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The goals of the design are:
1) The shelves need to be in separate modules so that any one module can
be removed without disturbing the others.
2) The back of the cantilevered bar top must be tied solidly to the floor
to firm up the "seesaw" effect in the front.
3) The neon shark has to be protected from any mechanical jarring.
4) More storage would be nice. |
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The planning begins with laying out rosin paper on the bar
top and drawing a full size diagram of where each part will be. |
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Next, the rosin paper diagram is cut up to form a template
of each shelf. |
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The shelves were then carefully cut out of ordinary
plywood. About this time, I started realizing that I should've used
nicer plywood, and decided to glue on my own maple wooden veneer.
Wood veneer is truly made of thin wood. It's not that vinyl wood
look stuff that you line kitchen cabinets with. It comes in rolls,
and here you see the shelves lying on the veneer rolled out on the
floor. Each shelf is numbered along with its corresponding veneer
cutout. |
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Each shelf top and veneer piece is then brushed with rubber
contact cement and rolled onto the shelf with all sides hanging oversized. |
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This is just before trimming with a router and straight
trimming bit. The router bit end has a ball bearing that lets the
bit follow the shelf exactly while only trimming the veneer overhang... |
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...as shown. |
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Here's the bottom row completed. (Master tip: always
do the less visible stuff first) The upper row will be an exact
duplicate of these pieces. |
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Here's the bottom shelf being screwed together. Note
the screw "pocket-holes" going up the side to secure the face
frame pieces to the sides. Since the modules will be side by side,
the holes will be covered up by the neighboring side. |
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As sections are completed, we lined them up and sponge
painted the back which will ultimately be the background for the neon
shark. This was surprisingly important. when the background
was white, the shark looked too stark and very out of place. This
carries the whole wall theme. |
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Same shelves as seen from the other side. |
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Each module is slid into place after final trimming and
screwed into the bar top and floor with pocket-hole screws. |
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The finished product... |
