Final Project: Making part 2

The next part of the designing was to add details and components. 

The first step I decided to create were the holes on the dividers in order to make my shelves adjustable. By adding these, the user would be able to remove the shelves and adjust them according to their preference. 

This process was unexpectedly time-consuming as it took me about 4 hours. However, all of the work I designed in those 4 hours had to be deleted as my measurements were incorrect. 

In the blog post with my measurements, I didn't clearly state how many holes I want and the diameter of it. I wanted the diameter to be 0.5cm, however, in SketchUp I accidentally set the radius to be 0.5cm. Therefore, I had to redo everything from the beginning. 

This was very time consuming and I could easily avoid it if I had planned out my measurements better.

I decided to place 6 holes in each small box. I used the same method that I did in the previous blog post to act as a guide for the placement of the holes, by using the 'line' tool to form a grid. I wanted the distance between the holes and the sides of the dividers to be 10cm. Then, I marked out horizontal lines with 5.3cm distance between them to have a clear idea of where the holes should be placed. 

I used the 'circle' tool to form the holes with a radius of 0.25cm. 

Once I had all 6 holes on the surface, I used copy and paste to place them on all of the 18 surfaces created. I wanted the holes to have the same distance between them, therefore, copying and pasting was ideal to ensure perfect symmetry.

The last step in order to complete the holes was to use the 'push/pull' tool to push them 1cm inside the dividers in order to create the holes. This process took me about 5 hours as it was very time consuming. 

The next step was to add my components.

I started off by adding my corner brackets. I searched 'corner brackets' in the SketchUp warehouse and these were the ones that were most suitable. Once I downloaded it and inserted it into my design, I had to scale it down to my desired measurements. I used the 'scale' tool to make my brackets 4.5cm. 

I copied and then pasted my new corner bracket 4 times and then used the 'rotate' tool to adjust their position. To move the brackets around I used the 'move' tool. 

I added 8 corners in total. Four of them were supporting the basic structure and the other four were used to hang it onto the wall. 

The next step was to start adding my screws onto the corners and structure. I searched the warehouse again to find suitable screws and inserted them into my own design. I used the 'scale' tool and scaled it down in order to fit in the corner bracket perfectly. 

As I started adding screws to the corners, I also had to add screws to the structure. I started off by securing the dividers with the main body. I used lines to guide me where to place each screw. I wanted them 10 cm away from the end of the wood in order to make it more stable. I used the 'line' tool to form my guidelines and then copy-pasted my screws and used the 'move' tool to adjust them. 

For the corner brackets, I noticed that their placement was not very effective. I used the 'move' tool to move the four corner brackets that support the structure. They were placed on the edge of the structure so I moved them to the middle in order to make it more stable. Additionally, I placed the two corner brackets that will be hung up on the wall underneath the table. This will make it more stable as it will be able to hold all the weight from above. 

In the next blog post, I will finalise adding my components.