Coffee Cradle

by Travis Daniel Bow

4.2K11314

Intro: Coffee Cradle

If you have even an ounce of OCD in your blood (and don't we all?), then it will bother you--in some deep, unconscious, insidious, infectious part of your soul--to see your coffee filters wilting and flattening in the dark clutter of your cabinet. It will sadden you to see gorgeous goblets of gossamer reduced to pitiful pancakes of pulp.

Yes, you can buy 700 of them for less than the price of a McDonalds meal. Yes, they are just pieces of tissue paper you use to keep your coffee from being chunky. But it's the principle of the thing. 700 coffee filters should last you 700 days, and #700 should be just as crisp, clean and lovely as #1 was.

So make yourself (or your OCD friend) a coffee cradle. All you need is:

  1. A piece of wood (plywood, a fence board, a piece sawed out of your kitchen counter, etc).
  2. A band-saw (if you don't like the shape of your piece of wood)
  3. A drill (preferably a drill press)
  4. A dowel (a 5/16" dowel should cost you about 80 cents (the price of a 3-month supply of filters))

STEP 1: Cut the Piece of Wood

I cut mine (creatively) into a circle roughly the size of a coffee filter.

STEP 2: Mark Some Holes and Get Them Started

You could get all fancy and make measurements, but I just traced a coffee filter and put a dot at every other corrugation. Then I started holes (only about 1/8" deep) at all the dots with a 1/8" drill bit.

STEP 3: Drill Angled Holes

I propped my wooden base on a block with about a 30 degree angle. This puts the holes at about a 60 degree angle to the base, which is perfect for coffee filters.

Start with a small drill (1/8") and then finish with a drill the size of your dowel (5/16" in my case)

STEP 4: Cut Your Dowel Into Pieces

Figure out about how long your want your dowel pieces to be (about 4 inches). Then cut a bunch of pieces that long.

STEP 5: Sand and Insert Dowels

Do a little sanding to make things look nice, then stick the dowels in the holes. Use some glue, if you want your coffee cradle to have the strength of a bull rhino. Wood glue or Elmers will work fine.

STEP 6: Rejoice

You have solved one of the great disorders of the universe. Congratulations.

9 Comments

Thejesterqueen 8 years ago

Now we just need to find a way to hang it or something so it isn't taking up valuable counter space. lol

miked2001 9 years ago

Maybe a little basket weaving to fill in the sides and then some kind of simple cover. That would help to keep any debris off the filters. I do like how this keeps the shape, the flat filters just give you such a hard time when you put them in the basket.

coptician 9 years ago

I've been diagnosed with a more acute form of OCD. It's called CDO. Same symptoms, but in alphabetical order. As it should be.

nehmo 9 years ago

In my kitchen, the derbies floating in the air would settle on the exposed filters and they would be difficult to shake clean. That's why I pile them upside down. I then can easily shake them clean before use. However, I still haven't solved the problem of water and grease splashing on them.

Mihsin 9 years ago

Nice, but alas I quit drinling drip coffee.