Monday, December 18, 2017

Hobby Room Remodel - Part 2

In Part 1 of this 3 part series I discussed the remodel of an unused den space into my new hobby room. In this part I'll show you my design and process for constructing a custom bookshelf/display cabinet from Ikea Billy bookcases.

The closet in my new hobby room is rather long an narrow. Approximately 8 feet wide by 2 feet deep. I didn't want the typical long closet doors blocking off it's contents. I find those doors to be a rather dull use of space. I decided that keeping the closet open to the rest of the room and lining it with bookcases would be a much more productive use of the space.

I began the design of my new hobby room in SketchUp. The software is a free CAD program from Google. Sure there is a premium version but for most users the free version is plenty.


The first step was to lay out the dimensions of the room. Once I had the floor plan in place I locked that layer and began placing the furniture. Fortunately much of the Ikea catalog can be found in the SketchUp 3D Warehouse but for those items not available it isn't too difficult to draw your own. The Ikea website provides ample descriptions to many products on their website.

I wanted to entirely line the interior of the closet with bookcases with a display cabinet front and center. The products I chose were:
  • 1x Billy Bookcase with Doors (31.25"W)
  • 2x Billy Bookcase (31 1/4" W)
  • 2x Billy Bookcase (15 3/4" W)
  • 2x Gnedby Shelf Unit (7 7/8" W)
  • Total cost: $463 with promotional free delivery
I centered the bookcase with doors in the closet and followed it on either side with the Gnedby shelf, and the 15 3/4" wide billy bookcase. The other 31 1/4" wide bookcases were placed on the sidewalls of the closet. Now if you're paying attention you'll notice that these measurements don't add up, and you'd be right. I was going to have to narrow the shelves. I chose to narrow the Gnedby shelves to 5 3/4" wide and would have to narrow the 31 1/4" outer shelves to approximately 23" wide. This was the result in SketchUp:


During the first 3 days of November Ikea was offering free delivery and a jumped on the chance. Upon delivery I had to determine an order of operations to my installation and customization. I knew what the measurements should be based on my model in Sketchup but walls are rarely ever perfectly square or even level so I was sure to encounter some variation. I began by building the center bookcase and mounted it to the wall on center. I decided that next I would have to build from the outsides in. 

I started with the right side. I began be remeasuring the nook in which I would be placing the 31 1/4" bookcase. I noted that the width of the space was approximately 23 1/2". Could I modify both of the side shelves in one batch? It would save a great deal of time. I measured the other side. 24" even. I framed the closet so I only have myself to blame. I had to do these one at a time. I set up my table saw and cut all the center pieces of the shelf to length so that the fully assembled bookcase measured 23 1/2" wide. 

My next difficulty was going to be in assembling the bookshelves. As most of us know Ikea furniture comes with easy to assemble hardware which, in this case, means cam locks and wooden dowels. I had, of course, just cut half of the pre-drilled holes off of the shelves when I narrowed the pieces. To re-drill the flush cut holes that the cam locks plug into I used a 15mm forstner bit. I picked mine up on Amazon. I should also note here that to re-drill the cam lock holes on the Gnedby you will need a 1/2" forstner bit.  I got both of mine of Amazon for less than $10 each, you could probably pickup a set of several for that price but I didn't realize I needed two different sizes until I had already received the first one. 

To make sure the holes were drilled properly I set up a jig on my drill press. 

Forstner bits make nice clean flush cut holes. I used the above piece of scrap to test my first attempt.


I used the extra length I had cut off the shelves to align my jig and set the proper depth of my drill bits. 

Make sure you set your depth gauge! The last thing you want is to punch a hole clean through your shelf. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes so all first cuts and holes were made on scrap pieces of wood.

I used the cut off ends as gauges to mark the holes for the dowels and cam lock pins in the sides of the shelves. I did the long shelves with a cordless drill 

Billy shelf fastener mounting hole
The Billy Bookcase shelves don't simply sit atop brackets, they use fasteners which insert into the bookcase walls on the horizontal but into the shelves vertically. The fasteners are somewhat conical in shape and the holes they insert into have two different diameters. I setup a jig on my drill press for these and used a 3/8" bit and a 3/16" bit to recreate the original holes.

Once this was completed I assembled the first of the two bookcases which would line the sides of the closet. I was pleased to find that it went together as if I had just removed it from the box. It was also a perfect fit for the space.

I then ran an extension cord up the back of the wall behind the next set of bookcases. Then I assembled the 15 3/4" wide bookcase and mounted that against the back right wall flush with both the wall and the modified bookcase. I repeated the process on the left and then measured the space left between the center bookcase and the 15 3/4" cases. I was again pleased to find that all my measuring paid off. The space between was 5 3/4" on each side. Now I went about narrowing the Gnedby shelves.

