Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted U's
with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany or Red
Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and strength.
One way would be two straight legs with a small inverted U on top. Another
would be for each leg to have half of the full arch on top and be joined at
the top. My concern is the cross grain in the arch. Wouldn't this be very
weak or would it be ok in this application?

Thanx,

Vic

--
There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary. Those who do and those
who don't!

Vic Baron wrote:
Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted
U's with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany
or Red Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and
strength. One way would be two straight legs with a small inverted U on
top. Another would be for each leg to have half of the full arch on top
and be joined at the top. My concern is the cross grain in the arch.
Wouldn't this be very weak or would it be ok in this application?


W/ no more load than I would expect there to be, I don't think it would
structurally be a problem unless the pieces were exceptionally narrow.

But, an alternative would be to join the arch piece at the top of the
upright at (say) 45-degrees and the middle so could lay out the arch
portion roughly along grain. Many variations of the same theme are, of
course, possible.

--

"Vic Baron" wrote in message
...
Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted
U's with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany or
Red Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and strength.
One way would be two straight legs with a small inverted U on top.
Another would be for each leg to have half of the full arch on top and be
joined at the top. My concern is the cross grain in the arch. Wouldn't
this be very weak or would it be ok in this application?

Much ado about nothing. You are not building a bridge here. Quilts, even
big ones do not weight that much.

Also, the quilt rack is designed to show off the quilts. anything too big or
fancy will distract the quilt view.

I have built a number of quilt racks with 1 X 2's, 1 X 3's and 1 X 4's. I
used lap and half lap joints, a little glue and some finish nails. I puttied
in the set nails. Sorry, no pictures of them. But they were done as a
quick, inexpensive project. And the ladies who received them acted like they
were fine, expensive furniture.

Quilters go nuts over anything you make for them. I know, I am married to
one.

"Lee Michaels" wrote in message
...

"Vic Baron" wrote in message
...
Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted
U's with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany or
Red Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and strength.
One way would be two straight legs with a small inverted U on top.
Another would be for each leg to have half of the full arch on top and be
joined at the top. My concern is the cross grain in the arch. Wouldn't
this be very weak or would it be ok in this application?

Much ado about nothing. You are not building a bridge here. Quilts, even
big ones do not weight that much.

Also, the quilt rack is designed to show off the quilts. anything too big
or fancy will distract the quilt view.

I have built a number of quilt racks with 1 X 2's, 1 X 3's and 1 X 4's. I
used lap and half lap joints, a little glue and some finish nails. I
puttied in the set nails. Sorry, no pictures of them. But they were done
as a quick, inexpensive project. And the ladies who received them acted
like they were fine, expensive furniture.

Quilters go nuts over anything you make for them. I know, I am married to
one.




I had the feeling it was much ado about nothing but wanted to check.

Now to work!

Thanx,

Vic

Vic Baron wrote:
Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted
U's with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany
or Red Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and
strength.

As discussed elsewhere, it's probably not an issue in this context.
However, for future reference the best ways to deal with a curved piece
that needs to be strong are probably to laminate it from thinner strips,
or steam-bend it.

Chris