How to Build a Steel Wine Rack
If you prefer to make your own decorative storage items and know how to weld, you can make a steel wine storage rack in about an hour. Once you master the techniques, you can adapt this design to match any decor, although it looks best in a Tuscan, modern, contemporary or Art Deco era room. Once treated with rust-inhibiting spray enamel, this rack adds a charming touch to any patio as well.
The step of bulid a steel wine rack
Wrap 1/8-inch diameter steel rod stock around a 4-inch diameter, 24-inch long, 1/8-inch thick piece of steel pipe, 26 full turns.
Separate the rings from one another using an abrasive saw blade on a 4-inch right-angle grinder. Clamp each ring to your welding table, one at a time. "Tippy-tap" each ring with a hammer just enough to make both ends lie in the same plane -- which means that they are not bent upward from the table -- and so that the ends meet as close together as possible.
Don your welding helmet, gloves and full leathers. Weld each ring together between the two cut ends.
Switch to an 80-grit flapper wheel on a right-angle grinder and grind the welds on the outside surface of each ring.
Grind all the welds on the inside surface of each steel ring, using an 80-grit sanding drum on your drill press.
Arrange 13 rings in a "grape cluster" shape. Begin with a single ring closest to you, placed between and butted against two rings in the second row going away from you. Continue with three rings in the third row, four in the fourth and the remaining three rings in the fifth row.
Repeat step 6 to make a second "grape cluster" with the remaining 13 rings.
Weld all the contact points between each ring. Grind each weld even with the ring metal using the 80-grit flapper wheel on your right-angle grinder, followed by the 2-inch diameter, 80-grit sanding drum on your drill press. These two "grape clusters" form the front and back of your wine rack.
Lay the 16- by 10- by 1/8-inch steel plate so that one of the 16-inch sides faces you. Find and mark the center point on each 16-inch side with a soapstone marker. Use a straight edge to draw a line between the two points.
Mark two points, 1 1/2 inches from each end of that line, using a soapstone marker. Stand the first "grape cluster" on end on its single-grape tip, on the point closest to you.
