corner shelf for my nephew

Dan Noren

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with the new baby here, my nephew asked me if i would make them a corner shelf for the baby monitor, video camera, etc. i said ok, give me a couple of days to work up a design. this is the design i came up with, and it is being made from poplar, as he wants to paint it the same shade of white used in the baby's room. as part of the busy first day back in the shop, got all of the parts cut. i cut the parts for the lattice a bit over length, that way i can custom fit them to the framework.
 

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Hey, that is neat. And I'm sure you will do a good job too...I don't think you can get to the beer in the refrigerator.

You designed a good looking piece. I would have probably designed a plain old "Blah," "no personality" thing to do the job. You get a Gold Star!

Enjoy,
JimB
 
Nice design.

Two suggestions. Since you are talking baby monitor, that implies electricity. Cut a diagonal off the back corner of each shelf to allow the wire to run down inside the cabinet, and out the bottom, instead of over the outer edge.

Recognize that practically every sheet rock corner has a bulge in the actual corner, where they taped the joint. You might want to be prepared to shim the sides slightly, up to about 3 inches from the corner. Hold a framing square in the corner and you will see how much shim room you need.
 
cut the stiles to size, then laid out the marks for gluing up the sides, and got one side done and in the clamps.
 

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these 2 pics show the corner where it is going. it will be in the interior corner to the right. looks pretty straightforward to me. but i will shave just a little bit off the outside corner, just in case.
 

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1. Put a square in that corner instead of a ruler. You might be quite surprised... You also might need to make the shelves less than/more than square.

2. Bottom and lower shelves will need to be trimmed to accommodate the wainscoting and the chair rail.

3. What Charlie said - knock a bit off the corner of each shelf - both to compensate for a non-square corner, and also to allow for routing of lamp and monitor wiring.
 
i had my nephew check the corner for square, and it came out to 91 degrees. doesn't sound like much, but at 13 inches it works out to a 1/8 inch gap on each side. what i plan on doing now is to cut the shelves one degree more than 90, and adjust the frames accordingly. work went quite well on it today, got the other frame glued up, along with the blanks for all 3 shelves. all that's left to do is to fit the lattice work to the openings, cut the shelves, and give it a good sanding.
 

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cut the curves on all three shelves. looked all over the place for a proper sized round thing of the right size, and it wound up being the top off of the garbage can on the porch. planed the corner off of the back part of the part that will go into the corner. i plan on using a forstner bit to take off the back corner of the shelf for cord access.
 

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got a bit further along with this one yesterday. ripped the shim strips for the front edges, sanded and notched the inside corners of the shelves, and found a good way to hide a pesky knot, and sanded both of the sides. figured out a nice and safe way to cut all of the half laps for the latticework. should have it assembled by some time tonight.
 

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corner shelf for nephew finished!

well, got the thing finished today. cut the half laps for the latticework, assembled the latticework and plopped it in place. then glued up the sides, glued in place the shelves, and 1/8" shims on the front of the outsides to take care of any gaps that way. now it is done, all he needs to do is pick it up, and paint it.
 

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well, he eventually picked it up, painted it, and hung it on the wall. today we were over for the baby's baptism and he asked me if i wanted to see it in place (i know, silly question). it worked out pretty good with no spaces on the sides. he took a couple of pics, and here they are....
 

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