Introduction: DIY Kitchen Corner Shelf

About: Maker, Youtuber, Software Developer

My wife wanted to have a new kitchen shelf. I wanted to have a new Mafell Erika 85 table saw. That's what I call a perfect match!

Step 1: Plan

I started by drawing the shelf in SketchUp. This way I can check with my wife if she's going to like the shelf without wasting wood and I have all the dimensions hat hand when I need them.

Step 2: Cut Plywood to Size

I started by cutting all the pieces out of one big sheet of plywood. On my new big table saw this is an easy job and much faster than with a handheld circular saw.

Step 3: Spacer for the Grooves

The sides receive grooves for the boards. To cut them on the table saw I need a spacer which has the with of the boards minus the width of the saw blade. I followed this procedure to get this:

  1. Run a off cut along the fence to cut it to with.
  2. Leave the fence where it is and mount this off cut to the fence.
  3. No run an off cut from the boards alongside this new fence. This removes exactly the with of the saw blade.

Step 4: Temporary Fence

I'm planing to build the extension table for my extension rails in a future project. For no I just extend my fence with a strip of three layered plate to extend it and prevent it from dropping into the cap of the missing table.

Step 5: Test Cut

Everything is ready and it's time for the first test cut.

In case the spacer is a little bit to small adding some layers of paper will fix the problem.

Step 6: Cut All the Grooves

Once everything is tested and adjusted, cutting the grooves is just a matter of making many cuts with my wonderful new table saw.

Step 7: Rounded Corners on the Shelfs

The shelfs get a corner with a 5 cm radius. First I'm stacking some boards together with double sided tape. Then I mark the radius, cut it with the bands saw and finally use the belt sander to sand everything to the line.

Step 8: Sand and Round Over

To get a smooth surface and corners I sand everything and round over the corners with a router.

Step 9: Glue Up

All pieces are ready for the glue up. The grooves are nut just for strength, the are also very handy to line up all pieces correctly during the glue up.

Step 10: Paint

Since our kitchen wall is white, the shelf get's painted white as well.

Step 11: Mounting

The shelf is fastened to the wall with 5 mm screws.

Step 12: Finished

The shelf is on the wall and we are using it every day.

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