Health Fruit Rack : an Apple for the Road.

Hi,

As you may know, students do usually not have a good and healthy diet.
I am a student!

I thought I should care a bit about what I'm eating, and I remembered the saying :

" An Apple a Day, Keeps the Doctor Away "

I bought apples and tried to apply this adage, but I figured out that it's easy to forget it.

So, as a New Year Resolution,
I built a RACK for apples and other fruits

which I can attach on the back of my entrance door

So when I leave, I pick up a fruit For The Road !


In This Instructables I'll show you:

- How to build thisvery simple rack ( of course )
- How to make a very efficient tool for wood engraving.
- How to nail together 2 pieces of wood without seeing any nail.

Step 1: Parts and Plans

I wanted to do a very simple project, with a few inexpensive parts.

In fact I took what I had around :

- a plank  210 x 10 x 1 cm + a few off cuts of wood (optional)
- a bag of wooden BBQ Sticks

and that's all !

Now we make some plans.

Don't care about the big ink stain, it's from my previous Instructable : DIY Rubber Stamp Making  !!

Step 2: Cuts and Sanding

Now we have plans, let's execute them!

Cut the plank to the size you have chosen.

Exact dimensions do not really matter.

What Matters Is :

- having the same size for the 2 fronts, and for the 2 uprights.

- Fronts should not be longer than the useful part of BBQ Sticks


TIP:

I could not find a set square so I made it.

Take any piece of paper. (It doesn't have to have neat edges)
Fold it in two.
Fold it again in the other direction. (so the first fold coincides with itself)

You have your set square!

Step 3: Making the Uprights.

The uprights  will receive the sticks.
We have to make holes for this.

The planks I have for uprights are 80cm tall.
Minus 2 times 10 cm for the fronts, 60 is left for the racks.

I decided to make 7 rows  ( one for each day ?)
One of the row should be bigger than the others in case I have big apple or other fruit.

I ended up with the following design.

Step 4: Making Holes in the Uprights

Now we have placed the rows, we have to make holes for the BBQ sticks to fit in.

Simply make a pattern an punch marks in wood with a small screwdriver.

Then DRILL !!

( The two planks are still clamped together).

Step 5: Engraving the Fronts

I originally wanted to engrave the adage

      " an apple a day "
     -------------------------
     -------------------------
     -------------------------
     -------------------------
"keeps the doctor away "

But it would have been too small.

I just engraved "an Apple a Day ..." ...we all now what's coming next!

To Engrave:

- Write with a chalk or a pencil the  text.
- Chose your Favourite engraving bit, or make it !! (see how in the following step)
- Put eye and ears protection and turn on your Dremel on!
- and engrave !!

Step 6: Make Your Own ENGRAVING BIT.

Problem with supplied engraving bit is that they don't last long and are usually not really appropriate to what you want to do.

Plus they usually have complex shapes at very low scale, so when it's blunt you cant sharpen it again.

So I made an engraving bit myself.

I took an broken HSS drill bit and shaped it as follows.

Step 7: Put All Planks Together.

well, I don't have much to say here, it's just about fixing everything together.

Tip:

to assemble, you can use some offcuts to help in angles like, I did in the following picture.

This is the upper front plank.

I assembled the bottom front plank a different way.
which is next step
"How to nail together 2 pieces of wood without seeing any nail."

Step 8: Nail 2 Pieces of Wood, Without Seeing a Nail.

"How to nail together 2 pieces of wood without seeing any nail."


I needed to do that because I didn't want to see a nail on the front of the fruit rack.

Steps:

1) Take some nails, and cut their head with an angle to create an other point to the nail.

2) Knock in half way the nails in the first piece of wood. You have to knock in the " other point " of the nail, because it offers more resistance than the real point.

3) Once all the nails are in position in the first piece of wood, adjust the second piece of wood and hit the piece of wood so it gets "impaled" onto the nails.

Remember to hit above the nails so if it comes that the nail want to get out of the second piece of wood, the hammer will knock it deeper in the first one.

Step 9: Insert BBQ Sticks

Now insert the BBQ Sticks in the holes.

It should be easy for some sticks, and harder for some other. This is because de diameter of sticks is not exactly constant.

Remember NOT to glue the sticks !!
 This could be tempting when the stick can be removed too easily.
BUT if the stick breaks and you have glued it you will be annoyed to replace it.

Step 10: Finish Touches and Conclusion

Add a little bit of wax on the wood( bee wax for wood )

Darken the grooves with charcoal drawing.

Put some fruit.

Attach it to your door and take a fruit for the road!

Conclusion.

I hope this new feature to my door will be useful for the year to come!!

If you have some Ideas of improvement, I would be pleased to hear about!

Thanks for reading!