncarl]

Not yet! I really do appreciate the suggestions. I will definitely build a template and stack the cuts. I first have to build up enough interest to build it, and check with the gallery owner to see if she wants to display it and see if it sells. I’ll post a couple of the Tiny Tables I delivered to this gallery 2 weeks ago.