Cupboard Love

This is the true story of a cupboard.

(Read the full article with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/SUFE/SecondUse)

Background

Yesterday I was offered some cupboard doors by the superintendent. I operate on the principle that you can never have enough bookshelves, because you can never have enough books.
It took me one trip to lug all six doors upstairs. I was coming up here anyway

Basics

I armed myself with a screwdriver and unscrewed each knob. Good. I need some knobs for another set of cupboards. They will clean up nicely.
I have an idea for a collapsible bookshelf – don't be silly; I mean a bookshelf that can be dismantled without tools, collapsed, transported, and re-erected.
The basis will be four doors hinged together in a chain, two doors making the back, one door for each side, and two doors as horizontal shelves.
I test the idea by propping the Cupboard Doors against my desks to see that the idea will work.

In the image below I rest one shelf across the top of the two sides and the two back pieces. I'll need to trim an inch or so off the length of the shelves.

That done, I wipe down each cupboard door to see which ones will look best for the outside ends, and which, the worst, will form the back. I stack the doors to dry.

To Work

Despite my best measurements, I've always been served well by tangible layouts. Here the six shelves are ;aid out. The two centre pieces will become the back of the new bookshelf. The outside pieces will become the "walls" of the bookshelf, and the two pieces propped up by my supervisor's pet basket and my fruit basket will become the shelf and top, respectively.

Continued supervision is an important part of any work project.

Here are the four panels with hinges dropped roughly into place.

Here are the two wing or wall panels, with peg-holes drilled out at 3-inch intervals so that I can adjust, insert or remove shelves at will.

I screw each hinge onto only one side of a panel, not both.
I'll fasten each panel to another while they are standing vertically; in this manner I can be sure that the panels will sit flush with the floor.

We already talked about supervision. Here you can inspect the four panels. The wings have peg holes drilled for shelves; the three pairs of hinges are screwed in place.

I have trimmed the fifth door and placed it on pegs about half-way up the walls.
At this stage I found myself wondering why I wasn't making a bench seat for my balcony.

The top will be held in place by pegs. I have drilled two holes in each wall and placed pegs in place. I am about to mark the corresponding position, very carefully, on the underside of the top shelf.

The holes are drilled in the top shelf and the top is placed over the pegs. The pegs fit into the top which acts as a rigid brace for the entire structure.
Bingo! A lovely storage unit 30 inches tall, 30 inched wide, and 15 inches deep, from six kitchen cupboard doors tossed out, twelve inches of ¼ inch dowel, and some spare hinges left over from dismantling closet doors!

The measure of success!

True to design, the unit collapse for removal or storage into two shelves (top right corner) and a folded-in package (on the left). In the photo below the four hinged pieces are not folded flat because I have left the shelf pegs in place while I move the unit across the room

Thanks for reading this. I hope that you are inspired.