those other shelves

[kellan_the_tabby]

IT TURNS OUT that if you use right-angle thingers & clamps to hold your 2×2 pieces together, & then GLUE them into place, & ONLY THEN do you drill the pilot holes & put in the wood screws, it works a WHOLE LOT BETTER.

… it also turns out that the stuff I learned from my dad, while very useful for house-building, missed a lot of information when it comes to putting together things smaller than houses. >.>

BUT HEY. I’m getting there. & it’s good to know that when basically everything else I’ve made out of wood has turned out funky & not fitting together quite right, it isn’t because I’m just bad at it, it’s because I’m not using the right tools.

Like right-angle thingers & clamps & glue.

Also, wood screws that are FOR DEFINITELY long enough to not come right back out. Like these.

See? IT WORKS

I used some older, more interesting wood for the shelves themselves …

LOOK at the grain.

They’re sturdy enough to hold Major Tom! Complete with Loioshbutt photobomb.

TOM STOP THAT

---

This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.

If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.

I’d REALLY like that.

---

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

Comments

[morgynleri]

EEE, cats! :D

(Also, *facepalm* Cats. I have to cover things I do not want Jess to scratch with either fabric she doesn't like scratching or tape with sticky side out. Not useful for tops of shelves, though.)

[kellan_the_tabby]

Cats: they're terrible!

Fortunately his claws weren't managing to dig in, & a couple minutes later he tried walking to the end of the shelf & it tipped him off, so _that_ piece of wood is safe. For now.

Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

How much weight will the shelves hold? Rough estimate?

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Well, I just stood on the top one, & I weigh 200 pounds, so at least that.

I ... apparently did a good job.

It's for craft shows, & won't be holding NEAR that much.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

That is amazing!

I'd love to make something similar for myself. What size are the support pieces (the hinged thing)?

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

It's just 2x2s. Scrap wood, most of it, that I used to use for pavilion poles. The shelves are 12" deep, so the horizontal parts of the hinged thing are 17" to allow for it to sit at that angle. The uprights are I think 28" tall? But the other set I made is taller & has three shelves, so that's doable too.

... huh. I thought I'd done a post about the other set of shelves, but I guess not. Same general idea, though. It can all be done out of pallet wood if you've got access to pallets.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

I'm one of those people who is frightened of power tools. I can cut two-by-twos with a hand saw, I hope. Lots of other issues, but I'm determined to learn SOME woodworking skills.

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

For this project you need:

some kind of saw to cut the wood to length -- I use a circular saw but a hand saw will do just fine

sandpaper & a sanding block, to sand down all the wood -- I don't use power sanders, the vibration is just right to make the nerves in my hands turn off

glue & clamps -- to get everything to stay in the right place

a drill, to drill pilot holes for the screws holding everything together -- I just checked & apparently they do still make hand drills, which is kind of awesome?

a screwdriver to put in the screws

so yeah, the whole thing can be done without power tools, as long as your hands & arms are up to it.

OH and a tape measure or ruler, & a pencil.

I could write you up a MUCH more detailed description of what I did, if that would be of use? I've kind of got the outline up there but I wasn't writing it as instructions, so I know I missed a lot of stuff.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

Considering that I have never built anything with wood, YES, please, instructions would be deeply appreciated, as detailed as you like!

I need to be able to lift things and move them on my own, and I need a cane for balance, which means that trying to move a regular two-drawer file cabinet, empty, takes serious thought and planning how to approach the problem.

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

...ooh, yes, & sturdy shelves of nearly any sort tend to be heavy as CRAP, so yeah, breakdown shelves like this would make a LOT of sense for you.

It might take me a couple days to write them up; I'll want to take a bunch more pictures & stuff. I'll probably just post them to my DW if that's cool with you? I'm sure there are other people who'd find them of use.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

That is more than cool! Thank you so much for even THIS much information!

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Hi! I've (finally) written up the first making-shelves post. Apparently there's going to be a lot of them? Because I'm. Voluble. I don't want to leave things out. >.>

Anyway please do ask if you have any questions, or if anything's unclear, or, you know, just commentate, or whatever.

(This is kind of fun?)

There'll be another post tomorrow, with more of the planning part.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

Those are still beautiful shelves. Most desks are too high for me, so I'm thinking of working from the desk-height I want for the top shelf, 27", and a 3" toe kick under the bottom shelf, which would put the shelves 12" apart vertically. That means making the shelves no wider than 10-11" to keep from causing a jam when trying to fit them in. (The plan is to make the middle and lower shelves with very little overhang, but put the desktop across two supports, with a knee gap.)

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Ooh, I LIKE this idea!

A small caveat that you've probably already thought of: you need to take the thickness of the shelves into consideration, so there will be less than 12" space between them, but not _much_ less.

Things you're going to want to consider:

-- how much space you want for your knees, between the two sets of shelves, including space for armrests if you use them
-- how deep you want the desk to be, front to back, to give room for keyboard/desktop/laptop/notepad/whatevs

The way the shelves in the photo are set up -- with the narrow part of the V in front -- would give you more leg/chair room but might make it harder to get things off the shelves, especially if you're prone to grabbing for things without looking, like me; I'd be whacking my knuckles on them ALL the time if I had that setup. But it's a thing to consider. The nice thing is, since it all comes apart, you can try them one way, & if that doesn't work, shift things around & try them the other way.

Hmm, do you tend to push off your desk to get your chair back when you stand up? If so we might want to keep that in mind for the design, cos that's not something I do with the show shelves. I mean probably just having the back of the desk against the wall will handle that?

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

Given the stability issue (I can trip over air molecules, and lean on furniture A LOT!), I'm thinking that the wider part of the Vs will face the wall, with the spine toward me, leaving a smaller gap between the supports, since I'm not likely to kick the back uprights on either side, even with a narrow desk sized for my laptop.

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

This makes a lot of sense.

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

oops i accidentally the next post *falls over*

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

Much appreciated!

How do you know how much weight it will hold? More math?

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

So, uh, when you asked how much weight it would hold? I remember thinking 'how am I even gonna ESTIMATE that', so I went out & looked at it, hoping for ideas, & then I thought, hey, it LOOKS sturdy enough? So I stood on it, & it didn't break. Which is how I know it'll hold 200 pounds.

Various members of my mother's side of the family insist that our official motto is 'Hold my beer & watch this'. It's hard to argue.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

So if I lean on it, I'm more likely to tip it than break it. GOOD to know!

And books are heavy!

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Yep! I mean yeah, you _could_ break it, but it'd be much more likely to happen with a flying side kick, & I don't think you're any more likely to try one of those than I am.

Re: Intended use?

[dialecticdreamer]

Oh, that is a funny image!

I'm more likely to FALL on it while trying! LAUGH.

Re: Intended use?

[kellan_the_tabby]

I mean I've got pretty decent balance -- I'm maybe a bit smug about it, because, hey, _something_ on my body works right-ish -- & I'm pretty sure _I'd_ fall over trying!

[thewayne]

Good idea! Definitely not an idea that I would have latched on to imediately.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I did a bunch of searching around for ideas, & passed this one over a BUNCH of times before I finally looked at it for the zillionth time & said 'yeah, I could make that work'.

[cellio]

That's lovely grain!

Loiosh -- ever the troublemaker. :-)

[kellan_the_tabby]

Innit just? There's an old falling-down house behind where I live, & I've been scavenging a bunch of wood from there.

& yes, he is TERRIBLE. <3