Designing Display Stands

2008-08-18

The wife, who makes handmade jewelry, came to me the other day complaining about the prices for jewelry display stands for her booth.  I was astounded to learn that display stand manufacturers were asking for $200.00 for a set of display stands made from styrofoam and cardboard.  Styrofoam and cardboard for cryin' out loud!

I wasn't about to sit idly by and see good money thrown into disposable product, so I asked the wife what sort of specifications she had for display stands and immediately set to work designing a set of stands for her.  After doing some test modeling using our young son's Lego blocks (they're not just for playtime...whoda thunk it?), we came up with the following design.

I've picked up a half dozen 2' x 4' sheets of ¼" MDF boards and will start work on the project this weekend.  I figure an evening to cut up the boards, an evening to test fit, and an evening to do final assembly.

Shelf Project Completed.

2008-07-19

After applying a couple of coats of polyurethane and letting it set for a couple of days, the shelf is now complete and ready for installation.  The shelf went in very easily and looks pretty good.

At the wife's request, I mounted a 14" mini fluorescent light on the underside of the shelf.  The installation was pretty easy, and the fit was practically perfect.  Then I secured the electrical cord to the wall using ¼" nylon cable clamps.

And here's the shelf with the light turned on.  This should provide more than ample illumination for the wife's craftwork projects.  Now it's time to fire up the barbeque and cook up some dinner for the family!

Putting the shelf together...

2008-07-14

Now that all of the wood sections to the shelves are stained, I did a test fit with all the dowels in place.  Everything went together well, as shown below, so I went ahead and glued everything together.  Next I'll be putting on a couple of layers of polyurethane.  After that, I'll install the shelf in the wife's craftwork area.

Adding a Shelf to the Craftwork Area...

2008-07-13

After completing the craft area for the wife, I added a fluorescent light under the wall-mounted cabinet.  She liked it so much, she asked me to make a mini-shelf to accommodate both her thread spools and another under-cabinet fluorescent light.  So I drew up a quick design.  Nothing too fancy; just enough to do the job she needed.

For this project, I chose to use up the remaining scrap wood from when I made the oak windowsill.

It didn't take too long for me to cut the wood on the table saw. Then I ran the outer board edges over a 3/8" rounded router bit and sanded it down with my power sander.

Then I got out the Golden Oak stain and stained the top side of the prepped wood. I'll resume this project tomorrow afternoon and then put on a few coats of polyurethane to keep the wood looking nice. I should be done with this in a couple of days.

Craftwork Area Project Complete!

2008-06-02

As with all projects, there are invariably mid-project course corrections and revisions.  The craftwork area project is no different.  I had originally planned to make the wall-mounted shelves with backboards and mount two units to the wall.  But in the process of making the shelf, the wife indicated that she preferred a single shelf without a backboard.  Seemed reasonable, so I revised the design to make it a little more simple and added some mid-area reinforcement.

First I cut the 2x2 board down the middle at a 45° angle for structural support boards at each corner.  Then I used wood glue to affix the diagonal cuts to the side boards.  As the glue set, I used 1¼" screws to secure the diagonal boards to the side boards.

As the glue on the side boards and supports dried, I affixed the 47" 2x2 board to the top board of the shelf.  This will be the main board I'll use to secure the shelf to the in-wall studs.  Pilot holes are also drilled on the top and bottom boards for screws to be affixed to the support boards on each corner.

Here's the finished shelf unit, completely painted, with all support boards affixed.

Since I'll be mounting the shelf by myself, I built a temporary support structure to hold up the shelf while I tweaked its positioning for stud alignment and assuring that the unit is level when bolted on to the wall.

After a few minutes and a couple of tweaks, the shelf is completely bolted to the wall.  The temporary support structure is removed and busted down, and a couple of base supports are added to the shelf for additional support.  And with that, the craftwork area project is complete!

Craftwork Area Cabinet Doors Built and Installed

2008-06-01

Yesterday I cut out the door panels for the under-table storage area.  These panels were cut 20" wide and 24" tall from ¼" MDF board.  This morning I drilled the pilot holes for the hinges, door handle, magnetic catch and catch plate.  I drilled the holes on one board and then used that board as the template for drilling the holes in the second board.  The task went so quickly that I only managed a few photos shown here.

I chose to use nuts and bolts instead of screws since the MDF board was fairly thin and I tend to have better luck with bolts in those kinds of conditions.

Installation of the storage cabinet doors went pretty quickly.  I used my 24" level to assure that the doors were lined up properly and centered over the cabinet openings.  Now to resume work on the last phase of the project: the wall-mounted shelves.

Another Step Toward Project Completion...

