soap rack | MowryJournal.com

Once you purchase a Soap Drying Rack, 2 big boxes will soon land on your front step.

Really big boxes. Together, they weigh about 75 pounds.

These are your instructions on how to insert the 8x bolts to assemble each unit. If you are stacking 2 units, then you’ll also have 4 bolts to attach the units together. That is all that is required!

One Soap Drying Rack, on wheels, assembled and ready for some serious saponification.

Here is how you assemble your Soap Drying Rack(s).

Open the boxes and lay out the top, bottom, sides, 8x trays and bags of hardware. If you bought a double rack, only open the boxes (that are labeled) with the bottom rack. No need to confuse yourself with more parts.
Put the bottom on a flat surface. If you bought the Rack with wheels, then turn the bottom upside down so the wheels are facing up. Use your hands to press the tab down towards the wood and unlock the wheels. This will be much trickier after the unit is assembled, so unlock the wheels first. Note wheels are shipped in different colors, so I can’t always control which color is on your unit.

3. Flip the bottom back over, so it rests on the unlocked wheels.

4. Look for the letters that are handwritten on the outside of the boards mounted to the bottom. Now, find the side that has matching letters. When you place the side directly next to the mounted board, the 2x holes that are drilled beside the letters will line up. Use the 2-1/2″ bolts – the long ones. Put a single washer on the bolt, and then insert it from the outside of the unit so the bolt sticks through to the inside of the unit. Then, place another washer, split washer and nut back on to the bolt and make them finger tight.

5. Repeat with the other hole.

6. Repeat with the other side. Note: I always label every unit differently, so you must assemble the sides with the tops and bottoms as labeled and explained, below. It’s the only way it works!

7. Place the top of the unit on the sides so the letters match, and the holes will line up.

8. Insert bolts from the outside with one washer, then put the other washer, split washer and nut on the inside, finger tight.

9. Check a tray to make sure it fits on the rails and slides into the rack easily. Remove the tray(s).

10. Tighten all bolts.

11. Note: the bottom tray does not fit on runners like the other 6x trays. The bottom tray slides on the boards mounted to the bottom of the unit. You have to insert the tray a bit carefully at first, but once you get the hang of it, the bottom tray goes in smoothly.

12. If you bought a 2nd unit for stacking, then open the other 2 boxes.

13. Attach the bottom of the top unit to the top of the bottom unit (got that?) by matching the letters on the top and bottom. When the letters match, the holes for the top & bottom will match.

14. Insert a 2″ bolt (the shorter, thicker ones) with a washer on the bolt from below, sticking up through the top and the bottom. You may find that using a hammer to tap the bolt gently through the tight hole is helpful. Put a washer, split washer & nut on the exposed bolt. Make it finger tight.

15. Repeat for the other 3x holes.

16. Repeat steps 4 – 10 for the top unit.

Yes, I ship you 8x trays. The 8th tray is a bonus … and insurance in case one tray breaks in shipping. Plus, it fills the box nicely for shipping.

Enjoy, and get to making soap!

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Click here to buy: Soap Drying Racks

Mrs M’s Original Soap Drying Rack

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.