Custom Rounded Bookshelf

Hello! Our names are Anthony. We are Juniors at Illiana Christian High school. We decided to do this project to come up with a unique design for a bookshelf that would challenge our knowledge and skills, and it really did. We went through much trial and error but eventually finished with something we were satisfied with.

• Fusion 360
• Wood Glue
• Nail Gun
• Clamps (2x)
• Table Saw
• Birch Wood (measurements in image)

First we just looked at images of bookshelves that interested us. Some ideas were to make a shelf that is somewhat of an optical illusion, a shelf that was circular or curved, or a shelf that resembled SpongeBob. We came to the conclusion of designing something circular or curved. We thought the other designs we had in mind might've been too difficult or too simple.

After coming up with the idea we wanted we began modeling the bookshelf, through use of fusion 360, to exactly what we wanted it to look like.. It took quite a while but finally achieved a design we both liked. We got a design with a depth of 1 ft, a length of 3 ft, and a height around 5ft. Then, we wrote down the measurements of each part. Some of our parts also had to be angled so we wrote down what angle the table saw needed to be at to make the slant how we wanted.

Now that we had the measurements for the parts, we could begin to cut out the wood we needed. We started in the order it was listed in the book. One of us was in charge of cutting with the table saw and the other was in charge of setting the next piece of wood and making sure it was ready to cut and make sure the saw was set to cut the right amount. After getting the wood how we wanted, we put the parts that needed to be angled back into the table saw but this time angled the saw for to get the slant we needed to make the angled effect.

Now that all the pieces were cut, we could finally begin assembly. We decided to assemble the shelf from bottom to top. We thought this to be easier because we wouldn't have to move other parts we assembled onto the shelf. We also could make sure the shelf was stable and wouldn't tip or wobble. We glued the parts together and used a nail gun to keep them still so that the glue would dry.

And finally we finished. We had a lot of fun working on this. It was a great learning experience for us and a great way to test our skills. We used our problem solving skills to overcome the problems that came our way, and trust me there were many problems. We hope to do something like this in the future again. Thanks for checking out our shelf and we hope you have a wonderful day.