# shot glass rack help



## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

I collect shot glasses from various places that I've been to. It's kinda like "my thing" when it comes time to get something as a souvenir from my travels. I've got at least 20-25 shot glasses at the moment, some in varied sizes (some tall "shooter" glasses, some odd shaped ones, but a lot are your typical shot glass size). 

I currently have them just sitting in a cabinet with my liqour bottles. I want to build something to showcase them. I want to make something big enough to add more and more shot glasses as I squire them over the years. I'm kinda stuck at the drawing board on this one and come to you guys for help because I've seen some good things created by you guys.

Any and all help is appreciated!


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## Upstate (Nov 28, 2011)

It sounds like you need a shadow box with a few shelves with a series of holes or recesses drilled in each shelf to hold the glasses? Essentially a deep picture frame, perhaps with a glass door on the front. Someone recently I think did one in the project showcase section if I remember correctly... Can't seem to find it now so I may be making that up.


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## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

That's along the lines I was thinking. My only concern with that would be cutting the recesses because not all of the glasses are the same size.


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## believebraves (Jan 10, 2011)

I too collect shot glasses from all my trips. I just made a 1x shelf out of scrap, and made it wide enough for two to sit, I have about 120 and need a MUCH bigger shelf. However, it's a wall decoration for the ol shop.


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## colsanders (Jan 23, 2012)

Hello,
I recently built a shotglass rack for my wife for Christmas! She hopes to make it to all 50 states, and gets a shot glass from each state. She already has 34. I built the rack to house the normal sized shot glasses, however it could be adapted to fit taller ones. The lettering, and indents for the bottom of the glass were cut on the cnc at school. 

















Sorry for the blurry pics, they came from my cell phone. I havent taken any better ones yet.


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## bigcouger (Jan 4, 2012)

Nice


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## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

Wow that's cool your wife is collecting from the 50 states. How did you cut the recesses? I wanna build something like that with the recesses for each glass to sit but as I've said I have many with different shapes and sizes so a "one size fits all" cut for the recesses couldn't be done. I also want the shelf to be quite big to make room for ones that I accumulate over the years. 

I'll have to put on the ol thinking cap and get to the drawing board for this one. If anyone has anymore ideas, pictures, or related stuff to help I would appreciate it. I'll post back with plans/ pics if I come up with anything.


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## Upstate (Nov 28, 2011)

Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but you could precut a bunch of square blocks with different sized recesses in them. I'd cut a lot extra so you didn't have to do it later when you added glasses. Then place the blocks in the shelf. You could hide the small gap that you'd inevitably have between each block with molding in the front. I'd use a forstner bit to drill the recesses.


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## kevinb70 (Apr 30, 2008)

looking at colsander's rack, I was just thinking make every 3rd or 4th row with larger recesses, and fit the bigger ones on their own shelf. 

But then I thought modular.

I see 3 parts to his rack: the top row, the bottom row, and 4 inner rows. 

You could simplify the design so all rows are identical, so you can add rows on top, without taking it apart in the middle to attach a new inner row.

I would work with just 1 row design, incorporate tongue and groove or some other matching joint in the top and bottom of each row.

When needed, you can make a row for larger shotglasses by cutting the board with a larger forstner bit and spaced apart further.

When it gets too tall just cut it and half and stack them side by side.

And to add some 'bam' I would cut some 2" wide movable blocks to act as a separator, hand painted or with whatever art skill you have, denoting your "vacation shotglasses" "don't ever want to go back" section, or whatever your ocd tendencies see fit to categorize them  if your tendency is to be a procrastinator, then those you can always do those blocks later.

to hide the joints and make your work easier, perhaps a crafty kid or the wife would like to hand paint or apply whatever talent they have to the front


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## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

I think I'm going to go with a simple design like colsanders did. I'll make each shelf tall enough to account for the taller glasses. I'll make the rack large enough to add more glasses to it without having to make it bigger. I would like to cut a single recess into each shelf that starts at one end of each shelf and spans to the other end. I'll have to get my hands on a router to cut the recesses and exposed joinery for the shelves. Thanks for some of the good ideas.


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## colsanders (Jan 23, 2012)

Mine is fairly straight foward. The one thing that didnt work out was i was planning on blind dados so that you wouldn't see any of the joinery on the face of the rack. It was working well, until I put the shelf pieces on the cnc backwards, so out went the hidden joinery. As far as the recesses, those were cut on the cnc too. I thought about finding a spade bit or something similar to cut them if i didnt use the cnc.


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## 27207 (Jan 25, 2012)

I like colsanders shelf. One of my magazines did one a while back that was more work though. They had a box with 1/4" hardwood thoughout the middle with individual slots. Some for short ones some for the tall ones. Ill try to find a link for you


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## 27207 (Jan 25, 2012)

Sorry it's not a magazine, but here it is

http://www.binkyswoodworking.com/ShotGlassDisplay.php


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## 27207 (Jan 25, 2012)

And a pic


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## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

Wow, I really like that display case. It gives the ability to show off the tall ones next to the short ones and each glass has its own little space. And best of all it comes with instructions! Lol. I'm probably going to go with this idea and maybe modify it to accomodate a lot more shot glasses. Thanks guys for all the help!


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