Homemade Bottle Drying Rack - Low Cost

[Scooter68]

Homemade Bottle Drying rack (21 Bottles) - My Cost $0.00 (Materials I had on hand)

Here's what it took:

Item Qty Local Lowe's cost

1/2" x 10Ft Pex pipe 1 $2.98

1" x 12" x 6 ft pine/fir board 1 $12.98

1" x 8 ft Door Stop Moulding 1 $1.92

Miscellaneous: Varnish, Screws, Brads

Double layered the board and cut the Pex into 5 inch long pieces. Drilled the holes with my drill press using a 1/2" bit. Since this is a wood base I had to varnish it so I attached the strips of door stop material on one side of the holes so that the bottle top would be up and let the water drip and air dry. I don't have to rush things so just air drying is fine with me. I can always set up a little fan to blow across the board to speed things up.

Any board material will work. If you can get your hands on some scraps of Trex or similar decking boards you wouldn't even need varnish. I made mine to fit an old OLD double basing concrete sink in the basement of second home we own. (Yeah, Concrete)

Using pex you could even go fancy and with some elbows and line & pump air into the bottles or sanitizer then air to dry.

I could have gone with a 4 x 4 post board but then I'd have to deal with a base and evenly loading the rack as I finish washing and rinsing the bottles. Found that 3 3/4 on center between the holes works nicely. Of course longer board more bottles but again this was made to fit into that old old sink

 

[pete1325]

Nicely done!!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

great idea Scooter68 !

I will use a milk crates and let the bottles rinse after sulfiting them - then turn them upright and fill them using the Allinonewinepump and when finished - carry it to the corking stage.View attachment 27955

 

[Scooter68]

Milk crate better yet!

No assembly required!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Milk crate better yet!

No assembly required!

Yes !

I also talk about using a restraunt grade dishwashing rack as shown in my facebook page - but this is definitely the cheaper way to go and the easiest !

 

[Runningwolf]

The easiest way to go is to buy a bottle tree. They take up less space and are more convenient.

 

[Scooter68]

Yes !

I also talk about using a restaurant grade dish-washing rack as shown in my facebook page - but this is definitely the cheaper way to go and the easiest !

Exactly, sometimes you run across something the fits the need and costs next to nothing... I had the Pex pipe and the board. If I want to I can pull out the pex pipe pieces and the whole thing takes up less space. It fits perfectly over the second basin in the sink and I DON'T have to worry about it tipping over like a bottle tree if I don't load it evenly.

I retired from Lowe's a while back and just before I left they got in a load of Food Grade 5 gallon buckets. In those I can easily put a 3 gallon batch, leave room for foaming etc and the price was good. Drilling the lid for a bubbler grommet was the only thing I had to do.