Hi I am Craig Phillips and in this video I am going to show you how to build your own
book shelf.
And the tools you are going to need are cordless drills, jigsaw, sander, set square, tape measure,
a circular saw, but if you haven't got one a hand saw is fine, screws and glue.
Now these are the standard lengths of the slats pff a pallet so I am going to use four
of them and these are going to be the back section of my shelf like this.
And then I am going to be fitting a fifth one across the front there which is going
to hold the books in.
This is going to be about 300mm which is the average size of an A4 book in there.
And then we have got these big thick kind of three by two skids that usually go in between
the pallets where the forklift of course gets in.
What I am going to do is create a nice little shape on here so that it gives a better design
to both sides of the shelf.
So if I put that into position, a bit higher up.
Place that one on top.
Make a little mark here, and then what I want to do is trace it across there so take that
down and get my straight edge.
That is the cut that I want to make, and it will go on the side there and keep it nice
and square on the front for this piece to be mounted on to hold the books in place.
Now there is a couple of ways we can cut this.
One is we could of course use a hand saw starting from that way, cut our way down to there and
then cut away there.
A quicker and easier way is using a circular saw if you have one.
I have got my marked piece of timber ready to cut, I have got it firmly clamped down
on to two work benches, I am going to use my circular saw and don't forget your safety
specs.
And that is the angle that I require, I made a mark here earlier.
I am just going to cut that with the hand saw and a mark here and here.
I am going to cut that and then I have got my side bracket.
So this is the first mark I made earlier when we were creating our shape.
We have put another pallet slat along side it which is going to be the front section
holding the books into place.
This is the area where we want to cut.
Square it up using a set square and cut it using your hand saw.
Perfect, and that is one side of the bracket and it is going to be fitted to here.
And then the front section along the front.
All we need to do now is repeat that for the opposite side.
You can take your side section, place it on top of your original cut, and we should have
a perfect piece to match.
All we need to do now is mark it here and here with your pencil, and then you can cut
that.
Now we have got our two side sections cut to shape, we place them in to position.
Of course the front one is going to be fixed on to here, then we will get a final piece
for the bottom to fix there of course to hold the books in to place.
And then we can use our pencil to create a nice little shape along the back of it that
we can cut out with the jigsaw.
Now this is the top back section.
I am going to create my shape, no w double check it is one meter, but a mark there on
500mm which is the centre.
And then freehand I am going to try to draw a nice little shape there.
I am thinking keeping it proud in the centre because we will want to drill a little hole
in there to be able to screw it to the wall.
And then a nice little soft curved edge taking it back up to that edge there.
Probably only coming down around 20 or 30mm and then slowly softly taking it back up to
there.
Once you have marked that shape up with your pencil you ca get your jigsaw and do your
cut.
I am going to clamp this on here, keep it nice and steady while I cut it, and I will
have to move this two or three times to actually do the cut right the way through.
Two clamps and two work benches should hold it nice and firm.
Ok, that is the shape all cut now.
Now remember you have done this freehand so you might not get it right first time, but
that is looking kind of what I wanted for the back section.
There we go.
Just place it into position before you fix it together, double check that you are happy
with the shape of that and if you are we can now sand down all the individual pieces, glue,
drill and screw these pieces together.
And of course if you don't have a belt sander you can use a sanding block.
My side piece that I cut the nice shape, I am going to place that down on to the workbench
here because we want to screw these sections into the back of it.
Place them on, offer it into position.
OK, now they are resting in position I am just going to drill some pilot holes in here.
OK, once the pilot holes are done slide them off the one side, put a nice line of glue
along here.
You can worry about getting that edge square in a moment but first of all make it nice
and flush to the top end.
Two screws should be ample in each pallet slat.
Hold it into position, there we go.
We are driving in 40mm screws, perfect.
And then the next one.
Again, nice and flush on this edge.
Do the same on the opposite side, plenty of glue on there.
Start off with the top piece of the cut shape.
Placing them in to position, offer it up making sure to offer it up to this end and also that
end there.
Now you have got the one side already fixed in, the bottom one is fixed there, we can
pull these nice and tight, get a fixing in the top and that way we know they are all
nice and secure ready to drill them down and screw them in place.
Right then, now we lift this up and we can see we have the back section in place and
we have got that lovely shape that we cut earlier, we have got the side sections sloping
down, the next stage is to have this piece on the front.
Same again, offer it up, make sure it is nice and flush to the edges, apply a small amount
of glue to both sides, again just two screws is ample in both sides.
Now I have turned the book shelf upside down, wedged it into my work bench to fix the bottom
slats into position.
Just offer them up, if you are happy with them I am going to drill some pilot holes
again in the timber to stop it splitting.
Two in each end.
And also a couple along the front there again so we can screw it into the face.
Making sure that he is nice and flush along here before you screw them down.
Now the last slat to fit on here you might find it is a little bit too wide and you are
going to have to cut a small piece off the back.
So that is why we fixed this one on first so it is nice and solid.
And then I take my pencil and just draw the line right under the underside here.
And the we just need to cut this off.
Offer it up, see if it nice and smooth.
Apply some more glue.
So that is how quick and easy it is to build your bookshelf out of reclaimed pallet pieces.
If you want more pallet projects, please visit the website silverinetools.com