How This Sort Of Enjoyment Can Occur From Shelf Plans

Recognize, promoting real estate is a business enterprise that leaves no tangible product even when you've completed your task perfectly, but I was deeply impressed by the tangible quality of the lovely work the cabinet maker left when his undertaking was finished. You could run your hands over and see it, and you could respect its elegance and worth. You could recognize his work as an artist.

This was the moment I not only became fascinated, but decided I would begin to create objects out of wood too. My grandfather had been the mill manager of our community lumber yard and he introduced me to woodworking with the pieces he had built for my grandmother. My favorite was a bookcase cabinet with glass doors. Realizing something that delicate would come later on, I settled for creating some storage shelves and a work table top for my outside utility room at home.

My first woodworking lesson happened when my shelf plans advised me I would want specific tools, which we had on hand. At the same time, the shelf plans also taught me about making use of jigs for sawing specifically to make two items I would require... standard sawhorses. They turned out very well, and I was hooked on working with wood.

The shelf plans were straightforward and pretty soon I had two basic shelves up, and then decided I required a bench or work area of some form for the little utility room. I took another shelf making lesson from my office cabinet maker who had constructed one in a identical area in my office. He built a bench for our microfiche machine (remember those?), so I borrowed the principle for my narrow utility room.

The area was about six feet wide, so I acquired a simple, regular 6 foot interior door at the lumber yard. I used a mahogany stain on it and voila, it turned into a 30 inch table top. The supports for my top were made as follows by using 2 by 4 pieces of lumber just as my office cabinet maker had done.

I bought 3, eight foot long 2 X 4's. The supports were 2, 8 foot long 2 X 4's each sawed into 2, 3 foot lengths with 2 feet left over. The third piece of lumber gave me two more two foot lengths and left me with a 4 foot scrap length which I chose to use to make my bench have even more support in the back by the wall.

The main underpinnings were these rectangles I built with the two foot lengths forming the foundation and the top as headers and footers for additional weight bearing capacity. The three foot lengths were the front and back vertical members in between. Both of these finished pieces were shoved flush to the wall and bolted to the wall for security. These rectangles formed the foundation or the "legs" of the counter.

For additional safety, I placed my door table top on its new supports, then got on the floor and used a pencil to mark the wall horizontally where the bottom of the table top struck the back wall. I put screw holes in my wood, held my wood up to the line where the table top would rest and used my drill to mark the wall in two places about twelve inches from each end of my 4 foot long 2 X 4 scrap piece.

It was completed by preparing the wall to receive my bolts, then affixing the scrap board to the wall. Once the counter top was set back into place, it was totally strong and I felt like the queen of my house. Yes, I'm a gal who just enjoys woodworking. It's really just like sewing to me There are just similar, but different patterns, tools, and materials. We haven't lived in that house for 21 years, but I'd bet the work counter is still there.

The author is a native Floridian and writes for Shelf Plans. In addition to finding the post, "Do I Really Need Shelf Plans?" on this web site, you will also find information on all types of shelf plans and how you can easily make them yourself.