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My wife and I have small room off our kitchen that we use as a craft/studio space. We wanted a nice long counter along one wall, and had a small two drawer filing cabinet that we could use as support for part of the counter, but what to use for the rest? Books. This Instructable will show you how to create a column of books suitable to support a counter, a table, or whatever else you can think of.
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Signing UpStep 1Tools and Materials
Materials:
Books
Threaded Rods (a.k.a. all thread)
T-Nuts
Iron Strap
Nuts (sized to the all thread)
Screws
Forstner Bit
Twist Bits
Tools:
Drill Press
Small Sledge Hammer (3-5 lb)
Wrench
Screw Driver
Sources:
We got most of our books from the local library, which sells books they no longer plan to circulate. For the most part, we didn't look at the titles, but we did buy the thickest books we could find. I hope this is obvious to you, but you are going to "ruin" the books for this project, so probably a good idea to use books you don't want to read.
All of the other tools and materials could be found at a local home improvement store. I used 3/8" all thread 36" long, so it follows that the nuts and the t-nuts were also 3/8". The Iron strap was 1/8" thick by 2" wide, and I used about a 12" length of that.
Books
Threaded Rods (a.k.a. all thread)
T-Nuts
Iron Strap
Nuts (sized to the all thread)
Screws
Forstner Bit
Twist Bits
Tools:
Drill Press
Small Sledge Hammer (3-5 lb)
Wrench
Screw Driver
Sources:
We got most of our books from the local library, which sells books they no longer plan to circulate. For the most part, we didn't look at the titles, but we did buy the thickest books we could find. I hope this is obvious to you, but you are going to "ruin" the books for this project, so probably a good idea to use books you don't want to read.
All of the other tools and materials could be found at a local home improvement store. I used 3/8" all thread 36" long, so it follows that the nuts and the t-nuts were also 3/8". The Iron strap was 1/8" thick by 2" wide, and I used about a 12" length of that.
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"I think this would either be the greatest or worst thing to see in a library."
I agree. I didn't tell the librarians why I was buying all the books for fear that they would start a riot.
"Did you make 4 legs for this table, or just the one?"
Just the one. This is actually a 12 foot long counter that goes from one end of the room to the other, and I had just one short sections that wasn't supported.