I have been asked for details on how I constructed my
Easy Build Compact Rifle Rack. Here are some pictures that may help you make sense of the cutting process and the assembly.
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| A model of the finished rack |
I started by cutting the basic parts from 20mm thick board. On the left you will see both sides cut from the same board. On the right you will see six parts all the same width. The top two are the top rail assembly, the bottom four make up the base assembly.
Note: For my American friends, I am sorry the measurements are metric, however most of them are actually multiples or fractions of an inch so it would not be too difficult to follow along.
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| Overall dimensions of the parts |
Here is a close up of the top rail assembly and the layout of the rail.
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| Marking out the top rail |
After cutting it looks like this.
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| The top rail after it has been cut with a jigsaw |
Next I cut the oval holes in the base plate. These holes must align with the top rail and be equally spaced.
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| Each hole is two 60mm diameter circles |
After cutting it looked like this.
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| I cut the holes with a 60mm holesaw and a jigsaw |
The sides are cut from the same board.
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| Layout of the sides |
After they are cut they look like this.
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| I cut the sides with a jigsaw. |
With all the parts cut out they should look like this.
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| I also rounded over the edges with a round-over bit on my router table |
In the next images I will show the basic assembly. So that you can follow along I have coloured each part.
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| If Skittles made rifle racks |
I first assembled the base and the top rail. I used a biscuit jointer and glue. These could simply have been glued with the parts butted up against each other or possibly with dowels or even screws.
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| The base and top rail assembly |
I then joined the base and top rail assembles to on of the sides, checking for square.
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| It is critical to check for square |
Then the other side is joined, again checking for square. After it was all solid, I trimmed the front of the top-rail assembly flush with the sides. This could have been avoided by better planning at the design stage of these drawings.
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| Measure twice cut once applies even in the virtual domain |
This is the actual finished piece. You can see it differs only slightly from the drawing.
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| My original rack dry fit (not yet glued) |
I hope this short pictorial explanation will help you understand the construction of the rack.
Please be aware like all my blog these drawings are protected by the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Thanks for reading! :)
