Build a bespoke clothes rack
THE NEED TO SHOWCASE HEAVY LOTR COSTUMES PRESENTS A DESIGN CHALLENGE
A costume hire business puts out the call
My niece Kathy is a Lord of the Rings (LOTR) tragic. She loves the books, films, and everything associated with LOTR. She has been a fan for decades, so much so she has converted a room in her Wellington house into a fan museum, showing off all the costumes, memorabilia, and stuff that she has collected over the years. She advertises it on social media and has a regular stream of visitors, all equally in thrall to the one ring.
Among the stuff in her fan museum is a large collection of costumes, which her visitors love to put on, grasp a sword or a bow, roleplay their favourite story characters, and take selfies. The costumes are quite heavy, and she has gone through three racks that all collapsed under the weight.
The challenge
I love a challenge like this. It’s the fun of thinking through the design options
She asked if I could help — either fix the rack she currently has, or make one that wouldn’t collapse. The racks you can buy are cheap but are very cheaply made. It was obvious from photos she sent that the current one was not worth fixing, so I offered to make her a new clothes rack that was structurally sound. Turned out she needed two, one for her museum and a transportable one for when she takes her costumes to fan events and film locations.
The racks each needed to have two 1m long hanging rails, one 1500mm above the ground and one 800mm, and each rail needed to carry up to 25kg. She also wanted the racks to be on wheels, so that they could be moved around easily, and if possible able to be assembled and dismantled without tools.
Not a difficult job, but making the racks easy to assemble and mobile made it an interesting challenge. The structural requirement is to transfer the weight of the clothes on the rail through a structure to the wheels and not collapse.
What I enjoy
I love a challenge like this. It’s the fun of thinking through the design options, selecting and designing one, and then making it real. It’ll never be commercially viable, but this is what I enjoy doing in my retirement and my time is my own.
I also like working with aluminium. There is a huge selection of extruded sections available.
Ullrich Aluminium has an extrusion plant and distribution centre where I live in Hamilton, and an extraordinary selection of profiles in its catalogue. I settled on a design using square tubes for the vertical members and round tubes for the horizontal members, the round tubes, all with screw fittings in the ends and the whole thing bolted together. The original design has 30mm diameter hanging rails 1175mm long, set 1500mm and 850mm above the floor, and the 425mm long bracing tubes 25mm diameter, all 1.6mm wall thickness.
The verticals are 25.4mm (one-inch) square tube, 1.2mm wall thickness.
The structural integrity depends on good tight joints, and as long as the horizontal round tubes are bolted tightly against the vertical square tubes the rack should be structurally sound and rigid.
Time to get going
I priced up the extrusions, which came to about $200 for the two racks. Allowing for wheels and other bits and pieces, I estimated $300 for the materials, and Kathy was happy with that.
I bought the aluminium extrusions required, plus eight 40mm diameter castoring wheels with 10mm threaded studs for mounting. They are rated at 50kg each, so there is plenty of margin.
Each rack consists of four vertical square tubes with a wheel set in the bottom end — four short 25mm diameter round tubes and two long 25mm diameter round tubes. Two long 30mm diameter tubes (the hanging rails) complete the framework.
I cut the square tubes first, one 5m length of extrusion per rack cut into two lengths 1550mm and two 850mm. Then I marked up and drilled the 6mm diameter holes for the connecting bolts.
Using 25mm diameter aluminium bar stock, I turned eight flanged plugs that would be a light press fit into the square tubes, and tapped a 10mm diameter threaded hole through each one. Using a mallet, I fitted the plugs into the ends of the square tubes and pop riveted them to secure them in place.
Plugs galore
There are a lot of plugs to make for this project. Two end plugs for each of the eight round tubes per rack — 32 plugs for the two racks.
I anticipated turning them for a sliding fit and securing them in place with pop rivets, but then realized that if I used a good interference fit for the round tubes, I wouldn’t have to worry about pop rivets. I had acquired a 12-tonne benchtop press from a friend a few years ago and hadn’t had cause to use it till now. It would be ideal for the short (415mm long) tubes
I turned a test plug 22.2mm diameter, 0.4mm oversize for the 21.8mm tube inside diameter (ID). I cut one short length 25mm diameter tube, set it up vertically in the press, and pressed
I estimated $300 for the materials, and Kathy was happy with that
the end plug in. All appeared to be going well when suddenly the tube buckled under the load. First lesson in machining: secure the work.
The tube needs to be supported to stay vertical, and supported to prevent buckling.
So, I made up a frame from MDF offcuts in my garage to hold the tubes vertical and supported them at the bottom and near the top end. This solved the problem and I was able to press the plug into the first tube. Then it was just a case of doing the same thing 15 more times to assemble the eight short tubes.
