T-Shirt Rack ( with NeckSaver)

Don't ever iron your T-shirts again!
Give your first-string tee rotation the respect that it deserves.

Every decent human being has a dozen or so T-shirts that they wear on a regular basis. Some of them are concert shirts, some are them from college, some of them are from radio stations, and some are just plain gifts. Until now, there have been three choices in the care of these fine washables, once they're dry:

1. Take them out of the dryer as soon as they're done, and fold them.
2. Take them out of said dryer as soon as they're done, and hang them in your closet.
3. Just leave 'em in said dryer, and iron them later.

But, folding clothes takes years and years of practice and refinement. It's something that most of us will never perfect. And, you can't hang T-shirts too many times, because the neck starts to stretch out. And third, everyone knows that ironing T-shirts is right up there with folding underwear, in terms of time mangement...

Enter: the T-Shirt Rack ( with NeckSaver)

Just slip 'em on the rack as soon as they're dry, and fuggetaboutem!
...

Step 1 Acquire Materials

Today kids, we are going to make a T-shirt rack. It will be suitable for T-shirts of the Large and X-large variety. The rack will hold a dozen T-shirts (or tank tops, wife-beaters, etc.)

For this task you will need the following 1/2" schedule-40 PVC pipe components:

28 elbow fittings (90 degree)
24 "T" fittings (how appropo!)
14 pre-cut 18" pipe lengths
24 pre-cut 36" pipe lengths
26 pre-cut 1.25" pipe lengths (joiners)

TOOLS REQUIRED:

some kind of chop saw, for the joiners
a rubber mallet, maybe
and no glue, yes, no glue! (especially if you ever plan on moving)

NOTES:

1. You can get pre-cut pipe lengths at OSH, for not much more than the uncut price
2. You have to cut the 1-1/4" joiners yourself, as far as I know
3. Don't be try to be a hero by cutting the joiners to exactly 1.5" (you'll know what I mean)

PROJECT COST: approximately $26 USD
CONSTRUCTION TIME: approximately 26 minutes (PST)
...

(The pieces I bought from OSH had obviously been used by another customer, and then returned.)

Comments

[nennikers]

LOVE THIS! Just made it today. I don't need it for tees, but I'm using it to dry sweaters. PHENOMENAL! The sweaters slip right over and I can tweak here and there to make them hang straight (and dry without annoying creases from the old stand-by drying rack). THANK YOU!!!!

[deofthedead]

Jeeze, this is so simple I really don't have an excuse NOT to do it. Curses! My plans to never bother to hang up or fold laundry get dashed once again!

Y'know, if I can just will myself into bothering to get up to the hardware store, anyways... >.> Rockin' 'ible, good sir. You got my five stars.

[jerschwab]

I just roll my shirts like I'm packing... if you do it right, you get the front of the shirt (logo or print) on the outside, they pack real tight so no wrinkles, and you can fit about double the amount in the dresser!  I did this when I had to pack for a trip to Europe, then never stopped after that.  Search "roll clothes packing" on Google, you will find tons of tips.

[andrew_d14]

i made this and it works great. I also added hooks to it so now i can hang it and instead of it all connecting at the bottom they are all seperate.

[porcupinemamma]

Great idea and really clear instructions. Way to go!

[medicationreqd]

that is a great idea, especially since t-shirts are worn so much these days (they're so versatile), i'm making one that will go straight from the utility room to the closet...thanks!

[dan]

hmm, why wait until they are dry? seems like they would dry well on this rack also.

[foothillfrontier]

definitely agree with you dan, it would save even more time and energy. just toss the shirts on the rack and set outside for the glorious sun to dry for you.

[Scrupulous]

You bet!

[kretzlord]

A fantastic idea. Could be made more space friendly by making the whole thing vertical to attach to the wall, and have the shirt hangers at a 45 degree angle(upward). Just a thought, great idea though!

[Scrupulous]

Thanks for the compliments.

Good suggestion on the upright and angled approach. Those aspects were already included with the patent application, which was filed a while back. But I like your thinking, though. You can see another variation of the concept here...

www.TheAffordablePatentService.com

Cheers!

[mr.klean]

To make the 1.5" joiners, you could use a table saw. Great Idea.

[Scrupulous]

Eww...watch those fingers. But if you have a good way to do that, you might as well shave down the T-fittings also, by as much as an inch overall on each. That way, the rack will take up much less space.

[Demokr]

I just wanted to say PURE GENIUS. I've been trying to find a quick and easy solution to NOT hanging my clothes. My piles of clothes will be no more! Well done!

[Scrupulous]

You're quite welcome.

[mud_dann]

gosh...ITS AWESOME!!! great..now i need to find alternative material to create this t-shirt rack...because its kinda exspensive buying those pipes in my country...cheers!

