How to make your own custom live edged chain hook coat rack.

I made this coat rack because I am from a logging family and I am around chains a lot so this inspired me to make a coat rack out of the hooks from chains. I came up with the idea to come up with my own design of the hooks so i made my own design and programmed the plasma cutter to cut out a certain size hook that suits me. I also found a piece of alder wood with a live edge to mount the hooks to.

Step 1: Materials

Computer for designing the hooks

paper pencil and Black sharper

Iron/metal Choose your thickness

5 eye screws

4 screws

piece of flat steel 1/8 Inch thick 3/4 wide

Screwdriver or screw gun

Drill bit/drill press

Pliers

Wood for the shelf making

masking tape or tape of your choice

paint for hooks and brackets to prevent rusting

stain for the wood

grinder to polish hooks

sandpaper or sand blaster

plasma cutter to cut out hooks goes along with computer

Ruler/tape measure.

screws to put the wood shelf together

table saw to cut the wood

hammer

hack saw/band saw/cut off wheel

chipping hammer

Vise

Step 2: Design Process

The first thing thing on the list that I checked off was designing my coat rack. The first part of this process was making the hooks. I used corel draw and traced out a hook that I like then I set the plasma cutter up to cut out a few different sizes too decide which size I liked best. Once I found a size that I liked and that suites my style I programmed the plasma cutter to cut out five hooks. The next part was to cut the wood and measure that out and go from there. I then purchased five eye screws sadly I don't have the size I kept to the side till the end. In the picture I have the hook before I did any thing to it.

Step 3: The Hooks

After I cut the hooks out on the plasma cutter the hooks had some slag that I needed to chip off around the edge so I used a welding chipping hammer and I taped on each piece of slag it soon all popped right off. I then had to clean the hook up a little bit and round some of the edge. I cleaned the hooks up with a dewalt grinder as shown in the first three pictures. I used a belt sander to round and clean up the edges of the hooks as shown in the fourth picture. The next part to the hooks where to sand blast them I used a sand blaster to take the hooks down to bare metal and rough them up a little bit as shown in the fifth picture. The last part to making the hook where to prevent them from rusting so I added two coats of clear coats to them to make them some what shiny and to prevent rusting.

Step 4: Setting Up the Wooden Shelf.

The next step was to put together the wooden shelf part sadly I didn't have a picture of the two pieces of wood apart. I had some assistance from my teacher as he screwed the two pieces of wood together before hand and had it prepared for me when I got to class the next day. The type of wood that I used was alder with a live edge on the outside and the bottom of the back piece. The inside of the shelf had a 90 degree angle inside allowing there to be a coat rack under neath and a shelf on top. The next part was to plan out where I will mount the hooks I layed out a piece of masking tape and decide there should be a nine inch span between each hook and enough room for the brackets on the out side as explained in the next step. the wood was 45 1/2 inches long. I decided the hooks should be four inches from the inside allowing there to be enough room as shown in the first picture. after that was set up I drilled the holes as shown in the last picture.

Step 5: the Brackets

The next step was to come up with a design for the brackets I really didn't need them but I just wanted there to be some support just in case and I wanted them for looks also. I had to come up with a template the I liked and that fit the shelf. Once I came up with a design where the flat steel in 6 3/4 long and I bent two little 3/4 long lips on each side to screw to the wood leaving the strait support piece 5 1/4 long . The flat steel that i used was 3/4 of and inch wide and 1/8 of and inch thick/deep. The way I bent the metal was clamping it the steel into the vise and bending it by hitting it with the hammer and then just from there I fit it to the piece of wood. I drilled a hole on the two flaps sadly I don't remember the size of the drill bit and then I screwed them into the wood which was 1/2 inch from the outside on both sides and top and bottom.

Step 6: Eye Screws

The next step in the coat rack was to make something to dangle my hooks from so my best option was eye screws unfortunately I don't have the size of the eye screws but I got five screws that I figured would be my best bet. I pinched the eye part in the vise vertically and then using a wrench I opened the eye by pulling up on the threads. Next I slipped the hook on then I put the eye horizontal in the vise and claimed it shut. The next part was to space them out on the wood so on the tape right to left I measured over 5 1/4 and then put my first eye and then went over every 9 inches and put a dot and after the 5th dot I stopped leaving 4 1/4 about an inch off from the outside but I called it right there because it looked decent. the next part was to drill the hole sadly I don't remember the drill bit size but I drilled the holes with a drill gun and then started threading my hooks in until I had one thread showing as I knew that was deep enough.

Step 7: Final Thoughts

After i had finished putting the coat rack together I stained the wood and put a clear coat over it and calling it good. My final thoughts where great I was very impressed on how great this coat rack turned out. The things I would have done differently was polish the hooks up and clear coat them instead of sanding them like I did leaving a dull color but I am very impressed how this coat rack turned out the wood part has the perfect stain and darkness of color on it and will look great hanging up on the wall in my house. I do inspire you to try to take on the challenge of building this coat rack because the ending product is phenomenal even if you don't used the same hooks or the same type of wood other wise is was a fun building and learning process I do recommend you try this instructable.