Corner Shelf

I decided that my desk area needed a little organizational help. So I worked my way through the design process to create a pencil holder and shelf that fits neatly in the corner.

Empathize

I found that I was continually just piling stuff in the corner of my work area. Pens, pencils, paper and rulers were constantly piling up and or getting buried under other various materials or works in progress. I had tried a couple of other containers for holding pencils and pens but invariably ended up needing them for some other project or storage. I finally decided it was time to look at a way to start tackling the problem.

Define

Mr Harwood is a busy design teacher who has a small amount of space for storage and personal items in his workspace. He needs a better way to organize his daily tools and display some of the small projects he creates thus improving his productivity and ability to find needed items.

Ideate

Initially, I wanted to make a shelf that I would mount to the wall at eye level. I started out with the idea of just a corner shelf with supports. I figured I would just use some hot glue and glue it to the wall since drilling into the walls is somewhat frowned upon.

I also had the idea to try to make the support for the shelves look like a tree. I eventually scratched that idea as I still have a ways to go developing my Gravit Design skills.

Prototype

With a basic plan in the works, I took to prototyping. As you can see in the image to the right, I did some sketching on a note card after making some measurements. I added a few other ideas to it along the way as I thought more about what I needed to help my desk organization.

Cardboard prototype

Prototype in place on the wall.

As I held the shelf in the corner, I realized how thin the shelf would be (my board is actually thinner than the cardboard prototype) and decided it may be difficult, and not super sturdy, if I attached it to the wall with just glue. I decided it would be better suited to sit the shelf on the desk and turn the corner support into a box with the opening in the top to hold pens and other items.

I turned to MakerCase to create a box that would fit with my design. This site really could not be any easier to use. A model of your box is displayed and changes as you customize your design and choose the thickness of your stock . I created a simple 10x10cm box using the site and then looked for something to add a little interest to it.

I used Pixabay, my favorite site for copyright free images, to find a pattern to add to the sides of the box. I then opened the image I chose in Gravit Designer and removed a few layers to create a simplified pattern for cutting. This was actually after I tried the original as a small image on the laser cutter and saw how complex the layers were. You can see the differences in the images below.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

The original image is on the left. Simplified version on the right was used to create a pattern on the outside of the box. I sized the image to fit the sides of the box then arranged the steps so that this pattern was a score before the pieces were cut from the board. Results are in the zoomed image below.

The image to the left is the file I created in Gravit Designer for my cuts. The three pronged pieces were originally going to be pegs to hold the supports in place, but I mistakenly made the holes in the tabs that come through the shelf too large and they did not create a strong enough bond. Luckily, I discovered that the scraps that came from cutting the holes on the shelves worked perfectly when I turned them on their edge and slipped them through the tabs. Lucky mistake!

I cut my pieces for the shelf and box and then decided to make the open top. I simply went back to Gravit Designer and drew two sides of a triangle over my original drawing of the shelves. I then put the shelves back in the GlowForge and cut the triangle out to leave the opening in the top of the box. This was a quick and easy fix and turned out quite nice. You can see the two sided triangle in the image above on the yellow shelf.

I decided the supports looked a little plain and wanted to add something to them. I went back and found a design I created for using in TinkerCad and moved it over to Gravit. I had made a small 3D print of the text "Design" at some point along the way as I was developing other skills and figured it would look pretty good here. I initially cut them from the plain side of the board below (from a project gone wrong), but then realized that the painted side actually looked better.

I think the text added a little interest to the supports. I really like the way it turned out.

Test

As you can see from the images at the top of the page, the shelves worked like a charm. I'm pleased with the outcome and little details I added. Now its time to start thinking about another project...

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