I’ve enjoyed smoking pipes for years and have had a small rack from the 60’s-70’s that I bought on line. This year I decide to make something better.
I can’t start this writing without first thank two people. Fist fellow LumberJock John Smith who read my cry for help in my post in July. John not only gave my ideas but as you will see in the post – he sent me a bunch of router bits.
Also a big thank you to Jay. A Lumber Jock too and owner of https://jayscustomcreations.com/sketchup/. Not only is Jay a tremendous woodworker, but he is a master of SketchUp. He has a plethora of SketchUp videos of his projects and was very kind to personally answer my questions I sent him. With his help, I was actually able to take my concept and see it come alive through SketchUp
So the project is about to begin, and while at work, I happened to see someone has set four drawers by our dumpster. Since I did not have to “dumpster dive” for these, I bought them home. I broke one apart for this project using the wood to make the drawers.
The rest of the lumber for this project was just stuff I had laying around. I wasn’t sure what finish I would apply so I took some scrap of what I would build the project and experimented.
I ultimately decided to use black paint for the sides of the cabinet and white paint for the top. But I did not want to hind the wood, so I painted the black on straight from the can and took paper towel to wipe it off within just a few minutes of applying the paint. I added a twist to the top. While I did the same basic application, here I wanted the top to barely have a color. So I put a little paint in a jar and mixed it with water, to give a white washed look.
Dado cuts on the inside of the side panels. These cuts will hold a thin piece of wood which the drawers will sit and slide on. You can see a print out of my sketchup dimensions – VERY handy.
Building the drawers.
The Drill Block is a great aid for drilling straight holes at 90 degrees (instead of my normal 84 degrees.)
I made the handles from the wood left over when I cut the wood for the drawers.
The top drawer is 3 inchess deep and will hold my accessories such as lighters, filters, pipes cleaners and such. The 5 inch drawer will hold the tobacco I’m currently enjoying that month. 
Having gotten my router back from “the hospital” I installed one of the bits John sent me and plunge cut the holes that will support the bowl of each pipe.
This piece will hold the stem of the pipe. My drill press, together with a 1 inch hole saws and forstner bits made this easy.
Lining up the holes I just made in this piece to where I need to drill matching holes to the base… was tricky.
After a trial fit, I found the round plunge for the bowls together with the stem support piece did not hold the pipes well. I think the holes needed to be further away from the stem part. So… I decided to elongate them. This took some planning and ingenuity. I wanted them to all be “about” the same size and shape – not to far forward or backward.
Had to use something heavy so the guide did not move – knew I had this battery in the shop for some silly reason.
Not too bad!!
And now Finished-
Before:
After:
Storage
And a little space to slide a few things underneath.
