PVC Carousel Paper Bead Drying Rack

Watch Video on How to Make this Paper Bead Drying Rack! Completed Drying Rack

This drying rack is made from a cPVC pipe and wooden dowels. It is meant to work with dipping paper beads strung on monofilament fishing line. It is fairly easy to make and will hold as many as 40 - 56 strands of beads based on 5 - 7 strands per pin. It is very easy to assemble and take apart for storage! Just pull the pins back out of the holes, take off an end cap and drop the pins inside the pipe to store them. The base is removable also so it can be stored easily.

Materials Needed

1 piece cpvc pipe 3/4" diam x 12 to 22" long.
2 3/4" cpvc end cap fittings
4 dowels, 12" x 1/8" or skewers
Piece of 1" x 8" x 8" hard or soft wood
Piece of Thin Cork 8" x 8" Square. I used Contact brand available at Staples
Piece of Cereal box Cardboard 8" x 8" Square.
Strong White Glue
Spray varnish or clear glaze for base
Acetone based nail polish remover
1 package of 100 Mini or micro Binder Clips
50lb test monofilament fishing line
2mm Crimp beads

Tools Needed

Miter Box and saw or a pipe cutter
Black Sharp Permanent marker or pencil
Regular Pencil
Small Scrap of paper about 3" x 3"
Transparent tape
Electric Hand Drill or Drill Press with a centering jig
1/8" drill bit
7/8" paddle type drill bit
Sand Paper 80 and 180 - 200 grit
Paper Towels for cleaning markings off of pipe.
Chain Nose Jewelry Pliers

Finished Size: 12"w x 22"h x 8"

Instructions
Step 1: Using your miter saw or pipe cutter, cut your pipe to the size and above. You can make it taller or shorter if you want. I made mine 18" because I wanted to be able to dip and dry longer strands than the first paper bead drying rack I made. If you want to be sure you can hang 16" long strands, make your pipe 22" long.

Step 2: Clean the pipe with a paper towel moistened with the acetone. If you want to completely remove the writing on the pipe, you will need pure acetone. Nail polish remover is not strong enough. You can get pure acetone in the nail polish remover section of any major store. It is what is used to remove artificial nails! You can also get it in a can in the paint department of Wal-mart or other home improvement store. Put the End Caps onto both ends of the pipe.

Step 3: Marking for the Holes. (This is the way I really did my holes!) You will need a total of eight holes around the top of your pipe drilled in a spiral fashion. They need to be perfectly straight and even through the pipe. I can show you an easy way to achieve this! You will need to get your drill press ready for best results. You will need a centering jig also to make it easy. To get ready to mark your holes, you will need your piece of 3" x 3" scrap of paper and a pencil.

Cut the scrap of paper into a 1-1/2" x 2-3/4" piece.
Fold the little piece of paper in half matching the short ends together. Then while keeping it folded, fold in half again and then again one more time. You should have a skinny folded piece of paper that is 1-1/2" long. Open it up. You should have a piece of paper with 8 sectons across.
Fold it the opposite way in half, then in half again and open it up. You should now have a piece of paper with 16 sections on each half of your paper. You can draw lines following the fold lines on one half if you want to, to form a 4x4 grid.
Now you will mark where your holes will go in 4 of the sections in your 4 x 4 grid. From top left corner to the bottom right corner. Try to center your marks the best you can.
With the cap on one end of your pipe, tape this piece of paper around the pipe with the paper just touching the bottom of the end cap. Take the end cap off before you drill your holes.
Using your drill press and centering jig. Drill your holes where your marks are making sure to drill all the way through your pipe. My husband made a V channel in a block of wood for me so I could lay the pipe in the channel and drill into it centered. You can also buy a centering jig for under $20.00 from Home Depot, Lowes or Amazon. I didn't want to buy one so my husband made one.
Remove the paper from the pipe and replace your end cap. The top part is done for now!

Step 4: Making the Base. You can cut your piece of wood into a circle if you want to. I already had my circle of wood from another project so I am recycling! Basically the first thing you want to do is find the exact center of your piece of wood and drill a 7/8" hole into it all the way through. If your hole ends up being a tiny bit big and your pipe wobbles in it a little, you can apply some kind of sealer inside the hole on the cut surfaces to swell and seal the wood. I used Janice Mae's Vibrance with a small craft brush because that is what I had on hand. I used only one coat and it was just what was needed to make my pipe fit perfectly in the hole without being the least bit wobbly.

Step 5: Decide now whether you want to seal your wood or leave it plain but at least sand it to make it smooth to prevent splinters later on. If you want to seal it, you can use what ever varnish or sealer you want. I used 3 coats of Plaid Patricia Nimock's Clear Acrylic Sealer Gloss for mine because again it is what I had on hand. Use what ever you want and how ever many coats you want. Remember, it's a drying rack and not pretty furniture.

Step 6: Trace your wood onto a piece of cereal box cardboard and cut it out. Glue this to the bottom of your wood base, with white glue, to cover the hole.

Step 7: Trace your cardboard covered wood base onto a piece of the thin cork and glue this to the bottom of your cardboard on the bottom of your wood base. You can use felt if you want to for this instead of cork but then use corregated cardboard to cover the hole instead of cereal box cardboard. The Contact brand of cork has an adhesive on it but it is not strong enough to stay put so add some glue to the cardboard as well. Or use contact cement.

Step 8: Now your bead drying rack is essentially done. You just need to assemble it so you can use it. Put your base on the table. Take off the end cap that is on the bottom of the pipe. Insert pipe into the center hole of your base. Insert dowels or skewers through the holes at the top. Make sure your end cap is on at the top and now enjoy your bead drying rack! If you want to, you can use a mini binder clip as a spacer up against the pipe before hanging your bead strands to keep the wet beads from touching the pipe.

Step 9: To put your bead drying rack away, just pull the skewers or dowels out of the holes. Take the pipe out of the hole in the wood base. Drop the dowels or skewers inside the pipe and close the bottom end with the end cap. Store where you want to along side the base.

NOTE: cPVC is the yellowish pipe meant for hot and cold water plumbing lines.

How to Use Your Drying Rack!

Cut your 50lb test fishing line to 14" - 16" long pieces
Using your chain nose pliers, put a crimp bead at one end of a piece of fishing line and flatten it. This is stopper. Use a binder clip at this same end, string on your beads, starting and finishing with a waste bead. Put a crimp bead at the other end. The waste beads will take on the extra glaze that drips from the last good beads at each end.
Holding both ends, dip your beads into your thin varnish or glaze.
Shake the excess glaze off of the beads.
Hang one end on the drying rack with the binder clip.
When you dip them a second time, move the binder clip to the other end hang it so you invert your strand of beads for even coverage. (Tip: When getting ready to dip them the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th times, remove all of the strands from the rack at the same time. Move all of the binder clips to the opposite end before you start to dip again. Also when you move the binder clips to the opposite nd, take the time to break apart the beads that are stuck together and move them down to the crimp bead that is now at the bottom.)
If you do multiple dips, do an even number of dips, inverting your strand each time for even coverage.
What I use is 4 coats of PC Petrifier Wood hardener and 1 or 2 coats of Vibrance.

PVC Carousel Paper Bead Drying Rack

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