Design Idea: Shelf Bookends for Ivar. Part 2

OK, so I’ve created a few test parts. Firstly in 18mm Birch Plywood, 18mm pine, and also in bamboo (an IKEA chopping board!)

Buy them here!

I started by cutting the blanks and then added the slots. Cutting the slots in the ends of the lengths, was not the easiest thing, and made me wish I had a Woodrat or a Pantorouter – but anyway, the router table worked fine with a 1/4″ straight bit. It was a little tight when I assembled things so I had to make a couple of passes on each slot.

I needed to make some for our 30cm IVAR in the kitchen to stop cookery books falling off the shelf, and 50cm for my office.

By the time I got to making the bamboo ends, I’d decided that a jig of some kind was required, and a 7mm router bit so I could do each slot in one cut.

UPDATE:

The second batch of these I made was from bamboo – in fact from IKEA APTITLIG Bamboo chopping boards! (they’re such good value!). The bamboo is actually much nicer to work with in this context, as pine can split when routing out the slots. If I can find some oak, I’ll try that too.

I’ve made a few of these and you can buy them on my ETSY shop Padstow Products