Wooden 6 Pack Holder

By Wood Is The, www.instructables.com
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Do you ever see those cool wooden 6 pack holders on Etsy that are ridiculously expensive? Well, with this Instructable, you can make your own for a fraction of the price!

Step 1: Materials

Materials- 36" x 5.5" x 0.5" pine board
- 36" x 3.5" x 0.5" pine board
- 12" x 0.5" oak dowel or metal pipe
- 5 mm thick plywood or board
- nails
- glue
- (optional) ~30 ft twine
- (optional) Wood stain

Tools
- Miter saw
- Clamps
- Drill with 0.5" drill bit
- Hammer
- Hand saw
- (optional) Pyrography tool

Step 2: First Cuts

So you should have 3 boards (picture 2)

On the 36" x 3.5" x 0.5" board
- Cut 2 times at 22.67 cm (picture 3, ignore the writing on the boards) (Boards 3A and 3B)

Step 3: Cutting the Spacers

Using the 5 mm thick plywood/board
- Cut 2 long pieces (7.5 cm x 13.7 cm) (picture 1)
- Cut 3 short pieces (7.5 cm x 6.2 cm) (picture 2)

Step 4: Angle Cuts

On the miter saw, adjust the angle to 25 degrees. You can choose your own angle if you want, but i have found that 25 degrees just looks nice and is pretty easy. (picture 1)

On Boards 1A and 1B (13.8 cm x 27.75 cm x 1.27 cm)
- Mark on the top 3.8 cm inwards (picture 2)
- Using the miter saw, cut the boards at 25 degrees (picture 3)

Step 5: Holes for the Handle

Now that Boards 1A and 1B have their 25 degree cuts, we need to cut holes for the handle.

- Find the center of the board vertically (up and down)
------>You can do this by taking the measure of the length of 1A and 1B (13.8 cm) and dividing it in half. You should get 6.9 cm and mark this on the board at the bottom and around the middle. Connect these 2 marks with a straight edge, going all the way up and down. Now you can see the center of the boards (picture 1)

- At the top of the boards (the sides with the angle cuts), measure 2 cm down from the top and make a mark. This is where we will drill the hole.
- Using a 1/2 inch drill bit, make the hole exactly on the dot you just made (picture 2)

Step 6: Cutting the Handle

I forgot to take pictures at this part, but it is very straight forward.

You can use either a metal pipe (as I did) or a hardwood dowel for your handle. Avoid softer woods like pine because it may not be strong enough to support 6 full, glass beer bottles.

- Cut the 1/2 inch dowel/pipe at 22.67 cm.

Step 7: Sanding and Optional Decoration

Now that everything has been cut, you need to sand down the wood, patch any knots, etc. From this point, you can customize your 6 pack holder in a few ways:

- Stain the wood (picture 2)
- Add pyrography (pictures 3 and 4)
--------> If you want to learn how to do pyrography, check out my otherInstructable.

Step 8: Gluing the Bottle Spacers

On Board 2, you will need to make lines so that you can accurately glue down your bottle spacers.
- (step A) Using the trick from step 5, make a line bisecting Board 2 horizontally (6.9 cm)
- (step B) For the second set of lines, you can use the same principal, but instead of dividing by 2, you have to divide by 3. This means that you will have lines every 6.72 cm.

- Using these lines as guides, begin gluing the 2 long spacers (7.5 cm x 13.8 cm). I found that using an angle clamp helps a lot. (picture 2)
- When those are dry, begin gluing the 3 small spacers (7.5 cm x 6.2 cm). (pictures 3 and 4)

Make sure that the spacers do not extend beyond Board 2. Sand them down if you need to.

Step 9: Hammering it all Together

Now is the time to put everything together and see your hard work pay off. You can glue everything together, but nails are much faster. This may be a bit confusing, but just refer to the pictures.

- Take Board 3A and clamp it to Board 1A (picture 1). Nail the two Boards together (picture 2).
- Repeat this with Board 3B on the other side of 1A.
- Now that Boards 3A and 3B are nailed to 1A, clamp 1B onto the opposite end (picture 3)
- With all the 1 and 3 boards nailed together, you should have something that looks like picture 4.
- Slide in Board 2 (with the bottle spacers). If it does not fit, you may need to sand a bit off the side. (picture 5)
- Nail Board 2 on all four sides (picture 6)

Step 10: Handle

- Take the handle you cut in step 6 and push it through the two holes on Boards 1A and 1B. If it does not fit, you may need to sand the ends of the the handle or widen the holes.
- (Optional) You can wrap the handle with twine. You will need around 30 feet of thin twine (or less if you use thicker twine). Start by tying a clove hitch on one end. Continue to tightly wrap the twine around the dowel/pipe until you reach the end. Finish it off with another clove hitch.