Desk Book Shelf and Organizer
My first project designing in Fusion 360
Intention
As a graduate student, I spend a lot of time bouncing from my studio space, to team meetings, to class. I find that means I’m often lugging items to and from my personal space to shared spaces and then back again. For this project, I’ve considered how I might build a simple, yet mobile space to organize my books, notebooks, and post-its when I’m at my desk. One that makes it easy to see where my stuff is and also makes it simple to grab-and-go.
As you can see my from photo, the current state of my desk is clutter. I use the two heaviest things I have at my disposal to hold up my notebooks because I haven’t found a desktop organizers that saves space. My goal for this project is to create a desktop book shelf that is mobile and light enough to carry, but sturdy enough to hold a up to half-a-dozen books and notebooks. It should also have a 3D component for holding post-its and pens.
Research & Context
With the context of building something for a desktop, I researched desktop organizers to get a better grasp of sizes and shapes that are on the market. Many of solutions I found were plastic or metal, rather than wood. My experience with plastic has been that it is good for lighter objects but not heavy books because they tend to weight down the malleable plastic. The metal book shelf options, on the other hand, are usually offered as book ends rather than a one-piece shelf.
Aesthetic Inspiration
I was inspired by organic textures and materials like natural wood, which I felt would be both calming and transition well, from space to space. While my final bookshelf design changed from my prototype, my original concept was designed to balance modern rigidity (straight lines and sharp angles) with soft, natural tones of the wood.
Prototype and Sketches
Include sketches from project plan, or new sketches from your process, that will help explain how you made this project.
Process & Procedure
I’ve started by looking at the space I have and calculating a size that will fit in the space. The book shelf should be 2 feet or less and no more than 12 inches deep. Even though it should have some weight to it, I prefer it to aesthetically feel light, airy and modern.
I gave myself plenty of time to design the shelf in Fusion 360. Since this is my first time using the tool, I knew I would run into challenges and need time to troubleshoot. I knew I wanted to bookshelf to be “self sufficient” and hold together without glue or adhesive. Given that, I spent much of my time designing notches for perpendicular pieces to ensure stability. Much like the laptop holder, I also created stabilizing structures to run across the bottom.
The first version of the bookshelf I cut was the slanted shelf. Through this iteration, I learned that the laser cutters do not cut at exact angles as reflected in Fusion 360. The base of the shelf was sliding around and it wasn’t as sturdy as I had hoped. Given this outcome, I worked with my design in Fusion to simplify by creating a flat shelf with notches on both the base and the side pieces. I also created handles so it was easy to transport move.
The 3D element I designed was an organization hook to hang on the side of the book shelf. The hook is specifically made to store Post-It Notes. To design, I calculated the thickness of the wood I used for the shelf and measured the side to see where I wanted the hook to lay. I also took into account my ability to grab the Post-Its, so made sure the pocket wasn’t too tall.
Final Product
Reflection
Fusion360, the laser cutters, and the 3D printers are also new forms of media for me. Thinking in 3D was exciting, but certainly a stretch mentally. As noted above, I printed two versions of my shelf: one sloped and one flat. Going forward, I would like to do more iterations on the sloped version to see if I might be able to find a way to stabilize and ‘lock-in’ the pieces. This version was more closely aligned with my original aesthetic vision, so I would be interested to see it through. I would also like to 3D print a greater variety of 3D hangers that hold other types of class materials, such as pens and markers. Overall, I am happy with my first creation and know that from a practical standpoint, it will be utilized everyday.
