Before committing to more expensive wood, I decided to use scraps to build a prototype. This would allow me to adjust things and add modifications.

In this case I chose some left over 1/2” OSB.

The Components

From the design (shown below) I came up with the following stock list.

1, 14” x 14” x 1/2” OSB

2, 24” x 24” x 1/2” OSB

1, 2” x 2” x 72” Pine Pole (1-1/2” x 1-1/2”)

3, 3” x 3” x 1-1/2” Pine (cut from 2x4)

Here, I am cutting the stock to size.

Mounting Bracket

A mounting bracket is used to support the upper rack. Two mounting brackets are used to support the pole.

The bracket is machined out of a piece of pine 3” x 3” x 1-1/2”.

This was cut from a piece of a 2” x 4” stud and then trimmed down to give me a sharper edge.

The center cutout was cut over sized to fit over the 2x2 pole that I used.

The small slots are to capture 1/4-20 nuts.

Upper Rack

The upper rack consists of a 13” diameter disk with slots cutout to support the upper portion of the rifles.

It rests on a mounting bracket that will allow me to adjust the height.

I created this design in Autodesk Inventor and exported the upper rack component to a DXF file and imported it into Vcarve to create the tool paths.

I create toolpaths for a 1/4” spiral bit and exported for use with Mach3.

Lower Rack

The lower rack consists of two 23” disks. The top disk has slots cutout to help keep the rifles in place.

The two pieces are then glued together.

Two mounting blocks are screwed to the assembly and the 2x2 pole is added.

Again I exported a DXF file from Inventor and imported it into Vcarve.

Tooplaths were created for both the top component...

...and the bottom component.

Lower Rack - Bottom Component

I mounted one of the 24” x 24” pieces of stock to my KRMx02 with a 1/8” piece waster board.

The Toolpaths are loaded into Mach3 and part is milled.

The part removed from the stock.

Lower Rack Top

I mounted the other 24” x 24” piece of OSB and milled the top part of the lower rack. It is the same as the bottom part except it has some slots cutout.

Upper Rack

I mounted the 14” x 14” piece of OSB and cut the upper rack part.

Mounting Bracket

I added a vice to my KRMx02 and installed one of the 3” x 3” pieces of pine stock.

I loaded the toolpaths and milled the bracket.

I removed the part from the vise and installed the next.

I made three of these.

All the parts are sanded. The OSB is some pretty nasty stock. It does not finish well. I am only sanding these to remove some of the splinters.

I use a trim router to round over some of the edges of the rack components.

The upper rack is rounded over on both sides.

The lower rack component are only rounded over on one side . This will allow me to glue the two non rounded sides together later.

I apply a generous amount of wood glue to the non rounded side of the lower rack, top component.

First I drilled four holes into the sides of the mounting brackets aligned with corresponding slots.

I ground a small V in an old screw driver to help keep the nuts aligned as I push them through the slots.

A nut is inserted into a slot and pushed through...

...until it is aligned with the holes.

I had a couple that were a little off. I just increased the size of the hole until I could access the nut.

1/4”-20 x 1” hex bolts are inserted through each hole and screwed into the nuts.

All three brackets.

Two of the mounting brackets are glued together.

These will be used to secure the 2x2 pole to the lower rack.

I place the two piece mounting bracket and align it with the square cutout in the lower rack.

I drilled four pilot holes into the four corners of the bracket...

...and secured with 3-1/2” deck screws.

The 2x2 pole is inserted into the brackets and into the square cutout in the rack.

I secure the pole to using the hex bolts. The bolts can be used to square the pole.

To install the upper rack, I first installed a mounting bracket 27” from the lower rack.

The upper rack is then added.

I drill some pilot holes...

...and secured with some wood screws.

Something I wanted to do was to keep the footprint of the rack to under 24”. The down side to this is that the rifles set in the rack can be easily knocked out if bumped.

To fix the problem, I added some small tabs to lock the rifles in-place.

One end of each tab is large enough to fit over a #6 machine screw head.

This prototype works so well that I decided to keep it in my reloading/gun smithing shop.

The first thing I did was give it four coats of acrylic paint.

I cut a small rack and an extra mounting bracket and started to experiment with holding some of my pistols.

This is still a work in progress and needs to be tweaked.

The gun rack design works very well, so far. I will need to use it for awhile to see what other mods I need to make before rebuilding it in quality wood.

Currently I am thinking of using ApplePly. This stuff finishes beautifully but is very expensive.

I made the set of drawing files I used available for a nominal fee.

You can get them here:

Round Rack Drawing Files

Video of the above process.