While trying to come up with gift ideas, I learned that my granddaughter was in need of a way to store her earrings. My first concept looks rather mundane for an 8 year old so I am now making 2 versions. The second one is better for her.
Ladder Rack
This design is fairly traditional. My dad made one several years ago and I found some concepts on line.
From these 2 examples, I now have a design of my own. There is a set of notched rails stepped back as you go up. There is a shelf at bottom to catch any dropped pieces. The cross rail on the top allows for wall mounting.
I used my CNC to cut sides from a piece of re-sawn hickory.
The rails and shelf bottom are maple. The rest of the pieces are from the last of the hickory board. The glue up is a bit tricky. It is pretty easy to have everything go out of square. My solution is to use a glue-up board to hold everything square. You can see I added pegs on the side to hold necklaces. If I would have thought of this earlier I could have put the holes in during the CNC cut.
With the sides locked into position, I can add in everything else. I am not drilling the holes in the rails as shown in the CAD image. They’re too hard to use.
Lots of spring clamps are put to work.
After 2 coats of GF Semi-Gloss this one is done. Here’s a view from the front.
And here is a view from the back.
This one ended up being part of a gift exchange and went to a good home.
Plan B - Butterfly Rack
After some more online searching I found a concept that would work for my granddaughter.
This goes well with the Butterfly Jewelry Box I had gifted back in 2022. After some more searching I found a .svg file that I could work on. After some adjustments I had a file that would work.
I cut the pattern with my CNC and a 1/16” up-cut spiral bit.
I’m adding two pieces on the back – a cross bar so it can be hung on the wall and a vertical bar to fit on a post. The last piece is to make a stand with a dowel for the post. I also put a set of notches across the top to hold more earrings.
After that there is a bit of clean-up to smooth the edges. I’m using a pink stain and a couple coats of GF semi-gloss.
Here you can see the pieces on the back. The top cross bar has a hole on each end to run a string through for hanging on the wall.
This gift got the best response of anything I have made yet. I wasn’t sure at all how it would go over. But it was perfect!
Didn't know you had pierced ears and I thought the pink was too girlie even for a wooden car makeover perpetrator... but then I realised it was for the granddaughter.
33 minutes.... EEK! Lucky (I think) I ordered the Bench Pilot for my Shaper.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
