Biplane Shelf 2

My sister is going to have a baby pretty soon and this resembles something she pinned in Pintrest, just a bit nicer ;)

Please forgive me this is my first instructables, I'll do my best.

1. select a design for the wing. I went with 2 simple stripes but you could easily do angled stripesor a leading edge trim of a contrasting wood. Maybe even some brightly colored dyed light wood.

chose maple and walnut for the contrast.

2. glue your wing pattern up. Make sure you pay atten to your grain so that it matches, it will make a difference with the over all aesthetic.

3. True up the boards that will be the wings. I used a tablesaw jig to joint one side then flipped it around and cut the other side parallel. Then a few passes through the thickness planer.

4. make the fuselage. I did this with segmented walnut and a piece of maple as the cowling around where the engine should sit. You will cut the segments of walnut on a chop saw. Depending on what radious you want your fuselage to be you will cut different length segments with different angles. You should search "Segment Calculator" and it will give you the instructions on your cuts.

5. glue up the segments. I used rubber bands as clamps to hold the hexagon shapes together. Once those are dry you can clamp the hexagons together in twos, then fours, then as a whole. If you go in steps its easier to keep the segments lined up. Again watch your grain, if you line them up it will look so much better.

6. Turn the fuselage. Throw that bad boy on the lathe. I am in no position to teach anyone how to use the lathe. There are plenty of videos on the internet that will guide you.

OPTION!! You don't have to make the fuselage segmented or turn it on a lathe, you could find some round stock, use a piece of pipe, there are lots of options. You just have to use something cylindrical.

7. Flatten the bottom of your fuselage. This will give it a good area to glue to the shelf (wing).

8. Make the propeller. I glued together the two contrasting woods and shaped it on the disc sander.

9. Make uprights. I cut some copper pipe for a big box store and brightened it up with some 0000 steel wool. Also use some copper pipe caps and brighten them up too. They will help to hide bolts later.

10. Seal the copper so it doesn't oxidize over time. I used a spray lacquer to keep the uprights and caps a bright copper color for a long time to come.

11. Drill holes for uprights. I used an agar bit so it would leave a channel for the copper pipe to sit in. Then a drilled all the way through so I could use some all-thread to hold the two boards (wings) together.

12. Test fit! I found the first time I put it together that the wings looked way to weird that far apart so I cut down the copper pipe.

13. Finish. You can use whatever you like as a finish but I like shellac, its kind of dummy proof. 2 coats, sand lightly sand smooth with high grit sandpaper and a third coat is all you need. You could do as many as you like though and run the sand paper up to really high grits and even wet sand it for a reflective shine.

14. Assembly. bolts, washes, all-thread, and locktight. line up the copper pipe with the grooves created by the drill bit and wrench down the bolts to hold everything together.

15. check for square. I simply put my shelves on end and used a speed square to adjust it before the lock tight dried.

16. cover bolts. I used 5 min epoxy to glue down the copper caps over the bolts.

17. Add the propeller and bobs your uncle!