Ishelf - Apple Coverflow Inspired Cd Stand

So the CD is basicly dead. It has become obsolete with the internet and MP3 players.
But to me a cd always had one advantage over an MP3 file. The MP3 file didn't have the beautiful cover art that the Cd had! But then Apple came and introduced their wonderful coverflow setting.

And I have to say I instantly fell in love with the design behind it. It was so much better then the standard Cd stands where you can only see the side of the album and you have to take it out if you want to enjoy the album art. Well that changes today because in this instructable I'll be teaching you how to make a Coverflow inspired Cd stand!


This project started a while ago when I came across the ishelf concept made by Chinese designer Li Jianye. Therefore I take no credit for the idea, that belongs to him. However it was just a concept so it was never made. That's why I needed to figure out how to build it while trying to keep it as easy as possible. I quickly thought off the idea of drilling and sawing out holes for the CD's in one piece of wood and attaching that piece of wood to another piece of wood for the bottom. Thus making a clean looking and easy to make Cd stand that would also look real nice.

This instructable will show you how to make a coverflow inspired Cd stand. It's really easy to make and will probably cost you less then an hour off work. You also don't need that much tools or materials making this a free or fairly cheap project.

This project is entered in the woodworking contest. If you think this instructable deserves to win and thereby granting me the prize of some much needed powertools please rate this instructable and vote for me in the voting phase of the contest. It would mean alot to me :)

Step 1: Tools and Materials

For this instructable you will need:

Tools

• Jigsaw (power tool)
• Drill
• Clamps
• Adjustable workbench
• Glue (woodglue is fine but I used TEC-7)
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Utility knife

Materials

• Two pieces of A4 paper
• MDF wood 8 mm / 0.32 inch thick
• Black spraypaint

Step 2: Choosing the Angle for Your Cd's

As I said in the title of this ible this is a coverflow inspired Cd stand. The "inspired" part means that the Cd's aren't in the same angle as the ones you see in Itunes. There are two reasons for that:
a) I didn't know the angle they were under,
b) Except for the center Cd in coverflow setting you can't clearly see the art on the other Cd's and that's a shame when building a Cd stand.

That's why I decided to choose my own angle's. And so should you, if you want to have it exactly like Itunes I won't stop yout but I think it would be a waste of time because you will not be able to see the other Cd covers once they are in your stand. And the whole reason of this instructable is because I was tired of not seeing the covers of my Cd's...

Whatever you decide to do you should take two pieces of A4 paper and place them in a horizontal position in front of you. Then take  your 5 Cd's and place them on your paper. Now you'll probably notice that the two A4 papers are to long. Solve this by cutting off part of them or overlapping the two papers and then taping them together. The length you now have will become the length of your Cd stand.

When you are done with that choose the angles of your Cd's. I really can't tell you more then just sliding the Cd's around on your paper until you are happy with what you see. Try to make the Cd's position as symetrical as possible. But don't worry if you can't get them perfect, we'll correct those later. Also make sure to look at your Cd's from the front because that's how you will see them when the Cd stand is finished.

Step 3: Making the Template

When you are done with positioning the Cd's take out your pencil and mark the position of the Cd's.

Now take your Cd's off and look at your template. Now at this moment I noticed that the two sides of the paper (the two Cd's on the left and the two Cd's on the right) weren't symetrical. And as that is a pretty big deal for me I decided to correct that. So take out your ruler and draw a line through the middle of your paper. Normally the middle of your paper should be in the half of your center Cd. If that is not the case just divide your center Cd in half and draw a line from there. Because your center Cd must be the center of your Cd stand in the end.

Then decide which side (left or right) you like best. Then measure the distance from the rectangulars to the center line and recreate those on the other side. the best way to do that is just copy the corners and then connecting the dots

When you are done with this you should have a symetrical Cd stand.

Note: I decided to make a template because I don't like drawing on wood and because I'll probably make more of these for friends. However if you have no problem with drawing on wood then you can use the wood you are going to make the stand off instead of paper. Make sure that the center of the center Cd is also the center of the wood when doing this though!

