Ron stopped off in Tampa, Florida at the request of Eric and Deanna Mullins whose older son Matthew is not only quite a lego enthusiast but also a little league baseball player with a huge cap collection. The Mullins asked Ron if he could help Matthew build some wall shelves in his bedroom that could accommodate both his passions.
Click here for a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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1. Design
- Matthew wanted his new shelf to be high and out of the way, and run across the two painted walls in his bedroom, turning the corner in the middle.
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- Ron set up a workspace out on the driveway and they got started.
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- Ron showed Matthew and his parents a drawing of the type of shelf that he thought would be perfect for Matthew's room.
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- Ron's shelf design consisted of brackets made out of medium density fiberboard commonly known as MDF.
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- For the actual shelves, Ron suggested using pieces of copper pipe -- three on the top and one down below. The upper pipes would be used like a shelf to support objects, while the lower pipe would be perfect for hanging objects.
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2. Locate wall studs
- Ron sent Eric into Matthew's room with an electric stud finder to begin locating and marking the wall studs. Eric put his marks approximately 18 inches down from the ceiling, where they intended to attach the shelves to the wall.
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3. Cut out brackets
- The first step was to cut out each bracket. Since they needed to make a dozen identical brackets, they began by creating a template using Ron's scale drawing as pattern. Matthew applied a spray adhesive to the back of the drawing and then Ron pressed it in place along the corner edge of the MDF.
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- Because the pattern was positioned in the corner, they only needed to cut along the curved edge of the bracket to get the shape they needed. Ron ran the jigsaw through the wood and paper both at the same time.
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- This first bracket they cut would be used as the master template, ensuring that each bracket would be exactly the same. Ron clamped the template in the workbench and Matthew removed the saw marks with a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a dowel.
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- While Ron held the template on top of another piece of MDF, Matthew traced the outline onto the new board with a carpenter's pencil.
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- With a little help and guidance from Ron, Matthew cut out the next bracket himself.
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4. Boring holes
- Eric used a portable drill press to bore the four holes through each bracket that would support the copper pipe. The drill press was used to guarantee that the holes were perpendicular to the surface of the bracket. This was especially important because the copper pipe would need to run straight through the holes.
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- Eric used the drawing to create the first set of holes and then used the first completed bracket as a template to make sure that the holes on the remaining brackets were aligned perfectly.
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5. Backer boards
- After all of the remaining brackets were cut, the next step was to attach the brackets to the wall. To do this, Ron used thinner pieces of MDF to cut backer boards. He would attach one of these to the back of each bracket and then bore through the backer boards into the wall to secure the brackets in place.
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- Eric and Matthew cut the backer boards with a miter saw equipped with a stop block. This allowed them to cut each piece to exactly the same length without re-measuring each time.
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