Shelves Are DONE!!!

Yes!!! My Shelves are done.  To some this might not seem like such a big deal, but I needed these made to figure out how much wall space I have left.  I am most likely going to hang my Ken Kelly prints there.

I made this table and shelves for $10 bucks.  $1.35 for the brackets and $8.00 or something like that for the trim. As a machinist I have discovered that I may need something.  It may not be for 10 or 15 years, but I will need "it".  So I keep "it" for when I might someday need "it".  So I had most of the material already.  The shelves and table top are from a corner unit that was in the garage when I bought the house.  I tore it apart, but kept the sides and put them in the trusses of my garage so I could use it for storage space.  I took one down and cut it up to make this corner table unit.

This post is how I made the corner table unit.  I'll have pics of the new arrangement in another post.  So if you dont care how I made the corner unit, then you wont miss anything by skipping the rest of this post.

But if you want to see how easy it was to make,  Then lets go.  :~)

I planned these new shelves with a specific set of guidelines.  I wanted the Dave Dorman Emperor Pencil Sketch on the one side and his Galactic Defender Painting  on the other corner of the table I made.  I wanted 2 shelves and I had 17" of wall space from the ledge down to the table top.  The shelves I was making were 5/8" thick.  So thats 1 1/4" used up for the shelves themselves leaving 15 3/4"  I wanted 2 - 6" spaces which would leave me with 3 3/4" of wall space to the ledge.  Perfect.

I layed out and cut the 2 shelves I  needed from the same material I had used to make my corner table.  Make sure if its got a pattern or grain, you pay attention to that.  You can tell right away something is "off" if you have the grains of one shelf going one way, the next shelf the grain goes a different direction and then the table grain looks weird going in a different direction as well.  Truth be told, I got lucky cutting them.

I still had the edge trim I bought for the table, so I used it on the shelves and then trimmed them up.







It took me both my coffee breaks and my 1/2 hour lunch break, but I machined  4 - 6" shafts and then drilled them out so I could slide a 1/4" NC All Thread bar through it.  I put the shelves together and laid them on the table top as if I was assembling it.  I then drilled 2 holes at the corners of the shelves and right through the table. I put a washer and a nut on the underside of the table and screwed the all thread into it through the table..

I then dropped one of the 6" spacers I made over the allthread.  I did the same at the other corner.  I then put a shelf over the allthread.  I put the second set of 6" spacers on and then the next shelf.  I drilled the hole through the shelves/table pretty close so I had to use a nut on each allthread bar to suck everything down nice and tight. 

This was to my advantage because this kept everything relatively steady so I could cut off the excess All Thread.

Using the same material I made the 6 "spacers from,  I made 2 simple caps.  45 degree  bevel on the one end.  Drilled and tapped on the other end.  Both 1" long.  Sometimes less is more. Simple effective and it looks ok.  I could have made some fancy caps...but why?  This is just as effective.

   

The shelves were nice and firm, but they needed back support. I went to Home hardware and picked up the support brackets for $1.35




And hour to machine to length 4 shafts for 6" spacers, drill them right through, machine, drill and tap 2 caps.  Layout, cut, file the edges of the shelves...1 hour.  Put trim on shelves 1/2 hour.  Assemble and install support brackets another 1/2 hour.  So 3 hours and $10.00 for the trim and brackets.  I imagine if you bought all the materials and looked for deals, you could probably get everything for $40-$50.

I may put in some shelves under the table to store empty boxes and whatnot.  Then all I need is a chair.  My mother is sewing my Transformer Curtains to length for me.  And then my room is complete.  I just need to hang a few pictures, maybe adjust the arrangement every now and then, but my room is complete.  It has taken me 4 years.  And yes those are 1980's handheld video games on my table.  I have a Rubiks cube too.  My fastest time is 57 seconds.  :~)

 I spent the next few hours dusting and rearranging.  I'll have those pics in another post.