Shopsmith Forums

Quote:
Originally Posted by clean.cut.rose
hello, even though i have a mark v that's collecting dust, just want to know if you can please, share your expertise and knowledge of any tips on making a wooden rack to hold my embroidery and large serger spools of thread?

i've looked at the ones they sell at the various fabric shops and they're too small and i'd need too many of them to piece it together to have what i need.

i need a thread rack that will be approx. 5' across X 3' tall
here's what i purchased to get started:
several 1"x2"x5' pine boards
several 1/4" dowel rods

i'm trying to get back into woodworking but i'm getting a slow start by doing projects that i need around the home for starters. so i'm taking baby steps and would greatly appreciate your kind assistance, please.

here's what i'm thinking of doing and feel free to direct/correct me in the right direction, please, sir:

i wanted 1/4" thick, cross-piece boards but didn't know where to buy them so that's why i'm using all 1"x2"x3' or 5' lengths for the cross boards.

i was going to partially drill the 1/4" holes for the dowel rods to be glued into then, lay out 2 of the 1"x2"x3' vertically, approx. 48" apart then, marking my cross-piece boards far enough apart so i can easily take the spools of thread off as i need them without bumping into the other spools. i'm thinking that i either need to attach the cross-piece boards with screws that will go into the base boards or gorilla glue them in place. and then drilling a hole at the top of the base boards to fasten them onto my wall.

i'd appreciate your assistance, please sir.

rose


This is my interpretation of what you said you need. Is it close?

The vertical separation between shelves seems to be too large unless you are using rather large spools of thread. Are these sewing machine spools or are they embroidery machine spools. How tall are the spools? How many spools do you intend to store on this rack?
How tall do you intend to make the dowels? Why dowels at all; would the spools not just sit on the shelf without dowels? I assume this rack will be hung on a wall; it is too narrow to free stand!

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I reread what you had written and my first interpretation may have been incorrect. Is this closer to what you are thinking?

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Dusty, I think it might be more like this.


The size is, Measures 12.5 x 15.5 x 2 inches.

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beeg wrote:Dusty, I think it might be more like this.

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She may change her mind when she sees this; it certainly looks like a neat rack.....but....it sure doesn't fit the original description.

That's a really neat drawing. What program is that done with, Beeg?

Why don't you go back and put some dimensions on it?

Here's a photo of the one built for my wife's sewing/embroidery room. It measures about 2.5 ft. wide by 3.5 ft. tall. (The aluminum ruler showin near the top of the rack is 3 ft.) (In the 1st photo, you can see an old store bought one to the right of the larger one.)

At the time, 5 yrs ago, it was large enough to hold all of her large spools. Rather than loose more wall space, she came up with the idea of adding plastic straws to the pegs so she could stack the spools. She is quite inventive.

She soon became aware that when she had several spools off of the rack, she needed a couple of trays to hold those, so the didn't just roll around. There is one tray in the first pic and another in the second pic.

Another space saving idea she came up with is a couple of folding leaves. I used folding brackets from Rockler that support about 750 lbs per pair. A little over-kill, but they work well for multiple purposes. (See 3rd Photo) http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... 20brackets

Another cute little thing is the scissor,etc. holding device she made by gluing medium sized empty spools to a piece of Masonite. (Photo #1)

The joints in the larger thread rack were made by dadoing off the edges of the back cross pieces at a 45 degrees, then gluing and stapling the cross bars to the up-rights. This way the pegs protrude at a 45 degree angle. (space saving)

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Wow, Chuck, your whole family is into crafts. That's great.

shydragon wrote:Wow, Chuck, your whole family is into crafts. That's great.

Yep! We think it is great also! The two hobbies keep us separated when otherwise we probably would be getting into each other's space. Together time is pretty well standardized, anticipated and appreciated. It makes for Happy Times.

Another good thing is her machines have cost more than mine! No big justifications are required - we understand!

Someone suggested that the spools needed to be supported. Probably a good idea.

Here is an approach presented by another drawing. I would suggest installing these on the wall or in a cabinet at an angle (about 45 degrees).

I'm having fun and learning a bit more about Sketchup so I'll probably carry this on still further. I gotta be careful though or I'll find myself redoing the ones I made last summer for my daughters Traveling Embroidery business.

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My wife, Ann, stores all her threads in stacked plastic drawers to keep the dust off the threads. I plan to cut a flat piece of plywood to fit the bottom of each drawer and add the posts to keep the spools separate in the drawers. We had several thread racks on the wall originally but she had me remove them due to dust on the threads from the nearby farming fields and roads.