This proved a bit easier as I had already developed a process and could tackle both units at the same time. I returned to the table saw and ripped all the horizontal components down to the appropriate width.

Above I'm cutting all the horizontal pieces of the Gnedby shelves to the proper width.

After all the cuts were made it was off to the drill press to re-drill the holes for all the mounting hardware and dowels. Because the shelves for the Gnedby were so narrow I was able to use my drill press for all of these holes. 


The adjustable shelves of the Gnedby use round pegs in the side walls which set into half cylinder recesses in the shelves. I used a 3/8" bit on my router table to reproduce these notches.


Once that was finished I assembled the Gnedby shelves and mounted them into place. They are more shallow than the Billy bookcases so I mounted them slightly set back from the Billy bookcases for a more pleasing appearance.

Now that the bookcases were in place it was time for a bit of lighting. I purchases a flush mount LED light strip and a grounded lamp cord from Home Depot. I then wired up the light, installed a toggle switch, and mounted it to the back side of the front closet wall.

A 20A 125V toggle switch I salvaged from some appliance many moons ago.

An inexpensive lamp cord can be used to turn in a hardwired lighting fixture into a plugin lamp quite easily.




In the end it all turned out quite a bit better than I expected. In Part 3 of this series I will cover my custom hobby desk also assembled from Ikea furnishings.

Monday, December 11, 2017

Hobby Room Remodel - Part 1

I've been a bit busy lately. Working on getting the house ready for a new baby has left me little time for working on my favorite hobby. In fact for quite a while I had no viable space in which to work. My garage was overrun with furniture and boxes of belongings, my former office was being renovated to become the nursery, and my new hobby room was being renovated into a separate room from a previously open den. I had the carpets replaced in each bedroom and all the tile removed from the common areas to make way for new flooring.

Needless to say I didn't make any hobby progress for the last few months. This marks my first year not entering a model into Modelzona (my local IPMS chapter's yearly model show). With Scorpfest in Tucson only a month away, ValleyCon at the Petersen Automotive Museum in March, Best of the West in May, and the 2018 Nationals being hosted right here in Phoenix Arizona; I have some serious building to get done.

But since I don't have any hobby progress to share I thought I'd share my biggest project of all: the remodeling of my hobby room. Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures but the space was initially an open den. It was clear from the layout that it must have been an optional 4th bedroom when first built so I thought I'd make good use of the space and enclose it.

I framed in the hallway wall, closet, and hung the door. My father is an electrician by trade so he came out to help me install the wiring, reroute some of the previous wiring, and set it all up on a new circuit.


I hung all of the drywall myself and my father showed me how to fill the seams. After all the initial inspections were completed I finished hanging the drywall. I didn't feel comfortable trying to match the texture of the rest of the walls so I hired that part out.


View of the room and hallway wall.
Once the texture, trim, and paint were completed I had my final inspection from the city and got the green light.


My next step was to get the carpets installed and start bringing in the furniture. I decided to design the new hobby space in Google SketchUp. The space would be furnished with furniture from Ikea with a few tweaks. I'll cover my custom bookshelves and display cabinet in Part 2.


Monday, November 13, 2017

IPMS Nationals 2017

This summer my father and I took a long road trip from Las Vegas to Omaha to attend the 2017 IPMS Nationals. Each of us brought many models to enter in competition against the Nation's most seasoned model builders.

The convention took place over 4 days. Each day was filled with various modeling seminars, talks, and tours. We were fortunate to attend some outstanding seminars on how to weather armor with oil paints, an impressive talk on scratch building from a true master, and a how-to clinic from Badger Airbrush on airbrush care and maintenance.

 This beautifully weathered scratch build has already graced the
cover of Fine Scale Modeler magazine.





There where many Games Workshop models entered in the competition.













 





 


 My local chapter put together this Star Wars group build.

The below Machinen Krieger diorama was my favorite build of the convention.


 




 













 

Part of the convention was a tour of the Strategic Air Command Museum just outside Omaha. Included in the private tour was a dinner under the belly of an SR-71 Blackbird. What a treat!

 


 








 















 Close up picture of items like this make for great reference when
scratch building details for your projects.


   

And back to the competition...
















 This helicopter was completely scratch built!





This collection of 1/72 scale armor was quite impressive.











and the winners are... okay so I only got pictures of some of the winners, but here they are.






and my models that took an award...





I encourage anyone interested in competing or even just observing to come by the 2018 IPMS Nationals to be held next year by my local chapter in Phoenix, Arizona.