drying rack | MowryJournal.com

I blame Mrs M. Of course.

She had me make her the original Soap Drying Rack when she became a serious Soaper … and as soon as other Soapers saw the rack, I began to hear a clamor.

If you are a maker, then you know soap needs a drying rack. Until today, I’ve never offered racks for sale.

These racks have 7 removable, wooden slatted trays to allow for plenty of dry air circulation during the suponification process (I listen when Mrs M speaks!). The footprint of the piece is 23″ x 23″, and the rack stands about 30″ tall. Add the optional 4″, locking wheels if this will be on the floor, or no wheels if the Rack will sit on a table or counter.

Shelves are spaced to allow for bars as tall as 3.5″. Depending on how large your bars are – and if you dry them flat or on edge – total capacity for each unit is as much as 450 bars.

Buy a 2nd unit to double the storage capacity; units can stack 2 high. With wheels on the bottom unit, total height will be about 64″.

Construction is all wood, typically of Poplar, Pine & Baltic Birch Plywood. The wood is left raw: this is a soap maker’s tool, not a piece of furniture. All surfaces are sanded and splinter-free, but this is not a fine finish.

Each Rack ships in 2 boxes. There is a minimal amount of assembly required; all holes are pre-drilled and hardware is included. Instructions for the simple assembly are here.

NOTE: this piece is not always in stock, and does take a few days to build. If I’m already committed to other projects, delivery might take a few weeks. Email me first if you’re concerned about timing.

You can purchase these Soap Drying Racks directly on the upgraded Mr M’s Woodshop site. Here’s a direct link to the Soap Drying Rack page.

Pictured is the solid version of the 7 tray Rack, which could be picked up directly from the Woodshop. If I’m shipping to you, the joinery will change a bit, and those pictures are still not done.

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Click here to buy: Soap Drying Racks

A family dinner was in the offing. It was an all-too-rare gathering of the clan, complete with the Intern. Velda was all atwitter with house preparation … and there was a problem.

The dining room table was full of drying soap and it had to go somewhere. And somehow, for that matter, since many of the bars were just sitting on butcher paper.

No problem: we’d been talking about me making her a Soap Drying Rack for, uh, months, and now I was on a clock. I had agreed to suspend my dislike of doing one-off projects in order to survive the paradigm, “Happy Wife, Happy Life.” Cutting board construction would have to wait.

That meant she had to commit to dimensions, as I can’t build what I can’t measure. The rack is 24″ square and 5′-10″ tall. It’s on locking casters to move (or not) as needed.

The 14 removable shelves each have slat bottoms with 3/4″ gaps between the slats to help with air movement. The unit is encased in screen cloth to help keep air-borne schmutz off the soap as it is drying. Since drying will take 6-8 weeks per batch, the bars will be sitting in the open air for a long time!

The rack will hold more than 1,000 bars of soap. Mrs M needs to get busy.

This is a tool: it’s not a piece of furniture. Therefore, I built it with utility in mind much more than aesthetics. One of the implications of that is that the wood selected was based on 1) what was on hand, 2) what was the right size for minimal milling, and 3) what was cost effective. Extremely cost effective = no trip to the lumber yard to build the project. Therefore, the woods are several species from deep in the lumber rack. I used redwood, pine, red oak and oak-veneered plywood.

NEWSFLASH, 9/28/2020 – I now sell a version of this Soap Drying Rack that can be shipped! If you’re interested in a purchase, go to Mr M’s Woodshop, here.