Beer Shelf

This is a little shelf I wanted to make to hold our beer bottles or cans while playing pool. You can use any wood and stain you wish. In this example, I just used a small piece from a pine shelf found at home depot. A 6' shelf only costs around $10 and 1/2" dowel is $2. You can adjust the size of the shelf based on your needs.

Materials needed

- Piece of wood 24" long x 13" wide ( I used 5/8" thick material but you can use 3/4" if you wish)

- 1/2" dowel 19 1/4" long

Tools needed

- 1/2" drill bit

- 2 3/4" forstner bit

- Drill press

- Belt sander

- Glue

- Air compressor & nailer

- router

I started with a 5/8" thick piece that I cross cut to 19 3/4" wide. I then ripped an 8" piece for the back wall and a 4 3/4" piece for the piece where the holes are drilled into. I also cut 2 pieces for the side supports which are 4" x 4".

The drill bit I am using which I find works best for bottles and cans, is a 2 3/4" forstner bit. In the 19 3/4" piece, mark it out so there is 1" from the ends and 1" in between each hole. A drill press works best but can be done with a hand drill if needed.

I quickly dry fit the pieces to see if I was on the right track. Next I wanted to round some corners for a better look. You can leave all the edges square if you wish. I used a cardboard cylinder I found in the garage to use for the rounded corners. There was no specific radius I used for this, whatever looked good for me. I sanded it off using a disc sander. This can also be done using a jig saw, band saw or a rasp.

I cut a 1/2" dowel to 19 1/4" . On the side support pieces, mark your hole 2 1/2" form the top and 2 1/2" from the back. Use a 1/2" drill bit to drill a hole in the piece about 3/4 of the way into the piece. Test fit to make sure everything works.

I used a router to put a small radius on all the pieces. Use a test piece first to make adjustments as to what edge you want. You can also easily just use a block and sandpaper to do it by hand.

Now its time to glue and nail all the pieces together. Draw a line 3" down from the top of the the back piece. This will be where the top of the piece with the holes drilled into it meets the back piece. Now put some glue on the back of the piece with the holes. You can clamp these pieces if you wish, I just stood them on their side and lined it up with the pencil mark and nailed from the back with a couple nails. Now glue the dowel into the two side pieces. Take that assembly and glue it to the first assembly we already did. Nail the side pieces from the top and that back with the nailer. If you don't have a nailer, then you can always use a couple screws. Just make sure to predrill the holes.

Get a wet rag to clean up any glue which has seeped out.

To finish the shelf you can leave it plain with just a polyurethane finish or choose a stain colour you like and then put polyurethane on after. For my shelf, I chose American Walnut stain. I use an old rag to wipe on the stain and another rag to wipe off the extra. You can see my finished shelf with stain in the pictures. I just made this today so I have not yet put a coat of polyurethane on it. I hope you enjoyed this instructable.

Cheers,

Tom