# Bedside Shelf



## woodworker47 (Dec 19, 2008)

Completed next project for wife which was a Bedside Shelf. I took more pictures this time so you can see the process. It started with a cad drawing because I had to design it to fit by the bed. It needed to have a place to hold wife's phone and to have Kleenex built in. The rest was shelves. Was going to make it plain, but decided to add hearts to sides and bottom front. 

The first picture is the cad drawing. The second picture show the cut list I make in Excel. Since I am re-sawing and making my own boards, it helps me keep track of what I have made. Using the heart design I made in CAD and printed, I used spray adhesive to attach to scrap board. I then drilled out the waste and used a jig saw to cut out the heart shape to be used with the router, see 4th photo. In photo three, I pre-drilled out the waste on the shelf sides. I the 5th photo, I attached the template to the side and used the router to make each heart. The 6th photo shows the completed hearts on both sides. 

The 7th photo shows the dado jig I used for each shelf. I used blind dado's which stopped 1/2" from the front edge. I did not want the dado to show from the front. See photo 8 to see dado's and shelves. Photo 9 shows the shelves being glued to one side. I wanted to be sure that they were square to the side. You can never have too many clamps!!!

Photo's 10 & 11 show the final product, front and back. The trap door at the top is where you will put the Kleenex box in and turn the knob to hold the door shut. The knob was made by cutting a dowel rod in half. 

Finally photo 12 is the final project after three coats of Satin Urethane. 

Frank


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Nice job Frank . That looked like a lot of work, but certainly paid off .


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

great tutorial..
w/ better results...


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Nice one.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

That is a really great project. Very attractive bit of woodworking, and a really nice tutorial. You also proved the old saying that you can never have too many clamps. I particularly like the heart shaped cutouts.


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## woodworker47 (Dec 19, 2008)

Tom,

I found a way to create the heart shape in the CAD drawing system using a box and two circles. Using the “trim” function, I remove the lines not needed and you have a heart and when printed full size a paper copy to make template. When I created the smaller heart on the bottom front, I made it too large. Found the “shrink” command and made it fit. 

Thanks to everyone for kind comments.

Frank


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## marecat3 (Nov 30, 2010)

very nice space saver


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## Bstrom (Jan 2, 2020)

You nailed the finish color match to your bed - well done! Also like your assembly pix - keeping the dividers square with those blocks is a good approach.

I really envy you CAD users - I shoulda added that to my computer skills a good while ago - is there an 'easy' 2D version for beginners that won't take forever to learn?


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Nice job and nice post, Frank.


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## woodworker47 (Dec 19, 2008)

Brian,

I use AutoCad which is very expensive. You can get Sketchup for free. I started using it and still have it, but mainly use AutoCad. 

Frank


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## tulowd (Jan 24, 2019)

Really nice project and documentation. Now.....about the car in your profile pic.......do tell


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## woodworker47 (Dec 19, 2008)

Paul,

It is a 1966 Ford Mustang. 289 V8, automatic transmission. It was a California car my Dad found. I brought to Indiana in 2000. Had my Son paint in 2014 to original color, turquoise. I drive it n summer months and store in heated garage in winter. It is a driver. I have only been in one car show which happened before paint job.

Frank


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## bryansong (Mar 4, 2015)

That’s a really nice looking piece.
Thanks for sharing your process too.
I bet your wife loves it.


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## PhilBa (Sep 25, 2014)

Bstrom said:


> You nailed the finish color match to your bed - well done! Also like your assembly pix - keeping the dividers square with those blocks is a good approach.
> 
> I really envy you CAD users - I shoulda added that to my computer skills a good while ago - is there an 'easy' 2D version for beginners that won't take forever to learn?


Not to discourage you but every CAD package I've ever used has had a learning curve. That said, once you get over the hump, it gets easier. The biggest challenge is getting into the program's mindset. Not to get all zen on you but once you are "one with the program" it becomes very easy. And once you get it figured out, you'll be making perfect shop drawings. On the 2D front - there are programs that do that though I think there is little difference in the complexity from 3D CAD. I think you'd be better off using more mainstream packages as there will be more support - especially tutorials but also active forums to ask questions.

On the free software front. I've used Sketchup for many years and it's pretty much second nature. Though the latest cloud version gets a lot of complaints. FreeCad has a number of adherents. If you are heading towards CNC, Fusion360 is popular though it does a pretty good job of making shop drawings. I'm sure others have their favorites. What ever you pick, make sure there are lots of decent tutorials as that will be the difference between struggling and moving forward. "Decent" depends on your learning style - fast paced or hand-holdy or ... - so check out a few of the tutorials before investing time in actually using the software. What ever you do, don't make the mistake of just diving in before at least an intro tutorial as you will get frustrated very quickly. None of them are intuitive, especially if you never used a CAD package before.


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## David Bradford (Sep 12, 2019)

Nice work.


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