Invisible Book Shelf

Step 2: Measure Twice, Cut Once.

Measure the half way point, make a mark, set down your bracket, draw an outline, measure again, cut out a hole deep enough that the bracket will set flush. You are doing this to the back or bottom of the book, the part that will be visible in the finished product.

Comments

[naruto the ninja13]

you cut a book?!?!? =[]

[paronomasiac]

I would use a book that that has damage (not mildew or mold) and would be thrown away if it were not used for this project.

[bookmark]

that is sacrilegous. if you burn books than you might be a bit kookoo

[fordsucks2]

You sound like Montag from Fahrenheit 451....lol

[or_ford98]

LOL look at my name

[wprejs]

i love that book read it in 4th grade its amazing wat the world changed to lol

[or_ford98]

use the twilight saga, they're useless :)

[FelinaFontina]

Fabulous project, but my favorite author is Stephen King. A better choice would be anything by Rush Limbaugh, but I wouldn't want to look at it every day!

[Visitor]

If you use two angle brackets you can leave the upper cover of the book unglued and cut a small secret box inside the book, between the brackets.

[swolleneyeball]

Yes and james bond would smile down on you for it. But the idea of a hollow book is to hide something, usally with as little attention as possible, the idea of this thing is to draw attention. Although most ppl would be so amazed at the levitation trick they probly wouldnt pay attention to much else

[thecosas]

yeah, but good luck finding studs in your wall that are that close together. I wouldn't trust this thing to drywall alone.

[Cubie2]

that's why you put drywall screws in and THEN you put in the regular screws.

[Visitor]

I am going to estimate the weight of a single book to 1.5kg. If this shelf is going to hold five books, that makes 7.5kg. Since the center of gravity for the books is about as far from the wall as the fastener is from the corner of the angle iron, the fastener should be able to take 10kg pulling load to make this setup safe. There are special fasteners (or one could as well call them "common fasteners" since they are available in every hardware store) for drywall to which one can safely hang this kind of a load. Search google for "drywall fastener." And keep in mind that when you use two angle brackets, the load to the dry wall is divided evenly to the two fasteners. In this case 5kg pulling load would be enough.

[bowlerhatman]

1.5kg is a very...generous...estimate. That's sort or, hardback oxford dictionary weight, roughly speaking. I think it would be uncommon to find multiple books weighing a kilo and a half in a single house. This is just going on my years as a library shelver. I carry somewhere around fifteen books at a time, that's an armload. I'm not hugely strong, and there's no way Icould carry 22.5kg on my left arm.

The rest of your points are 100% valid though. Just thought I'd point out the exaggerated weight estimate.

[LordMekk]

They make screw fasteners that look like giant corkscrews to hold up cabinets in sheetrock walls. I have used them to hold shelves up in sheetrock walls before. They do okay. You can get them in just about any hardware store.

[nkk07]

wont this ruin a really exspensive book like the one jk wrote and sold about 3-4 of them £2 mil each.

[flydesignlab]

I guess it was easier for me, my walls are solid brick so I stacked a lot of books on it and it was fine. I was more worried about some other part failing.