'Tis the Season for Sawdust

The holiday season is here, which naturally means gift purchasing. I try to avoid going out to the stores this time of year and make use of Amazon and other on-line stores to get my shopping done. It's so much easier shopping from the comfort of your own home!

I will do some baking next weekend to pass out edible gifts at work, and that's always a nice way to go, but my favorite type of gift to give is of the homemade variety.

I have a friend who has a stellar man room, and there's a dozen or so baseball bats leaning up against the walls. I crafted myself a bat rack in the past, and figured I might give it another try.

The wood cost me about $12 and the stain around $6. The labor? Well, that's all me!

As you can see I went with a two tier design, which fastens to the wall with a couple of screws. Yes, I even have a couple of little wood buttons to place over the screw holes.

It will hold fifteen bats, and there's enough room on the top for my friend to stack autographed baseballs in their cube display cases.

 I wanted to hide all the screws, so I got out my Kreg Jig set and had a little fun.

The jig set creates a nice little pocket hole for such cases as building a bat rack or entertainment system. I've used it three times now and I feel like I'm getting pretty good at it.

All of the pictures were taken this morning after I applied the stain.  I still need to apply a couple coats of polyurethane, but I'll take care of that the next couple of days. 

It should be ready to wrap and gift by the weekend!