Attachable Bedside Shelf for Loft Bed

For my final project for MAT 111PF, I wanted to create something that would push the bounds of my skills and have a functional use. Recently, I set-up a loft bed and noticed an issue where there was no place to keep any of my things at the top where the bed is. This was a particular challenge when I needed a place for my glasses after climbing into bed or desired a spot to keep a physical alarm clock that was within reach. I liked that this project would give me the opportunity to explore design in conjunction with existing structures for function purposes. When choosing my design, I saw many different types of shelfs to get an idea of what features would be most useful. Eventually, I settled on a hook mechanism for attaching the shelf and "pocket" and "desk" design for keeping things. Below is my process!

1. 1/4" Plywood
2. UCSB Makerspace Laser Cutter
3. Sketch Tools
4. X-acto Knife
5. Mallet
6. Eye Protection
7. Paper
8. Scissors
9. Tape
10. Measuring Tape
11. Pencil
12. Fusion Autodesk 360

I began by doing a generic search for bedside shelfs and decided to use these three images as the primary inspiration and framework for my design. Initially, I wanted to create a small platform shelf where I can put my phone and an alarm clock. The image (a) shows a basic structure to implement for the shelf with a press-fit like attachment style. I estimated this could be made with 4 pieces. The following image (b) shows an additional cable hook that I wanted to add as my fifth component for my phone’s charger. With experimentation on fusion, I planned to see which attachment style -- either implementing a press-fit mechanism or a hook mechanism like in image (c) -- would work best.

Citations:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/254894811/bunk-bed-hook-over-shelf-tray-night

https://a.co/d/48ubkx5

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364966628224

Next, I sketched a potential design on my iPad. First, I drew the bed to see what kind of shelf would objectively match best with the bed. Then, I went more into the nitty-gritty taking apart my generic idea of shelf and seeing what basic components I would need. After finalizing this part, I marked on the components which measurements I needed to take, then systematically measured them on using my bed, a step-stool, and a measuring tape. I estimated wide and deep I wanted the shelf to be. I also marked on my sketch where the tabs could potentially be with different colors. After noting down all these dimensions. I made a hand-cut prototype.

Using the tape measurer and a pencil, I sketched the components with proper dimensions onto a paper grocery bag in a layout similar to fusion. I made these components without tabs for simplicity. The primary purpose of this exercise was to gauge whether my measurements were right, if I needed to take more, if the components would fit within 1 cubic foot, and where would be ideal locations for tabs. I also wanted to make sure it was functionally sketched and "made sense". With some tape, I put it together, and it turned out very well which made me optimistic for the project! One area of concern was that the hook/press-fit mechanism for attaching the shelf was a little loose. Additionally, I had forgotten to sketch and cut the bottom piece so this was a good reminder to include that component. I was happy with the proportions and relative size of the object, and it was approximately 1 cubic foot! So I moved on to creating my design in Fusion 360 Autodesk.

In Fusion, it was fairly simple to create my design. I set parameters for the width of the shelf, the tabs, and other functions where dimensions and to replicated. This helped immensely when changes needed to be made. I mainly struggled with aligning the tabs of the different components but after a few iterations, I was able to get my model to where I wanted it. Then I exported the project to a dxf file for laser cutting.

Since I was using 1/4" plywood, I was unsure what the kerf value needed to be. So I set out to test different fits to find the perfect kerf for the material. Here I learned that you should not resize your designs manually on adobe illustrator or when uploading it to the laser cutting machine. Because of this error, none of the cuts I created were actually testing the kerf value which was objectively ironic, but realistically frustrating and disheartening. I also felt really bad for the material waste.

At this point, I sough some guidance (shoutout Cloud, Emilie, and Devon!) and learned that the kerf should be 0.25in for this material. With a final kerf test -- which was successful!! -- I finally printed my design. It printed perfectly in 8 minutes. One piece was not fully laser-cut so I used an X-acto knife to separate it. Then I used a mallet to hammer the pieces into place! I love how the project turned out and it fit perfectly onto my bed in the most satisfying way! Thank you to my instructors for teaching us how to use these tools to bring our designs to life!!