Step 4: Cutting Out the Template and Drawing It Out on Wood

Ok, your template is now symetrical. Now it's time to draw it on wood.

Take your utility knife and cut out the rectangulars on your template. Then take your piece of MDF wood and draw out the rectangular shape of your Cd stand twice. You'll have to do this twice because one will be used to cut out the Cd holes and the other will be used as the bottom of your stand. Now cut these two rectangular shapes out with your jigsaw (power tool). After that see which one looks better and put the other one aside. Now take your template and put it on the best looking one and draw out the Cd holes. You may want to consider drawing a center line on your wood so you can make sure the template is centered. Also you may want to clamp the template down on your wood to make sure it doesn't shift while drawing the holes.

Note: as you may have noticed my template was a little bit to short on the left to be completely symetrical. That's why I drawed the rectangular shape of the stand 2,5 cm longer on the left to keep the stand symetrical. So should you have this problem as well just draw the shape of the Cd stand out longer instead of making a new template.

Step 5: Cutting Out the Cd Holes

Next step is cutting out the Cd holes. Take your drill and put an 8 mm / 0.32 inch drill bit on it. This drill bit is jus a little smaller then the dimensions of the Cd we must cut out (a Cd is 14,1 cm / 5.64 inch x 1 cm / 0.39 inch on the bottom)

So use that to drill two small holes next to eachother in all of the Cd holes. These holes will be the starting point for your jigsaw (power tool) to cut the Cd holes out from. Make sure ofcourse to stay inside the lines of the Cd holes otherwise your Cd stand will be ruined.

When you have done that cut the Cd holes out with your jigsaw (power tool) and then check if the Cd's fit.

Note: Don't worry if the wood is damaged during drilling (small pieces of wood chipping off from the side while drilling or sawing). It happend to me twice but just turn the wood on it's other side and nobody will notice once the two pieces are glued together. However if it goes through to the other side you have a big problem and have to decide to carry on knowing it will not look so good or restart...

Step 6: Glueing the Two Pieces Together and Painting

Now that your holes are finished. Take your two pieces of wood and glue them together. Make sure that if you have one side of your wood that was damaged during drilling that you use that side for the glue.

Now since this is wood you can easily use woodglue but I have had some bad experiences with woodglue so I decided to use a stronger product. I chose TEC-7. It's a powerful glue that can be used for praticly everything and is super strong once dry. I advice you to use it as well.

No matter which glue you use, when applying make sure that the glue is spread out and not to thick anywhere. Otherwise there is a chance that while pressing the two pieces together glue will come out from the side, or worse, from the Cd holes. So try to avoid that. When the pieces are put together and they are properly alligned with each other clamp them down and let it rest for a while.

When the glue is dry it's time for painting. Put some old newspapers on the ground and spraypaint your Cd stand in the desired color.

I chose black because I really liked how the concept made by Li Jianye looked and if this were a true apple product they probably would have chosen the same color.

Step 7: Afterthoughts

Well this certainly was a fun project. And I think this would be perfect for anyone who wants to get into woodworking. The total cost for this project was 0 dollars (it was scrap wood), it was easy and only took about an hour (not counting drying time of paint and glue). And while doing that you practised your skills with a jigsaw, drill and measuring!

In this ible I explained how to make one which can only hold 5 Cd's but if you have more space you can always extend that amount to 20 or even 30 Cd's making a Coverflow wall of Cd's :D

If you should have a question, comment, remark anything at all... Please leave a reply. I'm partly fuelled to make new great ibles by the response and views I get on already published ibles :)

Also note that English is not my first language, it's my fourth... So if you should come across any spellingmistakes or weird sentences leave a reply and I will correct it as soon as possible.

This project is entered in the woodworking contest. If you think this instructable deserves to win and thereby granting me the prize of some much needed powertools please rate this instructable and vote for me in the votingphase of the contest. It would mean alot to me :)