What has gotten into me? I spent most of the summer kind of lazing around, barely able to get out into the shop. Now, you can’t keep me out!  I’ve been bitten by the bug.

So, last week, I built a shoe shine box. And, on Friday, I came home from work to shine my shoes (actually, I had Steven shine them, but that’s a whole other story…) So, they were looking good, but the problem was that I was just throwing them onto the floor of my closet. Now, how the heck were they going to stay nice and shiny?  It was time for me to get off my behind and add to the organization… by building a shoe rack.

It was insanely easy to build, and while it didn’t involve a lot of fancy joinery, it is serving its purpose well. I started with a Douglas fir board that a friend gave to me when she was having work done at her house. It had been finished with some varnish, but that was easy for me to peel off using my thickness planer. Fortunately, the board had little twist in it, and it was beautifully clear. I planed it down until I had a nice uniform thickness – approximately 1 1/4 inches thick. I then straight line ripped both board edges until I had a piece that was four-square.

Since the idea I had worked on separate slats, I set up my table saw using my Infinity thin strip ripping jig to ensure I was going to get consistent strips for the piece. I used a spacer to get 1/2″ thick strips for the cross slats, and set up for 3/4″ strips for the end pieces.

With the strips ripped, I turned to my Osborne EB-3 gauge to cut my strips for the end pieces to the right size – four 9 inches long, and three 7 inches long. That was a piece of cake.

I turned next to my square assembly jig for the glue ups. I laid out the pieces, alternating the long and short ones. I used some 3/4″ spacers to set the short pieces at the right height. Once I had those suckers lined up, I turned to the glueup.

It took some juggling, but I was able to get all of the pieces lined up, glued up and clamped up. As you can see, I glued up both sides at once, making this run a little faster. Of course, I had to remember to not glue the two middle pieces together…

After I got these babies out of the clamps, I ran both assembled sides through my thickness planer again to clean them up. That went faster than sanding, and it gave me a very good look. Remember, you just want to skim them, not remove a ton of material.

After that I cut the cross pieces that were 1/2″ thick to 26 inches wide. They fit perfectly into the slots formed by the short pieces. It was a snug fit, and that was good. I dabbed some glue onto the upright pieces and used my brad nailer to tack one brad into every intersection. Were the brads overkill? Who cares… they worked!

I sanded, paying special attention to round over the corners of all the boards. Douglas fir can be very splintery… Once I dusted the piece off, I could have finished it, but I just opted to set it on the floor of the closet and start stacking my shoes onto it. I might finish it later, but who knows, maybe there will be another project I want to start!

So, at work, my bosses asked me to dress up a little bit more, which means no more work boots for me – unless, of course, I’m working on conditions like these:

This now means that I’m going to be wearing more dress shoes. With dress shoes comes the inevitable chore of shining those dress shoes. Now, my dad served in the Marine Corps, and he is a whiz at shining shoes. He keeps his kit in an old Griffin Shinemaster box. It’s a classic.

While it’s a neat, self contained design, a different shine kit caught my attention – the Esquire Footman Deluxe. (Dang, I need a hobby).

There’s something about this design that I really like. For instance, I can get at the items in the kit mid-shine with the open design, instead of having to take all the stuff out and lay the items on the floor, or ask the shoe shinee (is that a real term?) to move his or her foot to get that forgotten item.

Fortunately, there are TONS of these babies for sale on eBay, and the sellers all provide measurements, so I knew the kit would have to come in at about 11 inches from end to end, stand about 10 inches tall and be about 7 inches across. I had a board of some unknown wood (maybe one of you species types can help me out) that had been in my shop for the better part of ten years. Once I planed it down, it was the right width and looked handsome.

I started by cutting the two end pieces, and shaping a taper on the bottom halves of the boards, This is a very minor design feature, but I think it makes the piece look a little more graceful. I could have tried to taper in on the band saw or table saw, but a hand plane did the job in no time flat.

After that, I used a 1/4″ router bit to rout a series of grooves into each of the side pieces. Since my plan was to capture the 1/2″ thick dividers in these grooves with 1/4″ tabs, I knew I had to make mirror images of each side so they would fit into the grooves. It took some mental gymnastics, but the grooves came out looking pretty sweet, with just a minimum amount of chisel work to make things perfect. And, yes, I did bevel the edges of the piece before I grooved it to ensure that the grooves would parallel the outside of the box profile.

Some quick work with a rasp helped curve the top of the box sides, making it look a little more elegant.

From there, I marked out where I wanted the top handle/step to live. I kept that piece at 3 inches wide to allow for a secure step, so I mated the two end pieces together and notched out the 3 inch wide by half inch deep recess for the board to sit in.

Once I did this, I cut the top piece to size, and made a rabbet on the end, ensuring the 3/4″ thick top piece could fit snugly into the 1/2″ deep notch, making a great fit that registered against the side of the box.

From there, I milled down the side pieces to 1/2″ thick, then using a rabbeting bit in my router table, gave each piece a 1/4″ thick by 1/4″ long ‘tab’ that would fit into the grooves.

I knew that only the bottom board would be glued in place, as it wouldn’t have a cross-grain situation. The dividers that break the piece into compartments just float freely. Assembly took a little bit of time to get everything into its respective groove, but it worked out great. I just took my time, glued the bottom board, slid the bottom and dividers in, then tapped the handle/foot rest into place, and clamped everything up.

After the glue dried, I sanded everything down, then opted for several coats of lacquer for the finish. First, because it’s an easy, quick finish to apply that gives great results. But, also because it’s a spray, which can get down into the assembled compartments, saving me the work of having to reach in there with a rag or brush.

I really dig the front compartment with the cutouts that holds the cans of wax. The large compartment is easy to reach for the brush, applicators and shine rag. It’s solid as a rock, and just the right size for me to stash in the closet for when I need it. And, the beauty of it all – this truly was a one-weekend project, with the work being done in about four hours.

How well does it work? Well, I may need to make another one soon to give my son Steven, so he can start building his college fund. Hey, son, I have a nickel with your name on it!