Building a St. Andrew's Cross BDSM Rack

Nothing is more iconic as a heavy and dark St. Andrew’s cross, and no BDSM dungeon should be without one. However, those things are expensive, often selling for upwards of $1000. The good news is they are fairly simple to build, and I have recently built one for my club. Here’s how you can build one too.

The main design concepts behind my Cross:

1.      Flat design

2.      Folding leg for easy storage

3.      Side-mounted cuff eyelets

4.      Thin, removable back-cushion

There is no one-way to design a cross, and mine is slightly different than others I’ve seen. I don’t claim to be an expert on these, so please don’t assume any of the notions or ideas I have below are set-in-stone. My cross has a lot of moving/folding parts, which make it easy to stow or transport, but also make it less robust and stable than fixed-part ones.

Materials

You would need:

1. 4 wood beams, 6x2x8 (6 inches wide, 2 inches thick, 8 feet long). I used “Prime Fir” from Home depot, which are about $4 each.
2. Wood bars, 2x2 (you’d need about 5 feet total)
3. 4 heavy hinges. I got mine for 50 cents each at Habitat for Humanity. If they didn’t come with screws, you’d need to get more of those listed at #5 below.
4. 4 12” connecting plates, $4 each
5. 30 heavy duty 1 ¼” #14 screws, about 20 cents each
6. 8 heavy duty 3” #14 screws, about 50 cents each
7. 4-8 heavy duty eyelets, screw-in types, about 90 cents each
8. 1 or more lock-latch
9. 1 securing pin (to secure the legs together when latched)
10. Some kind of stain/lacquer/sealant/paint. I recommend polyeurethane.
11. Sanding paper, block or sander tool
12. Wood board, ½ to 1” thick, about 1’x2’ (for back-pad)
13. Foam and upholstery-vinyl for the back-pad
14. Staple gun and staples

Tools

1. Electric drill
2. Drill Set
3. Screwdriver
4. Measuring tape and/or large ruler
5. Saw (ideally circular, or similar electric saw)
6. Paint Brush

You could also benefit from having a second power tool (screwdriver, drill or impact driver) so you can drill and screw in all the screws quickly without having to swap-out the drill bit multiple times.

Design

This is the design I used. Note that the back leg connects at about 60% of the height. You could attach it a bit higher, but I recommend not going lower, as it could reduce stability. You could use a heavier wood, like Cedar, Oak or Pine. I’ve attached two latches to the base board, so the back leg can be connected at two angles. The back-pad is almost universal to all crosses, but it can force the bottom to arch their back, which can be unhealthy, so I made it easily-removable. The front has a standing board, which is not mandatory, but increases stability, particularly if the person tied to it thrashes a lot. Ultimately, no cross is heavy enough to hold-down an average-weight American, so having that board is a good idea.

Workflow/process

1. Lay down the beams on top of each other, at the angle you desire.
2. Use a pencil to mark the cut line of the bottom beam
3. Cut the lower beam with your saw
4. Carefully align the beam pieces and drill holes for the screws. I often just put the screws into wood directly without pre-drilling, but since we are using very thick screws here, and natural wood, it’s important, so as to avoid the wood splitting.
5. Using the connecting plates and heavy screws, connect the two pieces of the beam you cut to the other beam, forming the cross. When doing so, use two plates on the top, and then flip over the cross and connect the other two plates. Also, make sure they don’t 100% overlap, so that the screws don’t accidentally “meet” inside the wood.

1. Using a ruler, or another beam, mark out the bottom and top of the beams for cutting. When doing so, I advise measuring the length too, so as to avoid accidentally cutting the cross askew.

1.  After cutting the bottom, cut and attach the 2x2 bar to the back side of the cross. A longer bar at the bottom, and a shorter piece at the 60% height.

<<<See pictures of all the pieces and angles below>>>

1. Attach the heavy hinges to the bottom and top bars, so that the back and bottom legs can fold inward. There are multiple ways to put the hinges, so it’s your decision. One consideration is for one of them to be set such so that the bottom leg folder “behind” the back leg. This makes it a little nicer when stored/stowed/carried.
2. Measure out and cut the 3^rd 2x6x9 beam to form the back and bottom legs. My back leg was 46 inches, and bottom board 20  inches long. You might need different sizes if your cross is higher or lower than mine. Also, my design tilts to about 15 degrees, but you might prefer it to tilt further (requiring longer bottom-board)
3. Attach the legs to the hinges
4. Attach the latches to the beams. I used the top-flap on the back-leg, and the eyelets on the bottom-leg. I placed one at the end of the leg, and a 2^nd one in the middle, so as to allow two locking positions. If you like, you can attach more. A variation of this design is to cut channels into the bottom leg, into-which the back leg will go. However, I think my design is better, as a lock can be connected to the latch, securing the cross.
5. Cut two pieces of the 2x2 bar, about 5-6” each. Place them on the side of the crossing and connect them to it with screws.
6. Cut the front base board, and attach it to the front-leg with hinges. Make sure you do this when the cross is standing, so that the distance between beams is right, letting the board stay flat. If you make this connection earlier, you might end up with the board being off the ground, and that won’t work, as the hinges won’t sustain an adult’s weight.
7. Take your back-pad wood and attach it to the bar pieces with 4 screws. Once you’ve upholstered it, you would be able to remove the screws attaching the bars to the cross, thus removing the pad, if needed.
8. Cover the pad with foam, and upholster it using the staple-gun.
9. Drill holes for the eyelets. Most crosses have the eyelets in the front, but I put mine on the sides. That way, a person is less likely to hit them when leaning against the cross. You can put as few as 4 eyelets (2 for the ankles, 2 for the wrists), but I put in a double set of wrist eyelets, so shorter people can still be cuffed to it with a sensible amount of comfort.
10. Sand the complete cross, and paint it in any way or style you like. I recommend the high-gloss, thick poly resin, as it will protect the wood from sweat and other bodily fluids, and be easy to wipe-down. For some reason, almost all crosses are painted mahogany or similar dark tint, so I made mine that way too, but there’s no practical reason for that. Make yours RAINBOW colors!!!
11. Once the paint has dried, make sure you carefully go over it and sand-down any rough spots or splinters. Even if you’ve sanded pre-paint, the paint itself often forms rough spots, so that’s important. This both avoids hurting the participants, and removes places that can collect bacteria.
12. If the cross is designated to be used in a public place, like a club or rental property, I would advise testing it with friends or partners first, to make sure there aren’t any weak spots (for example, some lower-quality boards might release splinters, or even crack). You don’t want that happening to a customer or guest!