Design of a Plate Rack - Need Opinions

[Tanus]

SWMBO has asked me to make a plate rack.

I've looked at a number of designs on the web, and have come up with my own ideas on how to build it but I'm not

100% confident that my designing skills are up to the task.

It will look similar but not identical to this one:

will have two rows of full sized plates instead of one, so twice the weight of plates.

Mine will not be mounted covering a window but on bare wall.

The one in the picture has a plank holding the plate's edge and I want that plank replaced with two rails, morticed into the sides, spaced about 6" apart front to back. Vertical dowels will separate the plates, as in the picture.

So far, the design calls for a width of

29" and height overall of 34" Thickness of sides stock will be 3/4" and I'm toying with pine sides and oak rails.

My concern is the rails that I'm planning on using to support the edges of the plates. Is there enough stock with the 3/4" sides to resist pullout (glue only) or do I have to think about pinning the rails or use through mortices and use the split tenon/wedge idea? I'd rather not use any screws on this piece if possible.

As I understand the forces that are at play in something like this, most of the force is down, but there is also a force pulling the rails out of the sides as well. I don't know how significant that second force will be.

What do you guys think?

TIA

Tanus

[<marierdj]

Your design approach appears to be good. At the end it is you that will have to live and look at the finished product. As a joke, the only thing I have against this type of open storage design is that its not seismically qualified. I do not know what type of wood you intend to use to make this plate rack. If after several design layouts you are still not happy you can always make a mock up using inexpensive wood. Let us know how you make out.

[Mekon]

Tanus explained :

YMMV but I have never been a fan of those open storage designs. They look good until 1. you have to clean them and 2. the plates get dirty from just sitting there in a kitchen with particulates flying around looking for a nice place to settle. Mekon

[Lew Hodgett]

I'll give it a year, before you retire it, regardless of the design.

Lew

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip

On the other hand, putting it in front of a window provides the benefit of UV sterilization. :-)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Tanus]

Thanks. I will. I"m still going to go ahead with it, even tho as others have suggested, dust is going to be an issue. What makes matters worse is that we heat with wood.

However, the "O" in SWMBO stands for Obey(ed) and with all the information about dust and woodsmoke, she still wants it made. Actually she wants two, and I'm really going to try and talk her out of the second one. She's talking 10 feet of plate rack. Sigh.

The only possible upside to that would be if I could convince her that the ten footer really demanded new tools. That I might be able to live with.

Tanus

[Mike O.]

We've built a few of these that look mostly like the factory models with a cabinet (with doors) on top and the plate rack part below. We make ours so that the doweled parts can be removed. Much easier for the painter and can be to removed later for cleaning inside the cabinet.

Mike O.

[Tanus]

Would you happen to have a picture of the ones you've built?

Tanus

[Mike O.]

Sorry I don't. Basically the ones we build are normally a 30" x 30" x 12" deep wall cabinet with the plate rack in the bottom half and a pair of doors above. It's a pretty common box in factory cabinets so you might find a website that would show a similar cabinet. Sometimes the top opening will be taller if the cabinets are taller or someone wants this cabinet top higher than the rest. We leave a minimum of 12" of height in the clear for the plates. I'm sure the size could be adjusted to fit your needs or to have two rows of plates.

For the doweled parts we use four 1/2" thick x 1 1/2" wide strips of hardwood that are the width of the cabinet. If the stiles hang inside the opening these pieces need to be short enough to turn into the cabinet. The dowels are about 1/8" shorter than the height of the opening and fit loosely into holes drilled into the strips. Put one set of dowels into two strips, locate the strips inside the box and screw tight to the top and bottom. Rinse and repeat for the front set of dowels.

Mike O.

[Tanus]

Thanks Mike. The description helped a lot. I don't think I'll be building an enclosed cabinet this time around, although it may be for V. 2.

The dowels idea I really like, and may well incorporate that into this version.

Thanks again.

Tanus

[Morris Dovey]

Tanus wrote: | Thanks Mike. The description helped a | lot. I don't think I'll be building an | enclosed cabinet this time around, | although it may be for V. 2.

While you guys were talking, I rummaged around and finally found a design that I worked on a bit last year. It's not as fancy as Mike's, and has space for hanging mugs and a shelf that can either be used for serving platter or mugs/glasses.

I'll post a sketch to ABPW.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Mike O.]

I was watching the Sopranos tonight and interestingly enough they had a two row plate rack hanging at the lake cabin. I had never seen this design before. Instead of the two rows of dowels, for each row of plates, it had only one row of dowels. The dowels seemed to have a rail at the front bottom and a rail at the top back so the row of dowels was leaning to the back at about a 45. This seemed to have a pretty open look but I guess I'll have to watch again to pick up more detail. It's funny..... the things you notice!

Mike O.

[Tanus]

The inspiration for this project came from a magazine my wife reads and they have a pic on the web for this month's issue but doesn't show enough detail. Very similar to the one you're talking about except the dowels go front to back from top to bottom. And at about 45º.

I decided against the design because I don't have anything other than a handheld drill and the worst press for it. Controlling the angle would be more than I'd need but I liked the design for the same reasons you stated. Nice and clean,

Tanus

[Mike O.]

The one I saw I believe had a top and bottom rail (holding the dowels) that could be drilled square. It may or may not have had an angle cut on the rails but it looked like the doweled unit was assembled and added to what was the frame. Also, it's possible that the top half had the dowels running from front to back starting at the top and the bottom row had them going front to back staring at the bottom. This would allow you to grab the top row of plates (these would be harder to reach) from the bottom of the plate and the bottom row of plates from the top of the plate. I guess I still need to see it again. Anyway, good luck it'll be a fun project.

Mike O.

[eclipsme]

I was thinking I'd drill the holes at 90 degrees, and put a 45 on the edge...

Harvey

[Tanus]

That's how I ended up drawing it after fiddling with the idea of the rails at

45 to the walls of the sides. I sometimes tend to overdesign things and this was an example of that. A 45 on the edge just makes so much more sense.

Tanus