A Rifle Tree - DONE!

[ESquared]

Boy, oh, boy, it seems like I've been working on this a long time. Several mid-course corrections, the biggest of which involved having to discard the top-plate, which was too large (relative to the diameter of the base) to give me enough "tilt,"' while still accommodating the scoped rifles.

There's a pic of the defunct top piece, along with scraps of the leather I used to cover the base (rough side up - nice skid resistance!) and for the retention straps on the top (smooth side out, hand-beveled for grins). Used a "rustic" black nail and some velcro to secure the straps to the top plate, which was a disc of "live edge" wood I found at Michaels (go figure).

The outer edge of the base was some flexible/PVC quarter-round I found on Amazon, which led to me painting the visible parts of the base. Same paint on the center post. The big "nob" on the top is an end-piece from a curtain rod set I didn't need (and pack-ratted away), so that came in handy.

The rifles need to go in a very specific pattern to accommodate the scopes, so I made up some Sharpie/Duct Tape labels, just to keep things straight.

The 18" diameter base met my criteria for a small footprint, but a 24" base would have made things much simpler and less crowded.

All in all, I'm okay with the way it turned out. Lots of seat-of-the-pants engineering and re-jiggering, but the first one is always a live experiment with projects like these. Not in a hurry to make another one, but at least I have some of the stuff and could probably do it in half the time. Not likely, at least for the foreseeable future.

Kinda hard to call it "woodworking" isn't it? More like "multi-media"!

[P.S.: I took all these pictures in upright/portrait orientation, so that's how they appear in my photo files; why they loaded sideways here I can't figure out. If someone knows how to re-orient them, have at it. Sorry about that!).

[PT7]

Your stain color so far looks great, and wood grains are cool. Almost too bad most of the wood will be hidden. I always like to show off wood.

Looking forward to the finished tree. Neat project, ESquared.

PT7

[ESquared]

Thanks, Bob, but back to the drawing board on the trim/rim piece. When flexed, it doesn't lay flat. Instead of Cove, probably need some way to make quarter-round flexible.

More Googling...

[ESquared]

Gotta love Amazon. Flexible quarter round. Modifies the painting/staining plan, but we're making this up as we go along (+/-) anyway, so we'll just stay flexible (so to speak)!

[ESquared]

Well, that little moulding trick didn't work out. Still noodling the right solution for the bottom plate (how/if to divide the "sections", butt retention/outside edge fabrication, mainly), but have a couple things up my sleeve.
In the meantime, I got the bottom plate attached to the base (onto which will attach the casters), with the lazy susan in between, so now things are spinning, anyway!
Also laid out and fabricated the first steps of the top plate. Saw blade drill bit and a forstner bit on the edges to give me a flat indentation into which I can mount a magnet for barrel retention. More sanding and staining, obviously, but got the rough edges knocked down, so it's a start!
More to come. Once I figure out a bottom plate solution, it'll come together pretty quickly.
The pics are sort of in the reverse order of the above play-by-play, but you get the idea(s)!

[ESquared]

Trying to figure out why this isn't posting.

[RanchRoper]

Looks good.

[PT7]

Trying to figure out why this isn't posting.

It has posted from my view, Evan. The first two photos I see your completed tree.

Really looks great....nice job putting this DIY unit together. It's a perfect "home" for your long guns.

Well, I counted 8 out of 10 slots occupied. What's coming to fill the empties?!?
Thanks for including us on your DIY adventure.

Bob

[Mags]

.
Can't see any of the 'done' pictures from here.

Trying to figure out why this isn't posting.

[ESquared]

Thanks, PT, I guess I went in and did an "Edit" to the original post, which didn't bump it to the top. Had to post my own "why isn't this posting?" post to get it to re-trigger and bump it up.

As to capacity, I guess I left that part out. When I had to re-size the top-plate, I had to reduce the capacity from 10 to 8 long-guns, so that stand is "sold out." My 15" top-plate in the photo is already cut for 10, but I don't see the day when that will be necessary. Sometimes "go big or go home" works out, sometimes it doesn't, huh?