Plumbing Pipe Firewood Holder

A few months ago, I saw these little gems in a catalog…

But the prices were unbelievable….

One of my favorite restaurants here in Oak Cliff uses wall-mounted plumbing pipe as “log wranglers” and I comment about how much I like them every time we eat there. I have used plumbing pipe to make shelves and curtain rods before , so I knew that I could make something of a hybrid between these and the ones at Eno’s.

I started by making a box of layered 2x4s , and a 1×4 pine trim on the outside layer…

The base has to be pretty substantial to hold the weight of all those logs…..so at least 3 layers, screwed together with drywall screws…..

I topped the frame with a plywood sheet cut to 18×28…….and nailed it in with brads…then gave it a quick sand to even out all the edges…..

I used a Minwax water based walnut stain ….so easy , just rub it on with a clean cloth..dries in about 2 hours. I gave it 2 coats….the more coats , the darker the finish. This stain is perfect for something that will take the abuse that this piece will…

Here’s what it looked like after it dried…..

I flipped it over and bolted on casters to the bottom with 2 inch lag screws…course I drilled pilot holes first…

Now that I had my base, all we had to do was build the plumbing pipe frame…

I laid all the plumbing pieces out on the floor of Home-Depot…and took this shot to remember the configuration…All the pipes are 3/4 inch diameter; anything smaller just seemed to thin to hold all the fire wood. We bought : 4 – 60 ” pipes, 4 – 5 ” pipes, 1 – 18″ pipe. 4 elbows, 2 tees, and 4 floor flanges.

For some reason, the flanges only come galvanized, and not black…so I sprayed them with a quick shot of 99 cent black spray paint….I always have a few cans …..(for black spray paint emergencies)

Once our pipe fixture was screwed together we bolted it to the base with 2 inch lag screws…it now looks exactly like this……

I am absolutely thrilled with the final results…not really that much cheaper than the original ( 60 bucks for 5 foot pipes, 60 bucks for 4 casters….etc). But we made it ourselves…..and in just one afternoon. I think it took longer to carry all the firewood into the house to load the thing……..