Folding kitchen bookrest

[Mister S]

Just finished this, so I thought I'd share.

Only a small project, but one that I'm happy with now it's finished (it doesn't always turn out that way!)

It's pretty cold in the workshop at the moment so I wanted something I could spend a couple of hours at a time on (after letting the fan heater run for thirty minutes before I venture in).

I came up with the idea of a wooden bookrest. Not too big and I could use up some of my stock of small pieces of reclaimed oak. I couldn't find much in the way of design ideas on the forum, so I looked online and adapted the design of one that I found and liked the look of.

This was the outcome:

It folds flat

It stands up

The proportions look good


The oak is a good colour match with our kitchen

And it works!

Even with a big heavy book on, the centre of gravity lies within the base so it's stable.

I'm generally pleased with this and when I set out I thought if it turned out ok, I would make a few and put them away for presents at Christmas. Trouble is, it's a bit fiddly and took a lot longer than I thought to make. But I suppose I've done the hard bit of the trial and error learning so I could do a mini production run and save some time.

cheers
Steve

 

[barkwindjammer]

Very nicely done, I can see that being a handy little gift

 

[Fromey]

Very nice. I'd very much like the plans for that and where did you get the hardware from?

 

[Mister S]

Hi Fromey

Afraid I don't have any plans as such. I took inspiration from this.

http://cdn.homedit.com/wp-content/uploa ... d-lrg2.jpg

I changed the bent metal bar for two wooden arms with a straight bar between them. As for hardware, it's just 2 cheap hinges (brass effect steel) and some 4mm brass bar that I had lying round (originally from B&Q I think). It's hard finding hinges that have narrow leaves but are strong enough for the job.

I changed the position of the hinges and how they are fixed. I've had to use screws into end grain which isn't ideal, but holds pretty well considering. On a prototype, I used a router to mill a groove into the end grain and glued some long grain in to give the screws something better to grip, but it seemed like overkill.

The camera is charging up so I'll post some close up pictures tomorrow of the working bits.

Hope that helps
Steve

 

[speeder1987]

Really like that, been looking for a nice kitchen stand for a while, might make one of these though as it looks like an interesting project

Thanks for posting

Cheers
John

 

[plymouth pirate]

Really like that, been looking for a nice kitchen stand for a while, might make one of these though as it looks like an interesting project

Thanks for posting

Cheers
John

+1. Looks great and is useful.

 

[Halo Jones]

I really like that =D>

I had lots of offcuts from a previous project that I thought were destined for the fire but I know what I am doing now. When is Mothers day this year :-k

H.

 

[Mister S]

ok, I've got a few more pics and some details if anyone fancies having a go. I should say before I go on, I totally underestimated the time it took. It all looked so simple .....

The basic frame the book rests against has m&t's joining the sides to the bottom+top, and the 2 cross bars to the sides. Because the corner ones are wider than they are long, there isn't much long grain surface contact so I used epoxy on these.

To give an idea of scale, the whole thing is 32cm wide by 24cm tall. The sides and top are all 15mm wide (enough to hold the brass bar pivots steady) and 20mm deep (enough to accommodate the fold down book rest part on one face and the base on the other, both of which are about 9mm thick). So the whole thing folds down to just 20mm thickness.

The 3 bars attached to the base need to fit in between the bars on the front part when it's folded. The brass bars are showing because the pivot arms are removed for the photos.

The 3 bars on the base (allows 3 different angles for the book) are slightly undercut so that the brass bar that rests against them can't slip out easily. I wasn't sure that just glue would be enough to hold them so I routed a 3.2mm hidden groove 3cm long in the bars and the base and used splines to make sure.

All the brass bars are just a push fit in their holes. I found a 4mm wood drill gave a sliding fit, and a 4mm metal drill gave a tight fit. The pivot are holes are 10cm between centres.

The brass pivots are half way between the top and bottom.

The hinges are screwed into the long grain of the base. not ideal, but there are 3 on each part of the base so seem strong enough so far. You can just make our the curves at the ends of the bottom rail which is reduced in thickness from 20mm to 10 mm to allow the base to fold in.

The arms on the flap that hold the pages back pivot on screws. The ends are angled so when closed they lie flush with the top. The small bar at the back of the flap was an afterthought, put on after assembly to stop our smallest books sliding backwards of the flap under the lowest middle crossbar. Not really necessary. I'll probably leave it off next time.

The flap in the open position. The pivot pin just goes into holes drilled in the flap. They have to be at 90 deg to the ends so I used a jig to make sure they didn't wander. The edge of the flap that is under the brass pin (out of sight behind the upright) has to have a radius on it to allow it to swing up and down. The flap is 5cm wide, a mistake as it's too small for our biggest books, I measured up first but forgot that part of the flap sits behind the upright when open. I'll make it 6cm next time.

And that's it. It looks deceptively simple but it has 8 m&t joints (all small so I did them by hand), 6 secret splines (ok I cheated and routed those) and the drilling of the holes for the brass bar has to always be at 90 deg to the faces of the wood - a drill press helps here.

Allow plenty of time if you have a go!