Wine Racks

Looks great! Had you thought about drilling vertically along the edge, creating almost an Indian headdress look? Not drilling all the way thru but deep enough to house the bottles. Just a thought for the next ones.
They really do look great.

good save from the camp fire
how do you control the hole saw on the 2nd pass and keep it centered?

jagwah: that would look cool but the bottle needs to be tipped down, that keeps the cork wet so the air can't reach the wine in long term storage

I never keep my wine long enough for this to matter.

Bob gets snookered.

This came out great a unique design and well done

Really great idea and they look great. I would have never thought of that.

Thanks to all of you for your positive comments. As far as controlling the hole saw and keeping it centered on the second pass is concerned, it's really not that hard. The pilot in the hole saw keeps it centered, and the first cut helps with control. After the first cut, I always use a long bit to drill all the way through the piece, and then I come at it with a first cut from the other side. The two-directional cut doesn't always line up perfectly, but close enough to make sanding the inside of the "chute" fairly easy. I'm still trying to figure out something a little easier to control the self-feeding bit, but haven't stumbled on it yet. Making one cut all the way through would certainly be a LOT less time consuming and labor intensive. I just don't have the strength to adequately control the torque the self-feed bit and 1/2 inch drill put out. Ideas are certainly welcome.

This is a great idea. I am in the process of splitting up a 150 year old red oak for firewood. I have pulled out a few 15" diameter logs to make into lazy susans, but I was trying to figure out what I could do with some of the other logs rather than waste it all on firewood.

I'm thinking that I could drill a lot of smaller holes, using a small auger bit to remove much of the waste, and then run a 3.5" or 4" forstner bit through it. With it clamped in a drill press, it would run through straight.

closetguy, please let me know how that works for you. I don't have a very big drill press, so wasn't able to do what you are suggesting. I did try cutting the circle very shallow and using a 1/2" drill bit to go down straight through followed up with the bigger self feed bit, but it still threw me around more than I could handle (again, I don't have a big enough drill press to do this, so had to stand on the piece to hold it in place). Good luck, and I REALLY hope your idea works!

I can imagine that would be tough without a drill press. Another thought would be to make a MDF template hole, use it to guide a PC template bushing to get the hole to a partial depth, then change to a bearing mounted flush straight bit. The bearing mounted bit would follow the original hole diameter all the way through. You would have to have a router bit extension to make it that far, but it sounds good to me in theory.

closetguy, you know, your idea just might work (and better than what I was doing). Sounds like the extension might allow me to use the router to go a lot deeper and get a smoother cut overall. I think I'd still need to go from both sides of the slab, but maybe this way, the cuts would line up better, too. I won't be able to do this for awhile as I did some research and the router bit extensions are pretty expensive (gotta sell a few of these wine racks and reinvest). If you try it, please let me know how it goes.

Very nice. When I have had to drill big holes I clamp the wood securely in place and first drill a 1" hole with a forstner bit. Then I make a pass with a 1.5" forstner bit. I continue until I am up to the size I want. With some woods I am able to take bigger steps. I also advise sharpening your forstner bits (not hard to do). Some forstner bits are not adequately sharp even when they are brand new.

richgreer, thanks for the advice. Do you do your drilling on a drill press, or do you use a 1/2" drill and go in "freehand"? Your idea sounds interesting, but after clocking my shin pretty good using a drill (twice, no less), I'm not too anxious to try that again, and my drill press is a radial which doesn't give me a whole lot of throat capacity for my six inch thick slabs. Thanks again for any advice you can give.