 |
| Simple sketch... |
That's when things got expensive. A sawdust bookcase at a big box store will run about 40 bucks. However, the off the shelf tally for these materials are roughly:
Screws...........................nomimal
2 2x3's for the four legs...<$4
4 boards.........................$24
8 support bars.................$2
 |
| The materials |
Enter the Helpful Sales Associate! After spying me out of the corner of his eye, he asked what I was up to. I told him I wanted to build a bookcase and had a Plan. I also asked him if Number 2 was the cheapest grade of pine he had. There is no shame in being honest. After he pointed me back towards the lumber I already thought was too expensive, I asked if he had any offcuts. What are offcuts? Known by many other names, it's the stuff that lumber yards try to get rid of for cheap because parts of the wood are damaged, knicked or were the scrap from a larger project. Helpful Sales Associate told me that indeed there were offcuts and that there was a piece of plywood from the morning that might be quite useful.
Spying this terrific piece of wood, I asked him if he could rip it into four pieces, one for each shelf. Ripping means perforating with the grain. Cutting means perforating against the grain. And that is the end of my lumber know-how. So after this kind gentleman ripped my wood (for free!), I went on my merry way. That's when the Helpful Sales Associate came back and said he had an idea for my support bars that would save me some money. He said there was a stick of wood that he could cut into 8 pieces. Terrific! I ended up buying the 2x3s at full price. Final tally:
 |
| One of the "ladders" |
Screws...........................nomimal
2 2x3's for the four legs...<$4
4 boards.........................$2.01
8 support bars.................$0.51
Total...............................<$7
Under $7! Except this is where the hard work really began. Basically, my shelves would consist of two side "ladders" connected by the shelves. The shelves are not only supposed to hold up the books, but hold the two sides together.
 |
| Almost final product! Please excuse the garage mess. Most of the stuff is BoBo and Singer's. No really, it is. That's their extra beanbag, the bike I purchased to ride with Singer, the bike trailer I got for BoBo to come along, a spent bag of dog food, the Radio Flyer wagon I got to tow BoBo along, the crate they don't use anymore... |
And.. TADA!!! (Nice and level too!) I will be adding a backing to provide more support and also to prevent the books from falling out of the back.
