I definitely spend an way too much time scheming up new ways to store my spices because I'm a cooking nerd. When I found this collection of jars at a thrift shop, I was thrilled because because they were the only vertically proportioned jars that fit in my spice drawer, so I can fit more spices in. Now, however, in my new home I have a shelf rather than a drawer, and a narrow one at that! While I could line them all up or stack them, fishing out the one at the back or trying to read the labels on the lids would be a pain. I decided they needed a spice rack.

I went to a local salvage store and bought a used plastic tube. I suppose PVC would have been sufficient, but I wanted to check the place out. I was also planning on calling into service my newly made Miter Box.

After cutting the first section of tube, I verified that it matches the size I want for the jar. To insure that every other cut is exactly the same, I place the piece in the miter box with the saw in it's channel. Then I screw down a piece of blocking into the box to act as a stop for the tube. The great part of making your own tools is that you can modify and remake them without batting an eyelash!

With the blocking secure, I went to town cutting down the tube. As it turns out, one 36" length of tube doesn't go as far as you think, and I did end up using a PVC pipe from home depot after all. This too didn't cut as many sections I'd hoped, but I did (barely) end up with the right number of tube sections.

The last step was gluing the pieces together. I still don't understood why epoxy is being sold in syringe form these days. I know the needle part mixes the resin and hardener for you, but it seems to me that would result in only a single use. Luckily I found some epoxy in separate tubes, which I can lid for later. After mixing (with a toothpick) the epoxy, I spread a thin line down one length of tube and rubberand it to another. Rinse and repeat.

Although I'd planned on doing a single solid rack, I realized I didn't actually need to. With a few of the tubes glued together, they could rest on top of one another in a honeycomb pattern without rolling around. Besides saving me the tedium of gluing a bunch of joints, that also allows for future reconfiguration, when (inevitably) my spice storage situation changes yet again. For now, however, I'm pretty satisfied with this rack. Now I just have to see about beautifying those labels...