The towel rack is constructed from 20mm diameter dowels, 1m in length. The frames to hold the dowels can be made from any suitable light weight material.
In this case, I used pine from palings removed from an old fence. The palings were approximately 100mm wide, which when ripped with a table saw, gave strips 45mm wide and 20mm breadth.
Timber Frame
Using the dimensions given in the plans, cut the necessary sections that will form the frame when assembled.
The plans show the sections with simple butt joints. However, if you have a router table and dove-tail bit, dove-tail joints can be relatively easily cut into the sections. This provides a stronger joint, and when assembled does not require clamping waiting for the wood glue to dry.
In this case, I used dove-tail joints, and the Photographs Section show how the joints look when completed and assembled.
Prior to assembly, each of the pieces that will form the frame had the edges smoothed over using a round-over router bit. This is to ensure that any towels or clothing placed on the assembled towel rack would not catch on splinters etc, as the pine used for construction was rather soft. The rounded edges are also more aesthetically pleasing.
Holes 20mm in diameter and 10mm deep are bored at the required places using a Forsnter drill bit.
Assembly
The required pieces to form a frame are assembled and glued using wood glue. While waiting for the glue joints to dry, the work piece was laid flat on the work-bench to ensure that no 'twist' would develop.
With successively finer grit sand-paper the work-piece was sanded, and then 'painted' with a clear gloss varnish (three coats), or stained and coated with a similar product of choice.
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