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…

Flip flops are the required footwear for working with power tools….

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……..