Showing posts with label Floating Corner Shelves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Floating Corner Shelves. Show all posts
Today I'm working on the outer shell of the Floating Corner Shelf project. I didn't get as far along as expected since I totally goofed up my first run of cuts through my Shop Smith. However, the second attempt was successful and I did a minor design change on how the outer shell will come together.
If you have not read part one, you can view that here.
My original design for the project was to stay true to the single wall floating shelf plans. The inner skeleton would attach to the wall. The outer shell, would be one piece that completely covers the inside. In Part 1, I referenced two different designs that I believed I could improve on. Both of these plans built the inner skeleton, attached them to the wall and then built the other shell piece by piece with the frame attached to the wall the entire time.
For my skeleton frame, I used 1x3 pine. The length and width are 46" x 28" with the depth around 9 1/2". The short boards are all cut at 8".
For the outer shell, I started with 1x4 pine select, cut the boards down to 3". 2.5" will cover the inner skeleton frame and a quarter inch for the top and bottom plywood boards.
I'm making rabbet cuts for the top and bottom plywood to sit in so it gives me one piece to slide over the frame. And this is where I did my goof up. My first run through I did my rabbet cuts on the flat side of the boards instead of the ends. I guess when you're engineering on the fly, there is bound to be an error or two.
For the design change I referenced above, I have decided instead of making the outer shell all one piece to slide over the skeleton, I'm splitting in up into two pieces. The reason behind this is my corner walls are not perfect 90 degrees. So I will need to trim some of the boards to account for this, so having two separate slide shelves will work out better in the long run.
The plywood on the long side will cover three of the squares and will go on first. The short side will also cover three squares, including the corner section and go on second. The long board I left an extra 1.5" but had to cut the extra wood off, as you can see in this photo, to allow the short side plywood to sit flat.
As we pan out, we are nearly set to attach the 1/4" plywood to the front pieces. I am going to use the end pieces as they are, so I'm concerned once I attach the plywood, it will be a bit flimsy. If that is the case, I'll attach a couple of short boards to the front pieces to give the plywood some support.
That is all for today. Part three will include attaching the plywood pieces. It may also include painting as that would be all that is left, aside from attaching the project to the walls.
If you have not read part one, you can view that here.
My original design for the project was to stay true to the single wall floating shelf plans. The inner skeleton would attach to the wall. The outer shell, would be one piece that completely covers the inside. In Part 1, I referenced two different designs that I believed I could improve on. Both of these plans built the inner skeleton, attached them to the wall and then built the other shell piece by piece with the frame attached to the wall the entire time.
For my skeleton frame, I used 1x3 pine. The length and width are 46" x 28" with the depth around 9 1/2". The short boards are all cut at 8".
For the outer shell, I started with 1x4 pine select, cut the boards down to 3". 2.5" will cover the inner skeleton frame and a quarter inch for the top and bottom plywood boards.
I'm making rabbet cuts for the top and bottom plywood to sit in so it gives me one piece to slide over the frame. And this is where I did my goof up. My first run through I did my rabbet cuts on the flat side of the boards instead of the ends. I guess when you're engineering on the fly, there is bound to be an error or two.
For the design change I referenced above, I have decided instead of making the outer shell all one piece to slide over the skeleton, I'm splitting in up into two pieces. The reason behind this is my corner walls are not perfect 90 degrees. So I will need to trim some of the boards to account for this, so having two separate slide shelves will work out better in the long run.
The plywood on the long side will cover three of the squares and will go on first. The short side will also cover three squares, including the corner section and go on second. The long board I left an extra 1.5" but had to cut the extra wood off, as you can see in this photo, to allow the short side plywood to sit flat.
As we pan out, we are nearly set to attach the 1/4" plywood to the front pieces. I am going to use the end pieces as they are, so I'm concerned once I attach the plywood, it will be a bit flimsy. If that is the case, I'll attach a couple of short boards to the front pieces to give the plywood some support.
That is all for today. Part three will include attaching the plywood pieces. It may also include painting as that would be all that is left, aside from attaching the project to the walls.
I had received a Pinterest message from my lovely wife about floating corner shelves for my daughters room. I was intrigued with the idea since I've seen plenty of floating shelf plans and ideas. Yet I hadn't seen plans for floating corner shelves.
So I researched the project for some ideas. Surprisingly, I only found a couple of websites that had corner floating shelves. In reality, it was two DIY blogs and both used 2x4's for the inside structure. So, I centered my original plans around 2x4's on paper.
In this crude drawing of plans, the only part that was set in stone was the outer dimensions. The 46" by 28" shelf length was here it stay. Everything else was a guess and up for debate once I started the project. After looking through my available pile of project wood and the logistics of it, I decided that the 2x4's was not going to happen. It seams a bit overkill, plus I felt I could do better than the two web plans I stumbled across.
Instead I opted for 1x3 pine for the skeleton of the project. I had most of it on hand and it made the shelves a bit more precision on my part. As I started cutting the wood and laying it out on my shop floor, I was happy with the decision to abandon the 2x4's.
I have the Kreg Pocket Hole jig that I love using for as many of my projects as I can. This project was another perfect use for it since all of the pocket holes will be concealed by the outer shell. Now I don't have the fancy, quick release Kreg jig. Instead, I've always used one of my Rockler wood clamps to get the job done.
I'm making two shelves total, with seven 7" boards per shelf. Six of the boards will have two holes each and the seventh board will have two on one end and two on the other end. This will be the inside corner to make a sturdy square.
From here it's time to clamp all the boards together to complete the skeleton of the project. I had to use my Rockler wood clamps again to keep the boards in line while I placed the screws into the boards.
And that's two inside brackets completed. The shelves really went together easy and are quite sturdy since I decided to make the inside corner connect with my pocket hole jig.
In part 2, I'll need to decide on the outer shell. How to connect the front board to the top and bottom pieces of wood that will complete the shelf.
So I researched the project for some ideas. Surprisingly, I only found a couple of websites that had corner floating shelves. In reality, it was two DIY blogs and both used 2x4's for the inside structure. So, I centered my original plans around 2x4's on paper.
In this crude drawing of plans, the only part that was set in stone was the outer dimensions. The 46" by 28" shelf length was here it stay. Everything else was a guess and up for debate once I started the project. After looking through my available pile of project wood and the logistics of it, I decided that the 2x4's was not going to happen. It seams a bit overkill, plus I felt I could do better than the two web plans I stumbled across.
Instead I opted for 1x3 pine for the skeleton of the project. I had most of it on hand and it made the shelves a bit more precision on my part. As I started cutting the wood and laying it out on my shop floor, I was happy with the decision to abandon the 2x4's.
I have the Kreg Pocket Hole jig that I love using for as many of my projects as I can. This project was another perfect use for it since all of the pocket holes will be concealed by the outer shell. Now I don't have the fancy, quick release Kreg jig. Instead, I've always used one of my Rockler wood clamps to get the job done.
I'm making two shelves total, with seven 7" boards per shelf. Six of the boards will have two holes each and the seventh board will have two on one end and two on the other end. This will be the inside corner to make a sturdy square.
From here it's time to clamp all the boards together to complete the skeleton of the project. I had to use my Rockler wood clamps again to keep the boards in line while I placed the screws into the boards.
And that's two inside brackets completed. The shelves really went together easy and are quite sturdy since I decided to make the inside corner connect with my pocket hole jig.
In part 2, I'll need to decide on the outer shell. How to connect the front board to the top and bottom pieces of wood that will complete the shelf.
