How To Build A Shelf For Your Bedroom Using The Dremel Rotary Tool And The Kreg Jig
Buying good quality standalone furniture is expensive. But cheap plastic furniture is shoddy and does not last long. So what do we do? Why, we go back to basics. We do what our forefathers did – we build our own furniture. But life is easier for us. They did not have power tools and various convenient accessories to help them. They had to rely solely on strength and skill to shape the wood they worked on. We, on the other hand, not only have the hammers and chisels and saws they had, but we have many modern power tools which greatly simplify our work.
Some of the easiest pieces of furniture we can build for our home are shelves and bookcases. Their basic design consists of just 5 or more wooden boards joined together. You can buy these boards (whether you buy real wood like pine or beech, or whether you buy fiberboard is up to you) at your local lumber yard, carpenter’s workshop or hardware shop. You will have to look up the Yellow Pages and call them up to find someone willing to supply you with these wooden planks for a reasonable price. You will also want them to cut them to size for you (although this is optional).
There are several ways we can use to joint these boards together to make a shelf, but one of the strongest and easiest methods is to use the Kreg Jig to help us make what is called a pocket hole joint. The earliest examples of this type of joint come from ancient Egypt, where ancient craftsmen drill one hole into the first piece of wood at an angle and then used a screw to join it to the second piece of wood.
So what you need to do is use the drill attachment of the Dremel Rotary Tool and drill the holes for the pocket joint using the Kreg Jig. Then you glue the two pieces of wood together and wait for the glue to set. Once the glue is dry you can put in the screws. After that you just need to fill up the screw holes with wood putty. Just repeat these steps with all the joints you need to make and you are done.
Traditionally, one would use a dovetail joint in this location. The problem is, it needs very precise measurement and cutting of both the pins and dovetails to fit nicely (and strongly). On the other hand, pocket hole joinery does not need the same level of precision. Of course, it may not as strong as a perfectly executed dovetail joint, although this is disputed by the Kreg company. They say that their tests show that pocket hole joints created with the help of their Kreg Jig are stronger than the mortise and tenon joint, which is traditionally considered the strongest method of joining two pieces of wood together.
Some experienced carpenters actually tested this assertion. They created simple furniture using both joints, then smashed them apart. What were their findings? The furniture broke apart before either joint did, i.e. both the mortise and tenon joint as well as the pocket hole joint outlived the furniture they were used to join together.
Mind you, using the wood-cutting blade on the Dremel Rotary Tool to cut the dovetails and pins is not too difficult. It’s just that there is more work to do, at least in my opinion.
You can also use the pocket hole joint to join board #3 to both board #1 and board #5 if you are lazy. It will not be able to take a very heavy weight, like your collection of dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells, but should be perfectly acceptable for your CD and comics collection. However, if you do need to keep something heavy, then you can do something like this:
You will need to do a bit more work to cut out the grooves for board #3. Once again, this is not too difficult with the Dremel Rotary Tool‘s cutting blades.
Anyway, now that you have your shelf, you will want to apply the finishing touches. All you need to do is use the sandpaper attachment of the Dremel Rotary Tool and you will quickly finish the task. Then paint your shelf and it is Mission Accomplished.
The plan for the book shelf I provided is a very simplified design ideal for a first DIY woodworking project. Those who already have a few DIY projects under their belt will probably want to build other things as well. You can find many woodworking project plans on the internet. The quality varies, some are free, others are not, e.g. Woodworking Plans and Designs.
NB: The Dremel Rotary Tool is a basic power tool for beginner DIY-ers manufactured by Dremel. Those who want top-of-the-line equipment may prefer to look at the Fein Multimaster instead.