I designed this magnetic spice rack after searching fruitlessly for a creative way to display all my spices. I loved the idea of a magnetic spice rack to go along with my magnetic knife rack, but store bought options were either too boring or too expensive. Then I found some test tube spice rack designs on this site. As an engineer and Alton Brown fan, I wanted to stick to the idea of cooking as chemistry. I used the idea in the comments on this page as inspiration for my final design. I took the commenter’s proposal of using taxonomy as a way of organizing spices and ran with it. After a few hours on Wikipedia, I decided to group the herbs and spices by Order and include the Family, Genus, Species, English names, and a made up symbol on each box. As for salt and pepper, they just had to be Hydrogen and Helium, right?
I made my own tins, based on the instructions here. I had my design printed on vinyl at a local shop, and they applied it to sheet metal I bought from onlinemetals.com. I used a sheet of stainless steel with a sheet of cold-rolled steel behind it for magnetism, but you could probably just use the regular steel by itself with a bit of polish and anti-rust coating. I got the labels from LabelsByTheSheet.com and printed them at work. I made the frame with some moulding and spray paint from Home Depot, but you could also buy a frame from a craft store.
EDIT: WOW! I never expected to be featured on the Instructables homepage, let alone ThinkGeek's Facebook page. Thanks to everyone who "liked." Due to the overwhelming cries of "want!" I'm temporarily taking down the high-res PDF until I figure out if it's feasible for me to sell and market these things myself. If I can't figure it out in a few weeks, the PDF will come back for all you fellow DIYers.
Right now I'm keeping track of comments for missing ingredients or suggestions on arrangement. Yes, I know salt is not technically an herb or spice, but can you think of anything more "elemental" to cooking? I also didn't include some common ingredients like fennel, vanilla, capers, mustard or mint because I usually use fresh instead of dried. I chose clear tops because it looks cooler, even if it's not as good for the herbs.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone that's shown interest in this! I'm hoping to start a Kickstarter campaign by the end of April, but I need to nail down suppliers before I know how much money I need to raise. Finished products will be available as rewards for either a discount or at least free shipping. There will be three different sized kits and KS contributors can vote on which spices are included. There will also be options for customized orders or individual add-ons. I wish I could move faster on this but I have a job that keeps me pretty busy. Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE 2: I am still working on this! I've got prototypes of four different sized kits that should be finished this week. I'm hoping to start my Kickstarter campaign soon, but there's actually a patent on magnetic spice racks. I'm trying to contact the patent holder and work out a license agreement. If that doesn't work out my backup plan is to sell prints of the table and customers will be on their own to buy or make the tins.
I made my own tins, based on the instructions here. I had my design printed on vinyl at a local shop, and they applied it to sheet metal I bought from onlinemetals.com. I used a sheet of stainless steel with a sheet of cold-rolled steel behind it for magnetism, but you could probably just use the regular steel by itself with a bit of polish and anti-rust coating. I got the labels from LabelsByTheSheet.com and printed them at work. I made the frame with some moulding and spray paint from Home Depot, but you could also buy a frame from a craft store.
EDIT: WOW! I never expected to be featured on the Instructables homepage, let alone ThinkGeek's Facebook page. Thanks to everyone who "liked." Due to the overwhelming cries of "want!" I'm temporarily taking down the high-res PDF until I figure out if it's feasible for me to sell and market these things myself. If I can't figure it out in a few weeks, the PDF will come back for all you fellow DIYers.
Right now I'm keeping track of comments for missing ingredients or suggestions on arrangement. Yes, I know salt is not technically an herb or spice, but can you think of anything more "elemental" to cooking? I also didn't include some common ingredients like fennel, vanilla, capers, mustard or mint because I usually use fresh instead of dried. I chose clear tops because it looks cooler, even if it's not as good for the herbs.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone that's shown interest in this! I'm hoping to start a Kickstarter campaign by the end of April, but I need to nail down suppliers before I know how much money I need to raise. Finished products will be available as rewards for either a discount or at least free shipping. There will be three different sized kits and KS contributors can vote on which spices are included. There will also be options for customized orders or individual add-ons. I wish I could move faster on this but I have a job that keeps me pretty busy. Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE 2: I am still working on this! I've got prototypes of four different sized kits that should be finished this week. I'm hoping to start my Kickstarter campaign soon, but there's actually a patent on magnetic spice racks. I'm trying to contact the patent holder and work out a license agreement. If that doesn't work out my backup plan is to sell prints of the table and customers will be on their own to buy or make the tins.
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I really want to make one now, and hopefully with the wife's approval I can. Good luck on the Kickstarter and if I see you on there I'll throw a few your way. On a side note could you please upload the high res PDF again? I know I'm gonna design my own just because there are some spices I don't use and others I'd like to add, but it would be nice to have a clear version of yours for reference.
Would pay you of course...
Thanks!
My case: if someone is going to DIY this, they'll do it regardless of your kickstarter or not (this isn't the type of KS project that too hard to do on your own). If they're like me, they'll want to see the detailed images/instructions and decide they rather help fund your KS campaign.
I am also recycling the door of an old freezer.
Thanks for the idea.
I just finished putting mine together, and made sure your "handle name" is on my chart. I kept the spice area the same, but changed the blends for my cooking and tasting arena.
It cost me about $200 to do the whole thing without having to make anything except designing the board myself, but definitely worth the money for someone who likes to cook. I even found a website where I can make the blends myself, courtesy of the spice area.
If you can contact me, singinglow, I would appreciate it. I would love to show you mine, and I have some money I want to send you since you gave me the idea.
Solution:
Invert the lid, pour enough spice to create a nice view, cut a disk out of black cardstock and place over the spice. To hold in place, use a ring of glue from a glue gun. Let cure completely before adding spice to the tin and capping. Now you have a nice view of the spice while protecting the tin contents.
You *should* state that the table is copyrighted work & that it is not to be used for commercial purposes. Therefore, if someone produced your exact table for sale, you would have legal recourse. However, anyone can take this idea, create their own table to be almost identical, manufacture for profit, and you would have absolutely no recourse. Closely replicating copyrighted work is usually legal - duplicating or copying is not.
Please bring the high-res PDF back soon!!!
I'm just trying to figure out where I can put it in my kitchen. This is Teh Awesome.