The Beehive Bookcase

I made this desktop book case to house a few of my wifes ever growing manga collection. So all my measurements are designed to hold these slightly larger than paperback books.

Step 1: Materials

Consuamables:
One large sheet of 1/4 inch particle board
Glue
Primer
Paint

Tools:
Table Saw
Clamps
Paint Brushes

Comments

[Iridium7]

 has your wife ever tried the Chibi Vampire series? It's very funny. :)

[Box_Full_Of_Sharp_Objects]

Have you ever read Pita-ten? D: Oh my god, best manga I have ever read. It's a tear jerker towards the middle and end.

[twocvbloke]

It's not a Beehive!!! It's Blockbusters!!! :D

[Eye Poker]

Have to upscale it a bit for that....

[bergiemoore]

I'm wondering- because the shape is so very structurally sound- do you have to make them and then stack them or can you save several pieces of wood and just build of the hexagons that were forming from the other pieces? In other words, do you think you have to create each shape as an individual unit, or can you use one board for two different hexagons?

[Eye Poker]

I'm not handy enough with a table saw to do it the way that you suggest. Cutting multiple angles on each end would be a tricky prospect. The fact that each board is cut exactly the same way makes assembly easier too.

[Eye Poker]

I have an idea that would increase the structural stability. Going to give it a try soon. I'll let you know how it works.

[D.L.H.]

Who many books can each unit hold just out of curiosity?

[Eye Poker]

Approximately 7 manga in each cell.

[reincarnated-Postit]

oooo this is awesome! i was just thinking what shelves to make to hold my manga :D

[Eye Poker]

If you plan on making it much larger you might want to change the 1/4 inch mdf to 1/2 inch mdf.

[reincarnated-Postit]

good tip. thank you!

[Orn310]

I love it! especially the fact that it is scalable! Heck, I can imagine turning this into a desk if I needed too!

[bhg]

Excellent project, I like it! I agree with Nihilistic about making it modular, either with magnets or maybe just simple clips...or even make the clips decorative and that would help fill in the "wasted" spaces.

[Eye Poker]

My original intent was to just use dowel rods.

[kzandsa]

This is really cool... Definitely going on my "build when I finally have all of the stuff to" list...

[seakrakken]

Nice project! It appeals to my sense of esthetics. It is Geometric - appeals to my Nerdy Mathematician side It can be found in Nature - Big points for that It is Functional - essential for all DIY projects It is well crafted - looks great and, I would be proud to display it.

[Ceiling cat]

Yay Manga!

[inkstainedheart]

Awesome instructable! If I'm careful, I might be able to make this interlocking, so several of these pieces can fit together and make a large bookcase. I'm also envious of your beck collection!

[eyebot117]

Retro. I think a diagonal grid might work a little better because you'd have more room for books. The books would slant against each other and you could fit more in (notice all of the unused space on the left and right of the hexagons).

[Eye Poker]

Ding, You just hit upon my next bookcase idea. I was going for an artistic presence on the beehive not to maximizine book to space ratios. However, the next one will be much better.

[eyebot117]

How about a secret bookcase door/shelf/thingy! I always wanted one of those in my room! Lol....

[master-of-chaos]

Like the manga, the book case is too.

[Nihilistic]

Very nice looking. Magnets would be an interesting coupling idea. The Neodymium magnets from an old/dead hard drive should be more than strong enough to hold the individual sections together.

[Hero Under The Pine]

Awsome instructable, and i see that your a fan of manga, anyway AWSOME INSTRUCTABLE!!!!

[Juiroame]

awesome! I am going to have to make myself one of these for my manga collection. Your wife has good taste. I have Genju no Seiza, Kamen Tantei, and Pet Shop of Horrors (working on the 2nd Series right now.) I would like to recommend to a couple of good reads: Mushishi and xxxHolic. Thanks again for the idea!

[Eye Poker]

She is already reading xxxHolic. and Mushishi is on her list of soon to reads, but TY for the recomendations.

[Juiroame]

Like I said, she has good taste. :)

[vissen.beuker]

compliment

[Eye Poker]

A gal at work sugested putting some rice paper over the front and putting differentr colorled led inside as an avantgarde light sculpture.

[eyebot117]

Ooooh! LED's! Hooray!

[thepelton]

I was thinking this would be a neat thing to make for a beekeeper.

[karossii]

Nice work on the bookshelves, though your instructable could use a bit of fleshing out in places... At first in step 2 you don't mention the 30 degree angle until after you've cut the first strip, though it is inferred that you already had it set at that. Also in step 2, you never actually mention that you are cutting the board into a 4 7/8" strip, it is again just inferred. There are other similar issues throughout the instructable. It is not bad, much better than many I have seen in fact, just trying to help with some friendly constructive criticism. A question on the bookshelf; would it not have saved time/effort (and allowed for more 'hives') to not duplicate side walls? For instance, in the top/left and top/right hexes, you could remove the floor of that hex and use the top of the hex beneath for the floor. It would be a minor cut change to accommodate it as far as height/gluing, etc. And for the middle hex, those two floor panels could be the only two needed, one as a floor and the other as a ceiling... just cut those ever so slightly wider, and invert the board so that the 30 degree cuts line up with the outer wall of the hexes next to it. Is the double wall necessary for stability?

[Eye Poker]

I agree I didn't do the project justice and I should do a re-write. Most of it was written far to late on a work night. TY for the constructive criticism. This is only the second time I have ever used a table saw so my skill level is minimal. I did consider your idea when planning it, however, I had originally intended to make the project modular. I lack the experience to really push much beyond the current design. I ran out of time, patience and was tired of the books lying around so I rushed through the project and the instructable. The dual side wals do add some strength to the project as a whole. If It were 1/2 inch MDF I think it might me OK. I'm probably going to revisit this idea as a wine rack.

[gargoyle030]

As a *reasonably* competent wood worker, I don't think there is anything about the duplicated side walls that is "necessary". But in terms of ease of creating the pieces and ease of assembly, the duplicated walls make things easier. It's easier to cut 30 pieces the same size and assemble everything the same way. Assembling some pieces one way and some another starts getting complicated and confusing. Not impossibly so, just annoyingly so, when you put the wrong piece in the wrong place.

You could make the project more "modular" by assembling the individual hexagons with bolts versus glue. It would be easy enough to drill a single hole in the back side of each piece before assembly, and use nuts and bolts to assemble the bookshelf.

Then, if your space needs changed, and you wanted/needed a stack that was five "cells" tall, you could reassemble them to better fit the space.

[Eye Poker]

The original idea was to make it modular. I did a mock up and there was not enough stability in a lot of combinations. So I just glued it instead. I may come back to this idea in the future and try a few more combinations. If you make one modular let me know! TY for the constructive comment.

[REA]

strange, when i saw this on the front page the first thing i thought was that this would be useful for manga.

[Bongmaster]

Petshop of horrors! :O

[link55t]

i k r ! i loves it!