Spindle Laundry Hamper

This project describes a spindle laundry hamper. We decided our generic plastic 3-bag holder was both too large and too...plastic, for our bedroom. So we made a smaller, classier version out of wood. It's a lightweight but strong piece, with balusters used for the main vertical structure, and simple dowels for the horizontal braces.

Materials you need for this to work. The base materials were less than $20.

1 1/4" balusters x 4
3/4" dowels x 8
Small screw eyes x 8
Magic Sliders (optional) x 4

Tools I used during construction:

Drill press + 3/4" forstner bit
Mitre saw
Drill + bit
Bar clamps

The laundry holder itself is a simple cube frame. Start by cutting your balusters down to whatever height you want the frame to be (mine were 32" tall). The dowels are to be recessed into the top and bottom faces of the balusters to form the joints which hold it together. Use a drill press to form these 3/4" holes to receive the dowels. The vertical placement of the holes isn't critical, whatever looks good to you will work, but you must make sure they are in the center of the baluster. Whatever placement you choose, you must be consistent, so a jig like the one shown in the picture is a good idea.

The hole should go about halfway through, and since there will be two per baluster (on adjacent sides) they will form a contiguous hole. The image to the right shows what they should look like.

To prepare the horizontal dowels, start by cutting them to length. The exact dimensions depend on the bags you will be using, my dowels were 19" for the deep side, and 18" for the front. To provide maximum support for the dowels, they should ideally go all the way into the baluster. The problem with this is that the two opposing dowels will oppose one another in the contiguous hole. To correct for this, you can cut a 45 degree mitre on the ends of the dowels, so that they will meet but not interfere.

The hard part about this cut is making sure the mitres on opposing ends of the dowels are in the correct planes. If they aren't, the dowels will cause a twist when you put it together. To make these cuts, I made the small jig shown to the left. The tall piece consists of a scrap piece of baluster with a small piece of mitered dowel glued in place. The smaller piece just acts as a support when you make the cut.

Cut a mitre on one end of the dowel. Then insert that end into the jig, which should force the dowel to line up correctly when you make the second cut. This process is shown to the right.

When completed, the dowels will meet along the mitre cuts inside the baluster. A cross section of what this will look like is shown on the left.
If you want, you can use a router to make a small decorative cut to the top of the balusters. I used a 45 degree chamfer bit, which both differentiates the top and bottom and makes it less likely you'll poke yourself on the corners. After you made have made all these cuts, use wood glue and clamps to put the frame together.

After the frame has set, you can finish it as needed. Then place the 8 eye screws in the top dowels to provide a place for the bag to hang from. The finished product is shown to the left.