Tetris Bookshelf

In honor of the longstanding tetris rivalry between members of the instructables staff, I designed a set of tetris bookshelves for the instructables office using Autodesk AutoCAD and new preview version of Autodesk 123D Make.  These shelves are great because they can be rearranged and stacked anyway you like, and you can always make more if you need them.  I used a laser cutter to cut the shapes out, making the whole process quick and minimally labor intensive.

Step 1: Modeling in AutoCAD

The tetris shapes are fairly straightforward; each piece is made of four unit pieces arranged in seven different orientations.  Since I chose to make my shelves without a back panel, the S and L shaped pieces can be flipped over to produce their mirror images.  This means that I only needed to make 5 types of pieces.

I modeled the shelves in AutoCAD by drawing the shapes in 2D, extruding them into 3D and subtracting the inner volumes.  The final shelves will be made from 3/4" plywood, with each unit piece measuring 9" inner diameter and 10.5" outer diameter.  The depth of the shelves will be 15".  For now I've only built a prototype set which has been scaled down by 1/3 and cut from 1/4" plywood.  I exported these shapes from AutoCAD as a single stl file to send to 123D Make.

I've attached the dwg and stl files for both the full sized and scaled versions of my tetris shelves.

Comments

[funkytaco]

123D Make app came out on Feb. 4th! I see it in the App store now.

[jonkun227]

Thanks, Amanda. I was ecstatic when an update for 123D Make was released this week. Little disappointed when I had to update Mac OS X to be able to get it. Even more disappointed to see that it still doesn't have the plate function. The only new construction technique is Folded Panels, like for sewing or riveting.

If you have ANY influence with the developers, PLEASE encourage them to make this awesome function public.

Or just send me your preview version. I mean it's a free app, right? Same username at gmail. ;)

[amandaghassaei]

I will do my best to get it released :)

[jonkun227]

I LOVE this design! Especially the laser cut "patina". I had been working on my own design (in Illustrator) but had trouble with the joint design. Then I found your ible, and through it 123D Make! So cool!

But here we are in 2013 and I don't see any way to do finger joints. I need different dimensions than you did (mostly the depth), but as far as I can tell I can't set up those finger joints as you did. Am I just missing something? Or is it still just vaporware for the rest of us? :(

If I could use this program to design boxes, especially speaker boxes, I would be so happy! Until then I'm very sad, because it feels like you're teasing us. :'(

[amandaghassaei]

ah, I'm sorry, I thought it would have been out by now, but it's not unfortunately. I'll definitely let you know if I hear anything about it going live.

[lioncour]

Hello.
How did you get your hands on the new preview version.

[OutlawKtulu]

I have access to a laser cutter but not autocad. Any idea if these files can be imported into Inkscape?

[Jayefuu]

No, but GIMP will open the EPS file that Amanda included in step 2. From there you can save it as a DXF for use in Inkscape.

[OutlawKtulu]

Thanks for the tip! I'll give that a try!

[amason9]

Want. Definitely adding to my long list of build projects.

[jwarning]

Nice! How are you going to cut the joints on the big ones?

[amandaghassaei]

we're going to be using a very high power laser cutter

[Rartemass]

Just a question, how stable and strong is this design in practice? I love the concept but some of the pieces look like they may sag under the weight of books and more robots. Maybe applying some backing material to ensure the pieces retain their shape would help?

[amandaghassaei]

The 1/4" plywood pieces are actually pretty stable, I guess it depends on what you plan on storing in them. Yes applying backing material would help, we decided not to do this bc we like the way it looks without. The set pictured here is pretty small, not really large enough to put books in. We plan on making a larger version with 3/4" plywood, so we're hoping that the larger joint surface area and stiffer wood will help out with stability. I'll keep posting as the project progresses!
If there's interest I could model the set with backing, compute the finger joints on 123D, and post the eps files.

[JohnsonJ]

Great Stuff!

[Lindie]

Awesome! And I love your robot!

[amwaymart]

Rly Amazing!!!

[jacobkoski]

How long did the assembly/glue up process take?

[amandaghassaei]

the whole project took two days, assembly/gluing took about two hours for the five pieces

[residentevil5]

this is amazing yet simple.