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Materials:
- Bronze (or copper, brass, aluminum, fiberglass) bug screen (available
from wire goods supply places, or home centers) - you need a piece
at least 30" x 63"
- 10' of 5/8" polycarbonate tubing (available from a plastics
supply house)
- 14" of 3/8" dowelling
- Scrap lumber for jigs
- Rubbing alcohol
- Brass hardware - 40 sets of acorn nuts,
- 1" machine screws, washers
- 8 brass grommets
- Silk tassels or whatever you like to decorate finished rack
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Tools
- Clamps
- Rotary knife
- Straight edge (long board)
- Safety glasses
- Putty knife
- Rolling pin
- Saw
- Permanent marker
- Drill bits designed for drilling into plastic; one small, and
one that is large enough to match the diameter of your brass machine
screws
- Drill
- Hammer
- Binder clips
- Grommet tools - punch, set and block
- Awl, ice pick or
- Phillips screwdriver with diameter that matches your hardware
- Rag
- Hex head driver
- Slot head screwdriver
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Steps:
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Using a rotary knife, cut two pieces of screen measuring
14 ½" x 63". To make sure you get a nice even line with your
knife, use a straight edge as a guide.
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Use a putty knife and the straight edge to bend the screen up |
Continue the bend using your fingers
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Press it down again using the putty knife
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Use a rolling pin to burnish the crease |
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Use a putty knife to bend the screen up ¾" at each edge.
Then make a hard crease in the screen with the putty knife.
Give it a final pressing with a rolling pin. Repeat these
steps again so you have a double fold.
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Cut the polycarbonate tubing to length with a fine-toothed saw |
Polycarbnate tubing is more flexible than other types of tubing
(i.e. acrylic)
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Cut ten 1' pieces of polycarbonate tubing, using a fine-toothed
saw.
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Build a 90 degree wooden jig |
Measure and mark the jig at the drill points |
Use the jig to mark the tube |
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Make an L-shaped jig by nailing together two 14" pieces of
trim lumber.
Place marks along the top edge of the jig at ½", 4", 8" and
11 ½".
Lay the first tube in the jig. Draw a straight line along
one edge of the tube by setting a permanent marker against
the bottom edge of the jig and dragging it along the tube.
This will give you a nice straight line to drill holes into,
so that all the holes line up in the same plane.
Using the same jig, make marks on the tube corresponding
with the marks you made on the jig - at ½", 4", 8" and 11
½".
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Slide a tightly fitting dowel into the hollow tube |
Drill holes in the ends of the dowel and nail them down to make
a clamp |
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Insert a 14" piece of 3/8" dowel into the 5/8" tube.
Drill holes in each end of the dowel where it sticks out
of the tube.
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Nailing the dowel and tube down stabilizes the tube for drilling
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Drilling holes in plastic requires a special drill bit |
Start with a small bit and increase to the desired size |
After drilling, use a hammer to pry the tube and doweling up |
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Nail the dowel through the drilled holes to a scrap piece
of lumber. Now the tube is snug and stable so you can drill
the holes without it rolling.
Using a drill bit specially designed for drilling into
plastic, and keeping the drill as vertical as possible,
drill holes at the marks. The drill bit goes through wood
just as easily as plastic, so your piece of dowelling won't
be a problem. Drill the holes with a smaller bit. Once that's
done, ream each hole with the larger bit so it will fit
your hardware.
Repeat the above steps until you have holes drilled in
all 10 tube pieces.
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Square the two pieces of bug screen and clip them together with
binder clips |
Mark for the grommets |
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Lay out the 2 hemmed pieces of bug screen, one on top of
the other. Square them. Clip the edges together with binder
clips.
Mark for grommets, measuring down ½" from the top edge
and ½" up from the bottom edge. Draw marks that echo the
placement of the holes you've just drilled in all the tubes
- at the ½", 4", 8" and 11 ½" points (the two outside grommets
will have to be set in a little deeper than ½" so that the
grommet punches through as many layers of the folded screen
as possible.)
Put 4 grommets along the top edge, and 4 along the bottom
edge.
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To make a grommet, follow these steps.
Put a piece of scrap lumber under the marked screen.
Place the "punch" over one of the marks.
Punch through the layers of screen by striking the punch
with a hammer.
When you feel the punch bite into the scrap wood, you are
all the way through.
Remove the punch and insert a "male" grommet piece up through
the hole; place a "female" grommet piece on top.
Place the "block" under the grommet assembly.
Place the "set" in the top opening of the male grommet.
Whack it several times with a hammer.
Remove the set; if it's stuck, pry it loose with a small
screwdriver.
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Mark screen with marker for placement of tubes and holes
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Push an awl through the screen and into the drill holes on the
wooden jig |
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On the bug screen, mark for placement of the tubes, and
also for where the screen needs to have holes that match
the holes in each tube.
The first tube goes 2" down from the top, then tubes follow
ever 6 ¼". The final tube is 2" up from the bottom.
Make the process simpler by using the piece of scrap lumber
that you used for drilling holes through the tubes. On the
scrap lumber, draw a thick line that passes through the
center of the four drill holes. Then slide it underneath
the screen material.
Use an awl (or ice pick or Phillips screwdriver) to push
through the screen at each mark, gently pushing individual
wires aside to give you an opening large enough to pass
your brass hardware through.
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Once you've opened holes for all 10 lines of tube and hardware,
start inserting tubes and fastening them in place with the
hardware. Tighten the hardware using two tools at once -
a hex head driver to hold the acorn nut on one side of the
screen, and a screw driver to tighten the screw head on
the other side.
Hang the wine rack in place with heavy chain, or decorate
with silk tassels or glass pendant.
Now pour yourself a glass of that 1989 Pouilly Fuisse and
ponder the delicate subtlety of bug screen.
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Artisans'
work featured on this episode:
(click pics for Artist info and larger
images)
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