[Trebor1503]

you could probably cut down on the cost by making the vertical piece resemble a T rather than an upside down U, then you would cut the cost by more than a third and you could leave off the elbows which are the most sxpensive part of the whole build. You could cut the ends of the PVC with a skill saw to round the cut similar to a elbow if you didn't want to deform the shoulders.

[oddree]

Pure genius. It's like a monument to the T-Shirt. Retail stores should employ you to manufacture these and begin replacing those creepy mannequins.

[Scrupulous]

Hey, if the money's right, I'll do whatever they want me to with those mannequins. ; )

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

[descartez]

brilliant in design and in simplicity. now i just have to make it and find a place to hide it (my room doesnt have a closet, just drawers) and i think i just did

[walterthethird]

thats some sweet shairt action. I am so building this thing with maybe a little flair. You are a Stallion.

[Scrupulous]

Go for it, dude!

Maybe put up a photo here, when you're done with it.

;>)

[woodknot]

Hot Dog! Where were you 30 years ago when I was ironing my first husbands tee shirts (the kind that went under regular shirts)? Depending on the length of the sides, you could button regular shirts on it too. This has my vote for the most universally applicable Instructable yet (except for the one about Truffles). These should be in every household world wide. Go into production now! Great Job!!!

[Scrupulous]

Thank you...thank you very much.

[chenkerchops]

Damn this is cool. How much would i be looking at for the necessary ingredients?

[Scrupulous]

Thanks. This cost me all of 26 buckets.
Hey, see if you can hit that plus key, up near the top of this window, to the right. ;>)

[chenkerchops]

Done and done! Still figuring out the ins and outs. Peace xoxo

[FluxAugur]

Nice Instructable... so what would the measurements be for medium/large shirts? I'm assuming i can put any large/extralarge on a medium rack, just don't wanna stretch out any medium shirts i have... Also, how would you go about making the wall-mountable one you mentioned, as my floorspace is very very limited.

[Scrupulous]

Thanks, FluxAugur. For mediums, you could use 16" top pieces. And, you may be able to get by with pre-cut 24" side pieces, but you'd wanna measure your longest shirt from the bottom to the shoulder. To make a wall mounted one, you would need to include at least a 45 degree elbow between the side piece and the "T" fitting, for each row and on each side (24 additional pieces). I would even include a 22.5 degree elbow along with each 45 degree elbow, to get a sharper angle (basically 22 degrees from the wall). This would cost about ten more buck for a dozen shirts, but it would really have a nice low profile from the wall. You would definitely have to glue this. I would do a dry fit. Then, I would consider actually using PVC cement to make sub-assemblies of "T" fitting - 45 degree - 22 degree's. From there, you could proceed to Step 2

[lironess]

Does not look like there is much room to see the shirts in the inner rows. Is there space to see to pick which one? This is way cool!

[Scrupulous]

Thanks. Yeah, the sides are flexible enough that you can spread the shirts out to get a good look at any one of them. In fact, because you can do that, you want the shirts as close together as possible.

[Ghondi]

Awsome, my shirts are currently thrown in a pile on a shelf...(clean shirts only...lol) Once I get out to the local hardware store I'll be making one of these bad boys. You do have a lot of white though...Its ok....I'm the same, accept all black. So, yeah, thanx for the great instructable. I can't wait for my shirts not to be wrinkled balls of crap. It'll even help my mess of a room to look better too.

[Scrupulous]

Yeah, I too have that ever-evolving pile of clean clothes that I call my perpetually mobile dresser (PMD). Hey, I've got an all black "Seinfeld" tee with a big picture of Newman on the front that says, "Hello, Jerry." I'd be willing to trade it for any Pearl Jam shirt.

[mgalpert]

doesnt it it stretch out smaller t-shirts?

[TXjak]

Parts list says 12 pre-cut 36" pipe lengths, but the picture shows 24. If I had the room for it, I'd probably make one.

[Scrupulous]

Yeah, thanks! I changed it to say 24 pre-cut...

[Scrupulous]

Why don't you switch to small-size shirts? That way, you can hack down the sides and the tops. I'm kidding (about the switching part). But, seriously, you could get away with chopping the sides down by at least 4 inches, on this instructable. Then it fits nicely under a normal-height closet rod. If you really wanted to pimp it out, you could actually shave up to a half-inch off of each end of each "T" fitting (and shorten the joiners, of course). That would put the shirts at 1.5" on center, and reduce the depth by 40 percent of what you see in the photo. I would use glue, and a pretty ecent cutter, though.

[mark101]

Great project showing your imagination and PVC pipe are great to have.

[Scrupulous]

Thanks, I try to use both whenever I can.

[kd1s]

Very good idea. This will also work with polo type and button down shirts.