Spice Rack Design Update

While we are getting close to the deadline for this project, I have made some good progress in the construction of my minimalist spice rack. In a perfect world, I would have been at this point much earlier in this process, but unfortunately life happens until this past weekend, I was not able to spend much time on working on this project. Despite it being crunch time, I am very confident that I will still be able to put together a quality piece that will meet my initial expectations. I have all of the components of my spice rack either purchased or fabricated, and at this point, all I need is need to do is assemble everything and paint the parts.

One design decision I made was to use plastic plates from target to be the racks themselves instead of 3D printing. When surveying my options in the store, I found some plates that were a little thicker, that also had taller sides than the cheapest ones that I was originally considering. I think that the higher lip on these plates will help hold in all the spice and help minimize the risk of bottles falling over or off the rack. In addition to these practical benefits, I also think that the taller sides will make the piece more visually appealing by making the shape of the rack a little more complex, but doing so without taking away form the minimalist, fit in anywhere aesthetic I am aiming for.

Figure 1: The plate I will be using for both rack components

A big design decision that I still have to make is the color that I will paint the piece. I narrowed down my options to either French Blue or Moss Green spray paint. While buying the paint, I couldn’t decide which color I thought would look better, so I opted to by both to keep those options open. I think I am leaning towards the blue over the green, so my current plan is to use the blue on all the parts and see what I think, and if it doesn’t look the way I am hoping, then I will repaint it with the green.

Figure 2 and 3: The French Blue and Moss Green colors I am considering for all components

My next steps over the next 3 days to complete this project will start with me sanding down my 3D print and purchased parts to rough the surface up enough to properly take on the paint. I then plan on painting all of the components individually including the outside of the bearing so there isn’t a random visible piece of metal. I will then assemble all parts using super glue to adhere everything together. My biggest struggle with assembly will be centering the plates on the main support so that the whole rack is symmetrical. I plan on doing this by tracing a circle on a piece of paper, then finding the center on paper using 2 intersecting right triangles. I can then put the paper back over and mark the center on the actual plates.