# Ideas for a beer bottle display case



## secutanudu (Oct 13, 2011)

I am a very new woodworker. A friend of mine wants me to help him build something to display (new & full) beer bottles in his bar. He wants the bottles to be held at a 45 degree angle.

His original thought is to mount a few 4x4s vetically and drill holes up and down the right side that penetrate halfway into the 4x4 at a 45-degree angle. A 4x4 seems overly heavy and expensive. I was thinking the same look could be achieved by using 4/4 lumber, and having the center be hollow.

Any ideas on the best way to do this?

Did you ask for an abysmal illustration of what I am talking about? Well I included one! Thanks


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## Dominick (May 2, 2011)

Well we all know the fist step. Got to drink beer, then you build : laughing:


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## aaronhl (Jun 2, 2011)

I would use 4/4 and build so the inside is hollow. Under each of the holes you can dado to fit a shelf.


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## icicle (Nov 29, 2011)

Depending on how tall it needs to be, Find a housing development that is building homes, and see if they have a scrap end of a 4x4 that you can get from them.
the biggest challenge you are facing is getting the holes drilled out.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

I think that the 4x4 (not even that if you use a standard 4x4) inches is too small. I would make it 6"x6". That will give the bottles a little more hole depth. And in my minds eye it would look more proportioned. 

Even at 6" by 6" it will still need some type of bottom support.

I would also make it out of some type of pretty hard wood.

George

PS Of course they are only beer bottles.


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## icicle (Nov 29, 2011)

On second thought, instead of having the holes big so the whole bottle fits into, make the holes the size of the neck, then you could do a compound drilling 45 degrees for the bottle height while also drilling at a 30 degree angle outwards that way you could get two bottles per row per face.


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## Theobroma (Nov 19, 2011)

I was trying to picture this in my head and I see a few concerns:

If you use 4/4 stock and make a tall, hollow box with holes in the sides, you'll still need something in the center to support the bottles and prevent them from sliding all the way in. 

Second off, unless you get the holes drilled very close to the outside diameter of the bottles, you're going to have a loose fit. The looser the fit, the more the bottle will have to sit into the hole to prevent tipping out and I can't say for sure, but I would think bottle sizes aren't completely standard. Finding the exact sized forstner bit might be impossible. Also, you may end up having to drilling the hole so deep that most of the bottle label is obscured by the hole itself.

The other option is gluing the bottles in place. But, since you mentioned full bottles, I'm guessing the display will have different bottles from time to time and that might not work either.

I would suggest either a 6 x 6 as mentioned above or an inexpensive 4 x 4 covered in a better 4/4 cover. That way, you can set up an angled jig on a drill press and get a nice flat bottom for the bottle to rest on.

Has your buddy considered a column with inset shelves on all four sides as an alternative?


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## secutanudu (Oct 13, 2011)

I was talking to my friend about this again last night...and we were thinking of using pine 2x6s. Maybe glue up three 2x6s together, to create a 5"x5.5". Then use the drill press to do the angled holes in those. It would be way cheaper. The holes could go almost all the way through and be staggered. I'm not worried about labels being obscured, so the holes can be fairly deep.. These will be in a temp. controlled "beer cellar" visible through a large glass window from the dining room. Only waitstaff will ever be in there. They will have a special cataloging system, so the visibility of the labels is not important.

Once we glue them up & plane them, I think it'll look pretty nice stained & poly'd with chamferred edges. We're thinking of making a few rows of them, sort of like a miniature supermarket, for the waitstaff to use to go fetch bottles of microbrews that customers order.


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