How to Make a DIY Whiskey & Bourbon Flight Board

I’m so excited to share my latest project with you all!  I’m calling this a DIY whiskey and bourbon flight board but it could easily be used for scotch, brandy or modified for beer too.  I’ll walk you through this easy woodworking project and show you how I made this simple whiskey and bourbon flight board using minimal tools.  It would be a great handmade gift for loved ones and friends that enjoy whiskey, bourbon, scotch or beer or you can keep it for yourself like me and have a fancy snifter display with your bourbon collection!

My husband got me a drill press for my birthday so I figured this would be a great first project to try it out.  Don’t worry though, if you don’t have a drill press you can use a handheld drill.

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How to make a DIY whiskey & bourbon flight board

Materials

Whisky Glasses

Wood board (see step 1 for more detail)

Wood Oil

Wood Wax

Sand Paper

Tools

Forstner Bit

Drill Press or Drill

Speed Square

Tape Measure

Safety Gear (Safety glasses, dust mask, ear protection)

Directions

Step 1 – Select your wood board

There really are endless opportunities for this flight board.  You could go with an inexpensive pine option, opt for a more exotic wood species or maybe use up some of the wood scraps in your shop!  It all depends on what finish you’re going for.  I used a small piece of walnut that I purchased at Rockler for about $10.  The overall dimensions of my finished board (holds 4 Whisky Glasses ) are roughly 15.5″ long x 4-1/4″ wide x 1″ thick.

Step 2 – Square up your wood board and cut to length

If you are not starting with a  perfectly squared board then you may need to do some work to square the sides.  The piece I started with was pretty wonky so I used the table saw and an edge planer to square it up as best as I could.  Maybe this will be the year that I get a jointer… 😉 My method worked just fine for this small project.

Step 3 – Measure and mark your holes

First, place your glasses on top of the board to make sure that there is adequate spacing between them.

If you’re board is a good length you can move on to measuring the center-line of the holes that will be drilled.  Start by measuring the diameter of the bottom and then space your holes evenly to accommodate the glasses.

Mark the centerline of the hole/glass base vertically on the board where each hole will be drilled.

Mark the center-line of the board horizontally to center the holes/glasses.

You’ll have an X where each of the holes should be drilled when you are finished.

Step 4 – Set the depth of the drill

Clamp your board to the base of the drill press.  Attach a forstener bit that is slightly larger than the base of your glasses to your drill press and then set the depth that you want.  For the glasses that I used, a 2″ diameter bit was perfect and drilling into the board 1/4″ was plenty.  If you don’t have a drill press, you could place a piece of tape on your forstener bit at the height that you want to stop drilling.  Then, when you drill down to the tape you know that you’ve reached the desired depth.

Step 5 – Drill the holes

Align your board on the drill press so that you drill directly over the X marks (center-line marks that you made with the pencil).  Then, drill holes for each of the glasses.

Step 6 – Finish the Flight Board

To finish the board, I first sanded it starting with 120 grit and then 220 grit sand paper using my orbital sander .  After that, I applied Walrus Oil cutting board oil and then let it dry for 24 hours.  The next day I applied some Walrus Oil wood wax .  The finish is so smooth and pretty.  It couldn’t have come out any better in my opinion.

This is what it looked like after it was sanded but before any oil or wax was applied.

Here it is after the oil and wax were applied!

DIY whiskey & bourbon flight board

I just love how this flight board turned out.  It was a super easy project and adds the perfect touch to our bourbon collection/bar.  Again, this could easily be used for whiskey, scotch or brandy.  You could also make a slightly larger version and use it as a beer flight!  Now if someone could just tell me where I could find another bottle of Blanton’s.  It’s impossible to come by it nowadays!

If you want to save this post for later you can pin the image below. 🙂 

What is your drink of choice?  Living so close to Kentucky has definitely helped my husband and I embrace bourbon.  We’re hoping to check out some of the bourbon trail this year.

Check out my chai spiced bourbon cocktail recipe if you’re into mixed drinks.  It’s so tasty!

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