What inspired me?

Well, I love this website and I enjoy the contests. A week or two ago I was looking through the contests as I noticed they had been updated. I noticed a Wizarding contest and instantly began coming up with a few ideas. I immediately focused on hidden illusions such as hidden components to projects. .

Anyway, I automatically thought of A book. After a few minutes of looking I noticed the everyone was submitting wands. I decided to make a book wand stand but will a twist. This was very straight forward and simple so I instantly came up with a simple structure and began to make it.

You will need;

- 10mm Ply wood

- 2mm MDF

- Scraps like 25mm pine (I had a piece of pine that was 25mm by 40mm by 300mm).

- 75mm and 5mm self tapping screws

- Sand paper

- Files

- Drill driver

- 3mm, 12mm, 2mm drill bits

- Star Bit screw driver bits

- Jig saw, panel saw and Coping saw

- Pencil

- Ruler

- Pressure clamp

Step 1: Marking Out the Book

Step one - Marking out the Book

You will need a two pieces of ply that is 250mm by 200mm. This will make the basic side panels of the book. Lay one of the Pieces flat and draw a 10mm boarder reversed around the top, bottom and left side of the piece. This will be the dip you get with a big book. Add another 10mm boarder as the ply is 10mm thick. Look at the picture I added if you arnt sure what I mean. On the left side, decrease the length by 10mm from the top. Take 10mm from the left side of the bottom side also. Now, measure the rectangles you just drew and write it down somewhere. Make sure you double check as you can't really get it wrong. They all need to have a width of 40mm

Mark these pieces out onto some plywood (10mm thick) and thats all the book case done.

Step 2: Cutting the Ply

Step Two - Cutting the ply

Using the Panel saw, begin to cut out the two larger pieces. I used this saw as I needed to get very straight lines and needed it to be square. When you have cut them out place them aside so you dont miss place them which I did twice haha. You can either use the jig saw or panel saw to cut out the three smaller rectangles.

Step 3: Sanding

Step three - Sanding

Begin to sand the wood down and remember to remove burs with a file as they can cause splinters. You can get a range of different grits of sandpaper for different projects. I used 200 grit as it was great for sanding the wood I had. I used a flat file to get rid of the burs. Remember to sand each piece, front and back and all the edges.

Step 4: Drilling the Holes

Step four - Drilling the holes

Grab the side that you drew the boarders on with. Insert the 2mm drill bit into the drill and then using your pencil mark onto the boarder places you will drill. I marked on two holes on with rectangle drawn on the piece and vegan to drill them.

Place the first (top rectangle) onto where it will go and then use the clamp to secure it to the larger piece. Drill the hole and then fire a screw threw to hold it in place.

Do this to all three rectangles and then place the other side piece onto it and secure it using the clamp, make sure its in the right place, then drill three holes making sure its going into the wood beneath it. Fire self-tapping screws through it and boom. The book case is done.

Step 5: The Spine

Step five - The spine

The spine of the book needs to be the same height as the rest of the book (250mm) and 60mm wide. Once this has been cut, you will have to taper the edges or add a curve to each back edge. Once this done, sand the entire piece.

Step 6: The Insert

Step six - The insert

The insert is actually quite easy, you will need your 12mm drill bit, jig saw, the pine, and the drill. First, cut the pine at 170mm. This will make a nice fit when it is in the book case. Cut another piece that is 200mm and then sand both pieces. Place the longer piece onto the shorter piece onto the left side and mark this using a pencil. Measure the length of the pine from the right-side to the line and divide by 5. This will give you 5 equal sections. On the line find the centre and then drill a 15mm deep hole on each mark. This is where the wizard wands will rest while they are in the book case.

Use the drill to drill two 3mm holes into the left side into the longer piece. Then use the drill to screw in two 75mm screws into it. Once done, place this inside of the case so its just flush with the back pieces. (shown in picture). When done, measure the distance from the bottom to the middle of the insert. Drill this with a 2mm drill bit. Mark that distance onto the spine and then drill using the 2mm drill bit. Insert and screw a 5mm self tapping screw into the hole to secure it in place.

Step 7: Details

Step seven - Details

On the mdf, mark on a 50 line with a 90 degree line which is also 50. Make an L by adding a 35mm line by 35mm at 90 degrees then join this to the 5mm shape (kind of like a L). Cut out 8 of these. They are user to cover the screws.

Step 8: Finishing

Step eight - Finishing

Now finish this how ever you want, I used a sponge to apply brown and black paint to the book case and spine, then a brush to apply white paint in the centre and black paint on the insert. I then wrote 'BOOK OF SPELLS' and used pencil to fill it in before using a 3mm fine liner to outline. But feel free to add any type if graphics.

Step 9: THANK YOU

Thank you so much for reading this project. This has been one of the first real wood working projects in a few weeks as ive been very busy and can only imagine it will be my last for another few weeks. But as I said thank you so much. Please favourite and follow for more projects weekly. Comment if you have any questions or if you just wanna comment on what you think. Thank you