Pecan and Jatoba Paper Towel Holders

Vaughn McMillan

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ABQ NM
I had somebody contact me through my website a while back asking about some paper towel holders I made a couple years back. He just had a new kitchen done in hickory and jatoba, and wanted a paper towel holder to go with it. I couldn't find any hickory locally on the day I went looking, so I got pecan instead. The "wave" design is similar to one that he liked on my site.

He gets his choice of one of these two...made from jatoba and pecan, with maple pinstriping:

Jatoba and Pecan - 02 800.jpg Jatoba and Pecan - 03 800.jpg Pecan and Jatoba - 02 800.jpg Pecan and Jatoba - 03 800.jpg

Pocket screwed and glued, the joinery's not my best, but it'll last as long as I do. The bent wood lamination came out pretty clean, though.

Comments and catcalls are welcome -
 
Great design and execution, Vaughn! It's certainly worthy of sitting on the countertop and not attaching it to the underside of an upper cabinet. ;)
 
Nothing to add to what has been said already about the pieces. Anything would be a repetition so I'll just say that the pictures are great!

I'd like to be able to take similar pics some day.

If you post a tutorial about the paper holders please post a tutorial on how to take pics for those that have the minimum equipment!
 
Vaughn,

Really love those holders. :thumb: I, like Bill, wondered if you stacked the boards so you could swap the middle sections of each board with the other and have two "opposite" pieces. :huh: I'm not sure why, but I prefer the one with the Jatoba flanking the Pecan. :dunno:

Regards,
 
Cool holders ... but I gotta ask: How do you install a new roll? Do you force the "wings" apart a little bit?

Just wondering, 'cause I don't see any evidence of dados from the top down to the end(s) of the shaft. Nor does the shaft look like one of [these spring-loaded jobbies]. :huh:
 
Thanks for the comments, guys. :)

Bill L and Lee, you're right about the stacked cut. I use carpet tape to stick two contrasting boards together, then cut the curvy lines on the bandsaw. Then, I sand the cut edges smooth and tweak as necessary with sanding so they match up with no gaps. (A oscillating spindle or belt sander is handy for that part.) It's about as easy to make two of them as it is to make one.

Kerry, it's a spring-loaded rod that I bought from some craft supply place on the web a couple years ago. (I've since lost the link, although I could probably dredge it up from an old e-mail message.) I bought half a dozen of them, and still have three left for future projects. As I recall, they were about $2.00 each...cheaper than I could make them.

And Bill A, this customer is planning to mount it on the wall, so I used pocket screws on the back to hold the sides in place. (Saved me some time, and him some money.) If he was going to use it on the countertop, I'd have used different joints. I've made similar ones to go on the counter, and the "top" part is held in place with rare earth magnets. That way, the top just pops off when it's time to add a new roll of paper towels.

Thanks again for the kind comments -
 
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