Spice Rack, Production

i'm building a spice rack for Kristen. well, for both of us, really. currently, our spices reside in a cheapo, fabric-covered bin hidden under a cloth in a rolling cart. all the lids look the same so i've marked a few, and the others we guess at until we find what we're looking for. very efficient. we received a case of spice jars for our wedding almost two years ago and they're still sitting, unused, somewhere in the basement.

the idea to build a spice rack from pallet wood has been fermenting in my brain for quite a long time. in fact, i probably have sketches of various versions all over the house. what got me going finally, was the brutal spring and summer we had at work. absolutely nothing got done around the house on my end, so i pushed all my projects to the fall and winter and have been looking forward to it.  my table saw has been sadly neglected in the basement and i've acquired a few more tools so no time like the now time!

i started by picking out the best-looking pallets to dismantle. the used pallets i get from freight trucks generally look like shit, so i pretty much took the best of the crap bunch. using a deck wrecker, i pulled all the slats and knocked out all the nails which isn't too bad a task except it takes some time.

from the pile of wood that i had collected, i selected the straightest, cleanest pieces to use for the spice rack. again, this was pallet wood so i was picking the least ugly of the ugly bunch. i was fine with this, though, as i knew i wanted to keep a little of that reclaimed wood 'charm' that i see on Etsy and Kristen's Pintrest thing so much. some day, if this turns out well, i might end up selling expensive stuff on the internet too.

since both ends of the wood all had nail holes and splits, i cross cut the ends off using my table saw. just enough to take out the cracks but keep most of the wood. then i setup my router on the table and, using a flush trim bit, jointed one side of each piece of wood. this would be my reference side. with my miter sled square, and one edge of the wood nice and flat (by my standards), i measured and cut each of the pieces i needed for the frame and shelves.

this left three sides done on each piece of wood so i setup the fence to rip each piece at 2 1/4 inches -- just big enough for the fattest jars we have. so all the main pieces of wood are cut and ready for some quick rough sanding before assembly. i'll use a 6 inch piece of wood as a spacer so the shelves are the same height, then use the cutoffs from the rip cuts as front pieces to keep the jars in place. for the back, i'll decide when i get the whole thing assembled. i might close off the entire back, or use larger pieces behind each shelf; we'll see.

part 2 and pictures to come.