Custom "H" Bookshelf

Hello, my name is Aaron. I am a junior at Illiana Christian High School. This is a custom built bookshelf with the letter "H" burned in that I built in engineering class that I designed for my family. I found this to be a challenging build but I enjoyed completing it very much. I learned a lot and developed many of my skills from this project.

• 3 sheets of 8' x 4' 0.75 in thick birch (Photo from The Home Depot)
• Table Saw (Photo from SawStop)
• Laser Cutter (Photo taken by me)
• Drill (Photo from DeWalt)
• A lot of 2" screws (Photo from Deltana Steel)
• Fusion360 (software)
• LightBurn (software)

The first and second photos are pictures from the Country Living Magazine and Housing.com which I used as inspiration for my bookshelf. I ended up going more with a design that was like the first photo. The second photo is my initial sketch of what I planned to design and create using the materials listed above.

1st Photo: https://www.countryliving.com/home-design/decorating-ideas/g30770089/diy-bookshelf-ideas/

2nd Photo: https://housing.com/news/bookshelf-ideas-for-home/

I started off by sketching out the entire shape of the bookshelf in Fusion 360. The general dimensions for the overall bookshelf itself were 48"x24"x18". The shapes in the bookshelf were designed to have a very specific length to make it easier to cut on the table saw, and then the angles were cut after. I attached a titleblock for one of the pieces of the bookshelf just to show all the different dimensions and how it works.

I cut the 0.75 in thick birch sheets first down the long way at 18 inches wide, then I cut it perpendicular to the way I just cut it for each individual length of wood needed. I didn't do the angle cuts until I started assembling and I drew lines on the wood to see where I would need to angle the table saw and I just used my eyes to line up the saw as closely to the angle as possible. The second picture attached to this step is a picture from my engineering notebook showing all the different wood sizes I needed to cut out for my project. I used this to help keep track of what I was cutting since I didn't have my computer with the Fusion360 file always open by me.

I used a laser cutter to burn in the letter "H" to the two pieces of wood that were going to be used as the side pieces of the bookshelf. I achieved this by using software and a textbox and setting it all up. I ended up having to trim the length of the two pieces of wood on the side by a little over an inch so the piece of wood would entirely fit on the laser cutter.

I used a drill along with a bunch of 2 inch screws to assemble the bookshelf. Overall, this took the longest as I am still relatively new to this, but in the end I think it turned out ok. I first started by assembling the outside 4 pieces, and then I attached all the shelfs on the inside. To hold these pieces together before they were all screwed together, I used many 90 degree clamps that held the wood in place while I drilled and inserted screws to connect the two pieces of wood. I cut the angles into the wood after I started assembling so I could ensure I was cutting the wood to the right angle by drawing a line on the piece of wood based on where it actually ended up. Also, to make the screws be more flush with the surface of the wood, I used a technique to countersink the screws by using a wider drill bit to drill a little hole at the surface of the wood allowing the top of the screw to go deeper into the wood and be flush with the surface. There are a few extra holes in a few spots where I messed up, but they are mostly unnoticeable.

I staged the bookshelf in my school's library with many books and other fun things for photos, and I think they turned out great. Overall, I had a very fun time completing this build and hope to be able to do more like it in the future. Thanks for checking out my bookshelf.