Bookcase

Premise:

Years of acquiring books from library sales manifested in a rather ugly pile of books laying in my room. It was obvious that I needed a bookshelf.

Construction:

The bookshelf was constructed using heavy duty cardboard obtained at Lowe's. The cardboard was purchased this way in order to have sheets of cardboard large enough to construct the sides of the bookcase. From there, the designed was centered on using the largest book in the collection to act as a central support beam. Thus, the dimensions of the bottom shelf is slightly less than that of the largest book in order to obtain a snug fit. The sides and top shelf of the bookcase use 2-layered pieces created by superglueing two sheets together. Only the base of the bookcase and the back panel are single layered pieces of cardboard.

Criticism:

It is very apparent that the bookcase suffers from bowing of the top piece of the bottom shelf. This is a result of both using the largest book as a standalone support beam, and the material chosen to construct the bookcase. This could have been remedied by creating a system of triangular support brackets for the top piece of the bottom shelf.

Update:

After adding another set of books to the personal library, I decided to reorganize the order of books to remedy the bowing found in the original arrangement of the books. The additional books seem to resolve the bowing issue through tactical placement of the tallest books to act as multiple support beams.