Here are the plans for a simple wooden Shelf. *NOTE* I forgot to put on the plans that there are 1/4" x 3/4" router tracks on the walls. They're depicted on the drawing, but not called out. The thing I humbly consider fairly clever about this design is that it's extremely tolerant of dimensional errors in cutting. As long as the prescribed cut order is followed, most of the dimensions can be off by +- 1/4" without preventing the thing from comming together. This is a no-table-saw-required design, because frankly I don't enjoy wrestling a 4x8 sheet of plywood around the garage.
Feel free to print of a copy of the design and use it. If you end up building one, let me know how it went.
I've built two of these, and the materials cost about $50CDN each. Each required, in adition three or four hours of work. They looked OK, but would have looked much better if I was a skilled painter.
Also, I wasn't totally happy with how the hinges worked out. What I needed were hinges that would positively locate on the edge of a 3/4" thick piece of plywood, but I couldn't find anything like that locally, and ended up using gate type hinges and modifying them to lay flush (beating on them with a hammer). This looked reasonably good, but unfortunately requires the hinges to be installed with the door open. Worse, one has to balance the door with one had while putting in the screws with the other. This is fairly akward, and makes it very difficult to actually get the doors lined up. The doors also don't open fully, making this not a very satisfactory installation method.
In retrospect, here's what I'll do different next time:
At some point I'll change the drawing to that effect. But since I don't plan to build any more shelves like this for a while (until Juidth runs out of room for books again), don't hold your breath.
That's part of the fun of building things. The real world is infinitely detailed and complex, and your understanding of it can grow without bounds.
Oh hey. Here I'll share some painfully learned wisdom about painting:
Surface Prep. Nothing makes more difference than surface prep. Apply file, sandpaper, and gap-filler thoroughly. At least half the effort of a good paint job is expended before you ever get a brush wet.
Coats. Don't try for one-coat coverage. You'll end up with runs, and still find you need to come back and touch up areas afterwards. Use a roller for as much of the area as possible, and only brush the corners and detail areas.
Lighting. Paint in a well lit area, with even lighting (more than one light source). You'll need to clearly see the part you're painting, or you're going to miss spots and details.
Buy paint from someone who knows what they're doing. Sure Home Depot is $2.00 per can cheaper, but the folks they've got on the floor don't know much, and haven't got time to tell you what little they do know. Go to a place that sells nothing but paint (Colverdale? General Paint?), and talk to some old geezer there. Tell him what you want to cover, and the tools you've got to work with. Then do what he says. Once you've got it working, and want to buy 40 cans of paint to cover your entire house, still go back to the paint shop. For 40 cans you've got a better chance of cutting a deal with a paint shop, than you do with Home Depot.
Dec 25, 2002: Still thinking about the hinges. I'm now leaning toward the approach of using larger gate hinges. One half of the gate hinge will be attached to the door using short carriage bolts that go through to the outside of the door. The other half of the hinge will run back along the outer face of the side wall, again being held in with carriage bolts. This won't look quite as neat as the current version does, and prevents the shelf from being installed right next to another shelf, or the wall, but provides as tough of a joint as I can possibly make and allows for easy alignment.
This change of approach came after looking at some relatively old, but still used furniture, and seeing where it tends to wear. After cosmetics such as paint scuffs and nicked corners, damaged of loosened hinges are the most common failure mode. By adopting the super-macho hinge method, I should be able to make the hinges survive well past the rest of the unit.
Here's a picture of the finished shelf. Another one that didn't turn out well due to lighting issues.:
And here's a VRML link! Shelf
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