My wife requested a shoe rack where she could also sit down to put on her shoes, so I designed this one in Sketchup. Since the design is fairly clean and simple, I wanted some visual interest from the wood itself. I came across some nice looking Hickory at the lumberyard and it looked perfect.
I have never worked with Hickory before, and it’s not the easiest wood to mill. It’s very heavy and has a tendency to chip out and splinter. I eventually tamed it and got some pleasing patterns when edge gluing 2 boards to provide the necessary width of the seat and shelves.
The frame is Walnut, and is assembled with dowels using my Dowelmax. I have used several methods in the past for attaching slabs to a base to allow for wood movement, but wanted a cleaner look than Z clips or figure 8’s. I routed slots for screws in the cross pieces before assembly and I now prefer this method.
The seat and shelves were finished with Osmo Polyx before attaching to the legs. This is my go-to finish for lighter woods like Maple where I don’t want too much warmth. I used Tried and True hard wax finish for the Walnut frame, where the slight additional warmth looks good. The wife is happy, she has the two shelves filled with shoes and uses it every day.
I'm all about simple. That has functional written all over it. Set the shoes on nice tidy rows, allows a seat to put them on. Looks like it could go right into a closet.
Hickory can be tough, splintery, and hard to tame. Or it can be really nice in all areas. I call it one of those contrary woods. It can also be really pretty to look at, case in point right there.
And although I love the look of hickory, I agree that wood type is a challenge. I have found that ideally any board prep is followed immediately by the building phase. In one project, I had the boards "ready" for the build only to find they were no longer flat when I got back to them.
..... I have used several methods in the past for attaching slabs to a base to allow for wood movement,.....
movement, other than physical re-location, would be the last thing I'd need to worry about, SWMBO's shoe collection is my justification for my Fe$tool collection.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Thanks everyone! I agree, it’s best to start the joinery as soon as possible after the final milling. The process that I now follow starts with initial jointing one face and squaring one edge, followed by planing to an oversized thickness. I then sticker each piece overnight at a minimum. The even air flow really seems to help keep warping to a minimum, although some might happen. When I’m ready to start the joinery, I do another light pass over the jointer if necessary, square an edge, plane to final thickness, and rip to width on the table saw.
Actually LB Duck, this bench only provides enough storage for one day’s worth of shoes for her. We added a 2000 square foot addition to the house to store the entire collection. Her stylist picks out a selection each morning to get her through the day, as well as my allotted pair of sneakers. Sometimes I get lucky and get the choice of another color.
I had been thinking of what I wanted to put in my comment as I was scrolling down. I had a nice compliment figured out and then I see that swirt had written nearly the exact same comment!
What swirt said goes for me too. Excellent project!