The results are excellent. Each plug has a 5mm flange at one end and the plug is pressed in until this touches the tube end. There is no way the plugs will come out without destroying the tube. It is an excellent DIY jointing method. The plugs need a 6mm diameter threaded hole through the centre, and using a tap was proving a chore.
I did the 16 plugs for the short tubes this way before realizing that I could use my press to press fit a 6mm nut in place instead. A 6mm hexagonal nut is an interference fit into an 11mm diameter hole. So, for the other 16 end plugs I drilled an 11mm diameter hole in the end of the plug, and pressed the nut into the hole. I’m happier to have steel on steel for the bolt and nut than steel on aluminium to bolt the pieces together.
The long tubes presented another problem. They would not fit in the press.
I had acquired a 12-tonne benchtop press from a friend a few years ago and hadn’t had cause to use it till now
So, I built a temporary press: two 1800 lengths of 90x45mm timber forming the vertical frame, with cross frames top and bottom bolted to the vertical timbers with 6mm diameter through bolts. The 12t hydraulic press from the small press is removable, so I removed it and sat it on the bottom cross frame of my new press.
Buckling issue
The other problem with pressing the long tubes is buckling. The longer the tube, the greater the problem. To prevent buckling, I made five support plates from 10mm thick MDF with a 25mm diameter hole, and a 30mm diameter hole on the centre line.
These were fitted over one long length of 25mm aluminium tube and set up on the new press. Support plates were set at each end, the middle, and quarter points of the tube, and each attached to the two vertical timbers with lengths of timber cut to suit. When these were all screwed in place, the long tube was supported every 300mm, with no chance of buckling.
It did the trick and the plugs were pressed into the four 25mm diameter long tubes without difficulty. For the 30mm tubes, I repeated the process using the 30mm holes in the support plates.
All that was required then was to assemble the frames and check they were rigid and strong enough. I tested one by hanging a 25kg bag of ready-mix concrete from the rails. The rails bent slightly but could clearly have taken more load. The frame remained rigid and easy to move.
Off they go to the capital
I had ordered a knurling tool for my lathe to complete this project, but it was delayed in delivery, so after a discussion with Kathy I packed the whole lot up and sent the racks to her in Wellington, with a spanner for her to do up the bolts. I told her I’d do the knurled knobs when the tool arrived and send them separately.
Kathy assembled them immediately with the help of a friend and sent me photos of a finished rack in use. She was delighted, but I noticed that the clothes on the rack draped on the ground. “Perhaps the rails should have been higher?” I asked. She agreed — it was a bit lower than she wanted. She may have mis-measured the
original heights and she’d put up with them being a bit short. I suggested a modification to add about 200mm height to each of the uprights.
The square section extrusion I had used for the upright is available in the hardware stores in cut lengths, so I was able to buy two 1m lengths to make eight 250mm extension pieces, and two 1m lengths of 20x20x1.2mm angle to make 16, 80mm long doubler plates.
I planned to pop rivet two doublers inside each upright, slide the extension over the doublers, and pop rivet them to form a strong joint. Then drill new holes for the hanging rails.
Uh oh, they are not in my shed.
If I had been doing this in my shed it would have been a morning’s work. But the racks were now in Wellington, and neither Kathy nor her husband Pete had used a pop riveter before.
So, I cut the square tubes to the correct length, drilled the holes and pop riveted the doublers in place in the extension pieces. All Kathy and Pete had to do was fit the extension pieces into the uprights, drill the holes, and pop the rivets in place.
While I was thinking about the extensions, it occurred to me that the rack could have a tendency to tip backwards. It is only 450mm between front to back uprights, and the high rack has a reasonable weight hanging from it. To prevent tipping, I made four 250mm longspurs to bolt to the bottom of the tall uprights. In the event of a tip, these touch the floor and resist further tipping.
The knurling tool arrived and I was able to complete the job.
Perhaps the rails should have been higher?
Finishing touches
For the knurled knobs I used longer 6mm diameter bolts with the heads pressed into a turned aluminium knob with a knurled hand grip to allow hand tightening sufficient to bolt the tubes tight against the uprights.
To check how big to make the knobs, I had turned one from 40mm diameter bar stock on my lathe, pressed a 6mm bolt into it, and assembled one short tube to a square tube before I sent the racks to Wellington.
The knobs are 30mm long, 25mm diameter except for 10mm at the end, which stayed 40mm diameter and had a knurled face. A 6mm diameter hole through the knob with an 11mm diameter recess at the outside end allowed the bolt to be pressed in place.
I made 16 of these and packaged them up with the modification kit (the extension pieces, the spurs, a centre punch, a pop-rivet gun, a pack of rivets and a page of instructions) and posted these to Kathy.
Pete did the mods without difficulty and the racks are now in use. If you’re in Wellington, go see them at Kathy’s museum. Contact her at theoneroomfanmuseum.nz.
Release your inner hobbit and try on a costume or two — and don’t forget to admire the racks.
The longer the tube, the greater the problem