2008-05-27

Today I painted the rest of the craft work area and it really looks good.  Next up is the making of the storage cabinet doors and the wall-mounted shelves for additional storage.  We're in the home stretch!  I hope to have this all wrapped up by the end of this upcoming weekend.

Craftwork Area Project Nearing Completion...

2008-05-26

Today I've nearly completed the wife's craftwork area work bench.  To start off, I installed the shelves in the under-table storage area.  The installation went very smoothly with support pegs located at all four corners of the shelf area.

Once I was satisfied with the storage area shelving, I began anchoring the table top boards to the bench frame using 1¼" screws at each board corner.  The fit was remarkably good, even with the slight convex wall bow.

After I trimmed the right rear table top panel to accommodate the wall's slight bow, I added the ½" quarter round moulding along the edge and secured it to the frame using 1½" finishing nails.

And here's the craft area work bench in its nearly-completed state!

All that's left for me to do is finish painting the exposed surfaces and make a couple of storage cabinet doors.  Then I'll start work on the wall-mounted shelves that'll be on the rightmost wall.  Not bad for a full weekend's work.

Further Progress on the Craftwork Area...

2008-05-25

Today was a busy and productive day, but you wouldn't know it from these two photos.  Today I cut a dozen custom-fitted boards for the craft work table and under table storage area.  I also gave 7 of those boards two to three coats of paint.

What you see here is the work area frame with four of the table top boards laid on for test fit.  I'm pretty pleased with the initial fit, though I did determine that the walls aren't perfectly flat (each has a very slight convex bow), so I'm going to be picking up 24' of quarter round white moulding to accommodate the slight gaps along the tabletop edge and its mated wall.

I also put in place the framing for the under-table storage area.  This addition further strengthens the core frame of the table top and will provide 24 square feet of storage for all sorts of craft supplies that the wife uses.  I made a slight departure from the original design and increased the door openings by 2" at the top.  This only made sense with the 3 & 5/8" edge that I had to put above the storage area opening.

Tomorrow I expect to have the two shelves installed in this storage area and have all the table top sections affixed.  Time permitting, I'll also pick up the moulding and affix that to the table top as well.  And if I feel really ambitious, I'll see about painting all the unfinished surfaces tomorrow as well.

Progress on the Wife's Craftwork Area...

2008-05-24

I resumed work on the craft area work bench for the wife this morning and things have been progressing nicely.  Each corner of the support frame is reinforced with a metal right angle brace.  This may be over-engineering the frame, but the goal is to have this last for several years and take a lot of heavy use.  My view is that it's better that the design be tougher than it needs to be.

After putting in the second long frame, I added perpendicular support struts as shown here.  These are also reinforced at the corners with right angle braces.

In order to make the end supports a little more aesthetically appealing, I cut two sections of MDF board at right angles witha 45° diagonal cut.  This gives much-needed structural support to the bench top while leaving a small side profile.

This support structure is anchored to the wall with 2½" screws.  It's also connected to the wall brace with another 2½" screw and a right angle brace.

After installing both end supports, I affixed long boards from the support corners to the main frame body.  These boards will serve to support the table top that I'll be bolting on tomorrow morning.

Building a Craft Area for the Wife

2008-05-23

I've been so busy making things for my garage work area that it was something of a necessity that I make something for one of my wife's craftwork areas.  My wife has a love of sewing, scrapbooking, and semi-precious jewelry making.  Unfortunately, her work area has become too cramped and cluttered to do much of anything.

Her work area has been entirely makeshift for the past several months.  This is evidenced by the odd collection of folding tables, a haberdasher's cabinet, a plastic bin drawer, carboard boxes, and a misfit end table.

As can be seen here, this situation really isn't very workable.  It's time the missus had a crafting area she can really work with.

So I've drawn up some diagrams for a wraparound work area with a built-in cabinet.  This layout will give her nearly 30 square feet of workspace, 24 square feet of storage, and 16 square feet in which she can move about.

I'm also going to build a two-part wall-mounted shelf that should give her easy access to the supplies she uses.  Each unit will follow this design with the option of adding a lift door to the front later on.

After the wife and I emptied out the craft area of all her stuff, I got to work and cut up a number of 2"x2" pine boards in accordance with the design I drew up.

First I mounted the back support brace, making sure it was perfectly level.  This wood brace is secured to the in-wall studs using 2½" screws.

Then I attached the perpendicular brace on the left adjacent wall, again using 2½" screws to secure the brace to the in-wall studs.  The level is used again to assure that the second brace is also parallel to the floor.

Finally I secured the wood brace to the right wall and called it a day.  I'll pick up with this again in the morning and am hopeful I'll make a lot of headway then.