GB2407970A - Expandable wine rack - Google Patents

Abstract

A wine rack may be expanded horizontally or vertically. No glue or screws are required during assembly of the rack. The rack can be shortened at preset intervals either in a horizontal or a vertical plane. The rack having pre-machined grooves (8) that may be cut by sawing. The rack may be assembled using dowels (6, 7) that have spiral grooves on their surface to aid retention of the dowels.

Description

EXPANDABLE WINE RACK

This is a wine rack which can be expanded vertically or horizontally and also be shortened (vertically and horizontally) so that it could be fitted into any confined space, i e. under stairs.

Refer to drawings, l/3, 213, 3/3, Fig. l to 6, where the numbering of the components is as follows, 1. Corner post, f= front, b= back 2. Front carrier 3. Back carrier 4. Tie bar 5. Filler piece 6. Short dowel 7. Long dowel 8. Grove for shortening (Extension pieces for item l, 2 or 3 have suffix x) The wine rack is presumed supplied in a standard kit for self assembly to end up like Fig 1.

To expand vertically another standard kit is acquired and fitted on top using dowels (Fig 4 and 5). To expand horizontally an expansion kit is acquired. This would lack two corner posts and the filler pieces. It would be assembled by removing the filler pieces at the side to be expanded and joining the carriers, front and back, as shown in Fig.4 for a front carrier. (The carriers have the joining rebate at the back on the left side and at the front on the right side, 2x in Fig 4 thus represent the RHS of the carriers and 2, the LHS) The wine rack (or an extension) can be shortened by using a saw only, by sawing along groves already inserted at regular intervals on the carriers (across and alongside) and on the comer posts. Holes for dowels would already be in place at the correct positions in the carriers.

The wine rack can be assembled using a small hammer to insert the dowels in the pre drilled holes. The dowels will have a tight fit and have fine groves in a spiral or circular formation on its surface which have a better holding property than groves parallel to the axis. No glue or screws would be needed but glue could be applied if no extension is envisaged or could be applied to the tie bars only.

The comer posts will have holes drilled for the tie bars at the points where the groves for shortening is positioned, but the tie bars would not need to be fitted at each such point.

Dowel-holes for the tie bars could be drilled right through the comer posts (instead of half way through) for increased holding. Longer dowels would then be needed.

If a vertical extension is required on a vertically shortened rack, new dowel holes will have to be drilled on top of the corner posts.

The long dowels on the back carrier have a length suitable for a standard bottle, but can be shortened or removed for bigger bottles, like champagne bottles. These dowels should also have a tight fit, but need no groves.

The wine rack is envisaged to be free standing, at least if a standard kit only is used. If a vertical extension is used the rack could be fixed to the wall using an angle bracket fitted to the back corner posts.

Claims (3)

1. A wine rack that can be assembled without glue or screws, which is expandable vertically and horizontally and which can also be shortened at certain minimum intervals, horizontally and vertically by sawing along pre-machined groves.

2. A wine rack as in claim 1, that can be assembled using tight fitting dowels, with fine groves in a spiral or circular formation on the surface, for maximum holding property.

3. A wine rack as in claim 1 that have pre-machined groves and dowel holes at positions such that the rack can be shortened vertically or horizontally by certain minimum intervals simply by sawing along the above groves and rejoining using dowels.