Tract Rack for Church

[BrianBDH]

Our youth pastor asked if my son and I could build a tract rack for the teens classroom. I can measure up one of the other racks in the church for an idea of dimensions.

I was wondering if anyone had done something like this in the past.

I don't do much in hardwood, but I am leaning towards oak with a golden oak stain.

Any ideas or photos would be great.

Brian

 

[red]

I don't know anything about a tract rack, but I'm sure you can build it. Oak with golden oak stain always looks nice. Post a pic when you get it completed.

Red

 

[Ozzie-x]

I haven't made anything like this but I would probably look toward a solid wood back with wooden dividers between the tracts. I would put a clear plexiglass front on it so you can see and read the front of the tracts.

 

[Gofor]

Oak with an amber shellac or a finish like Behlens would also look nice.

By the way, don't mind Jeff. He views stain on wood as synonymous to "skid-marks" on ....

Nevermind!!

Go

PS: Jeff: Hope I'm not mis-speaking here.

 

[BrianBDH]

I have seen the type with the plexiglass front, but I have to admit that I hate the stuff. I have never had much luck cutting it without it cracking and shattering.

My preference would be to use dowels across the front of each "pocket" to allow the front of each tract to be seen.

Just got started thinking about it so all the options are open for now.

Brian

 

[CrealBilly]

Oak with an amber shellac or a finish like Behlens would also look nice.

By the way, don't mind Jeff. He views stain on wood as synonymous to "skid-marks" on ....

Nevermind!!

Go

PS: Jeff: Hope I'm not mis-speaking here.

Yep that's a good representation of my thoughts :gar-La;

Here's a nice oak one for $160.00

 

[BrianBDH]

Yup, that's pretty close to what I have in mind.

Thanks Jeff. By the way, you got $160 I can borrow?

Okay, just kidding. This is another project for my 12 yr old and me to do together. The ironic thing is that I will probably have $160 PLUS 40 hours in it before it is all over with.

B

 

[CrealBilly]

Yup, that's pretty close to what I have in mind.

Thanks Jeff. By the way, you got $160 I can borrow?

Okay, just kidding. This is another project for my 12 yr old and me to do together. The ironic thing is that I will probably have $160 PLUS 40 hours in it before it is all over with.

B

Your welcome and I know how that goes, but you have to look at it in terms of quality time with your son which is very valuable in it's self.

The sides look like 1x4's, the shelf's look 3/8 thick rounded over and joined to the sides by stop dados, if I had to guess stopped 1/4 from the front. The top looks like a 1x6 and it looks to have a 1/8" hardboard back. Doesn't say how wide or tall but you could get that by measuring tracts. Not sure about the wire but maybe it's some type of brass wire epoxied to the sides? where to find brass wire I really don't know. A better idea might be thin strips of white ash like 1/4" thick by 3/4" wide, to wide and it would hide the racts maybe 1/2" wide? Quarter sawn straight grain ash would hold up and be pretty flexible. Mortis the ash strips into the sides a little more than 1/2" deep and it should stay - might not even need to be glued into the sides. You could pin them in place with some small diameter dowel rod drilled from the back if your concerned they might get pulled out.

Looks like it would be a fun project for you and your son and uses just a little bit of lumber. The one pictured is Red Oak but would look good in white oak too. You could put a personal touch on the top maybe a hand carved cross in a oval or a routed Christian fish would look nice. Gather up all the materials and invite the youth group over on Saturday afternoon - you'll be surprised how fast it could be finished with the youth group helping.

 

[ScottM]

Brian, I have some scroll sawed Christian fish and crosses you can attach if you can't carve or router one. Lemme know if you want one and what size.

 

[Len]

Brian,

"Tom's Train Station" hobby shop on Buck Jones Rd in Cary has brass rod in 3ft lengths. Diameters range from 1/16in up to 1/4in. It's inside the DMV entrance on the back side of South Hills Shopping Center (near K&S Cafeteria).

Len

 

[BrianBDH]

Thanks Scott and Len for the help.

I might take you up on the fish or cross. What are they made from? Any chance you have a picture?

I looked at a rack last night that is exactly the one in Jeff's photo. It has a white plastic insert for dividers between tracts (ugly!). And I didn't like the brass rod across the front. Call me old fashioned, but I didn't think the shiny brass went well with the red oak. I can get red oak dowels 5/16 diameter from Lowes that I think will look much better and still allow you to read the front of the tract.

Probably jump into this project over Christmas break.

B

 

[BrianBDH]

The Tract Rack is finished and was installed in our church Youth room last Monday. My son (now registered as Cool Kenny) and I had a good time with this one.

Our previous projects had been almost exclusively pine, so we learned a thing or two about oak. We broke one drill bit and wrung off one wood screw. We also found that little brads driven into oak will follow the grain and not drive straight.

We want to express our thanks to Scott Miller who graciously volunteered to cut a cross for us with his scroll saw. He really went "above and beyond" by:
1) providing some really nicely figured Maple wood for the cross
2) cutting not one, but four crosses for us to choose from.

Thanks Scott. I hope we can return the favor some day.

Since we don't have a router table, stop-dados for the shelves were a little beyond what we wanted to try this time. We decided that we could butt-joint the shelf members to the verticals and use glue/screws to hold them. We used button-heads to hide the screw and give some style to the side. Since there is no load to speak of on the shelves, should hold just fine.

Kenny did the sanding on the top/bottom of the verticals to give it some style. He also laid out the curve of the top and sanded it with the disc sander. The top sits in rabbets on 3 sides and is held with epoxy.

We wanted to pop the grain, but weren't really interested in a high gloss finish. So we used Danish Oil with Golden Oak stain for the oak, and Tung Oil for the Walnut cross. My poor photography doesn't really do justice to the finished piece. It is a nice contract between the gold and the dark.

We wanted the rack to hang flush to the wall. The back is installed in 5/8" deep rabbets to leave a 3/8" hollow space between the back and the wall. This space is deep enough to contain a 10" long aluminum French Cleat from HD.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help to everyone.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/medium/103_0015.JPG

 

[SubGuy]

Looks great...You should build a router table and get into ROUTER-MANIA with me.:banana:

 

[ScottM]

Brian it was my pleasure to assist in your cause. Glad to help anytime.

 

[SGalley]

Looks great...You should build a router table and get into ROUTER-MANIA with me.:banana:

Routers rock. How's the table coming Zach (please post pics)? And that rack looks great Brian

 

[CrealBilly]

That came out great :thumbs_up

 

[Canuck]

Rack looks super there, Brian!

It looks a lot like a spice rack I built out of red oak and oak dowels for one of my daughters last year.

I am sure that it will hang proudly on that wall for many, many years to come!:eusa_danc:eusa_danc

Wayne