STEAM Studio Shelf

Over the summer, I worked under STEAM Studio's community outreach program, Skillset. Skillset is an amazing program focused on providing STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education to children ages 8 through 17. Skillset does this by providing summer camp and after school programming. I was a summer camp assistant instructor during 2024. During the first few weeks of summer before the camps had started, I mainly worked on studio improvements to help organize the shop space better for the camps that were about to happen. Part of this effort included designing and building a shelf that could be screwed on to an existing table to maximize storage. This project taught me a lot about creating assemblies in CAD, jigging, and welding. 

After being given parameters for the shelf to ensure it could accommodate existing equipment and storage containers, the first step was to create the shelf in CAD (computer aided design software) to ensure all of the individual pieces fit together in a way that was expected. I did this using a software called Fusion 360. First I created the individual pieces of angle iron in fusion 360, then I assembled the whole shelf on top of a table that I modeled to make sure the shelf would take up the maximum amount of table space without hanging off the edge. Images from the CAD are shown above. 

After I was happy with the shelf on Fusion 360, it was time to begin constructing it. I cut out the pieces of angle iron using a horizontal miter saw, and then jigged it together using clamps and spare pieces of stock to create 90 degree angles. Once the entire shelf was tack welded together, I moved it to the ground and finished welding. It was important to tack weld the entire shelf before adding any longer welds to reduce warping and keep it as square as possible. 

Once the shelf was welded, I cleaned and painted it. One of the cool things about Skillset is how much it provokes creativity and uniqueness. I tried to capture this while painting the shelf by using masking tape to create inconsistent, unpredictable geometric shapes using the Skillset colors. I had a lot of fun with this part of the project and feel like it really reflected the "STEAM" curriculum goals by incorperating engineering and art.