This is another small part of a larger modular project.
The aim is to create a display for drinks bottles and miniatures, which will present them nicely, while at the same time securing them to protect against small amounts of movement. i.e. I'm not expecting them to be secured if the whole stand is tipped over, but they must be able to tolerate the stand being wobbled side-to-side without the bottles clinking or falling over.
There is also the need to balance the trade-off between the display aspect of the unit, and the amount of storage it provides.
After iterating over a number of designs I settled on the idea of having a central area which would display a number of larger bottles, with a frame/shelf element around the back and side edges to hold miniatures (the front would need to be left open to allow access to the bottles).
The base
The base is simple plywood, with foam to support the larger bottles. The foam is spray-glued to the plywood, with cut-outs to place the bottles, and is wrapped in fabric - also spray-glued and stapled.
The frame
The frame is oak, attached through the bottom of the plywood, and supported by the miniatures shelves and the top frame, which is mitred, and screwed to the uprights with dowels to cover the screw holes. The sides are left open, but the back is enclosed with iroko (there is a logic to this that will become apparent later). The mixture of woods creates a nice colour contrast and adds additional support.
The miniatures shelves
The basic idea behind the miniature shelf is to use a forstner bit to cut out grooves for the bottles to stand in. But this alone raises a couple of problems
- If they're just sat in holes, it won't be possible to see the labels and know easily what they are.
- There's no definitive standard size/shape of the bottles.
The latter question has an easy answer, just pick the smallest forstner bit that covers the most bottles that I have to hand - this turned out to be 41mm.
The solution to the first point is to cut the groove off centre, so that it has an open front, allowing the label to be seen, but again, this raises the next question - if the groove is open-fronted, then what's to stop the bottle just falling out?
I'd already planned to line the bottle slots with leather to prevent rattling. By over-sizing the corners of the leather (see below illustration), the leather also acts like a clip to hold the bottles in place, with a sturdy leather disc glued in the bottom to provide extra support.
The finished display
