Master class: how to make a chipboard shelf with your own hands

Recommendation points

• Tools required for the job
• Let’s get to work. Sketch and detailing
• Manufacturing of shelf sides
• Edging
• Assembling the finished product

Even exclusive designer furniture can be made on your own, to say nothing of the very basic details of room furniture. This master class will show how you can quickly assemble a corner shelf for the kitchen from chipboard scraps, and also tell you about some of the features of assembling cabinet furniture.

Working with cabinet furniture is an activity that everyone who knows how to hold a tool in their hands can do. Only desire is needed. For the manufacture of the shelves for the kitchen, cuttings of chipboard sheets were used, 5 hours of time were spent.

Tools required for the job

We will need the following electrical tool:

• jigsaw;
• screwdriver;
• iron;
• belt sander (to give the ends the perfect look).

Hand Tool List:

• screwdriver or bit for the PH-3 screwdriver;
• a set of drills for wood;
• Allen key 4 mm;
• assembly knife with replaceable blades;
• marking tools: pencil, tape measure, square.

Consumables that can be purchased at a furniture fittings store:

• edge tape of the corresponding color – at least 10 m;
• confirmates – 16 pcs.;
• screws – 8 pcs.;
• plugs – 16 pcs.;
• hanging hinges – 4 pieces.

Let’s get to work. Sketch and detailing

Making furniture always starts with drawing a sketch, followed by its detailing:

• shelf with a radius of 190×900 mm – 2 pcs .;
• shelf with a radius of 190×1100 mm – 2 pcs.;
• rack 600×265 mm – 2 pcs.;
• rack 440×265 mm – 2 pcs.

Radii and chords of bends in the drawing:

Manufacturing of shelf sides

Let’s make the sides of our shelf. On the available segments of chipboard, you need to mark out the contours of the curly parts.

It’s easier to do this with an impromptu compass..

Bending should not start from an arc, but from a flat area of ​​30-100 mm, otherwise there is a risk of getting an untidy pairing when pasting the edge.

Two identical parts can be cut along one contour by fastening two sheets of chipboard with clamps.

The inner pillar does not have an upper protrusion, it is slightly shorter than the outer.

Even when using a high-quality saw and jigsaw, such ugly chips may appear on the edge..

You can get rid of them by processing the ends with a sander with an emery belt with grit K80 or K100.

After grinding, the edge looks like this.

Edging

Details are ready for pasting. The tape is glued with a hot iron, heating and strongly pressing it to the stripped edge.

When pasting, several important points must be taken into account:

1. Choose the right temperature – between I and II stage of the thermostat.
2. Place a cotton cloth under the iron so that the edge does not shine.
3. On the inner bends, press the iron only with the spout and make it as few movements as possible.

The tape is 3 mm wider than the end, it is admitted on both sides, the excess is cut off with a mounting knife.

After trimming the tape, the edge should look like this:

Once trimmed, the corners can be sanded with fine-grained sandpaper to eliminate the contrasting white streak from the adhesive. As a result, you get two pairs of vertical racks..

Assembling the finished product

For crossbars, rectangular pieces of chipboard of the same length are suitable. It is important to choose the right width: the shelf should not protrude beyond the vertical rack.

To add originality to the design, the inner rack was additionally cut in two places to the depth of the shelf.

The shelf board will be inserted and fixed in the slot.

First, the bottom shelf and the outer rack are fastened with confirmations. Use a square or angle clamp for correct positioning.

At a distance of 8 mm from the edge, a hole is made with a drill for the confirmation, the second step of the cutter should deepen no more than 2 mm.

After drilling, the parts are fastened with a confirmation. Tightening must be carried out until it stops, until the joint between the parts disappears. Light crackling sound when tightening is normal.

The next step is to mount the inner vertical post at an arbitrary distance from the outer.

Then you need to install the top shelf. It is attached to the outer rack first..

We drill and fix it with confirmations.

Please note: when drilling, you need to hold the drill strictly perpendicular to the surface of the part, otherwise a “bump” will appear after tightening the confirmation.

The fastening of the upper shelf to the inner rack was made in a rather original way. Even the elongated confirmations were not enough to fasten all three elements, so the groove was made by hand with drills.

For clarity, see the photo with the drills used, their diameters: 6, 7.5 and 10 mm.

First, a 6 mm drill drilled a hole to the full depth, then two countersinks were made: 7.5 mm for the head and 10 mm for the flange. The confirmation is screwed into the finished groove, which will now reach the array of the lower part of the rack.

The length of the Z-shaped key was not enough, therefore a longer L-shaped key was taken, for convenience, extended with a conventional bit holder.

Now all that remains is to secure the awnings. Black self-tapping screws are not suitable for this – they can burst under load. However, it is convenient to use them to make the first pass for more convenient screwing in furniture screws..

After gluing the decorative plugs, the shelves can be hung in place.

No additional fasteners were used at the corner joint, since the chipboard board has sufficient bending strength. But purely for aesthetic reasons, the shelves can be connected to each other with dowels or a metal plate.