Introduction: 1/4" Steel Elephant Bookends With Draw out Over Guards

Tired of all those tall and concluded cookie-sized children's books falling over because your bookends are too small or under weight? 1/4" steel plate, urine jet, TIG welder, and a powder coating booth/oven volition solve the problem. My daughter loves elephants with rap polka-dots, but any large animal or object silhouette will act just as substantially. The bookends sit fountainhead, just in case prying manpower want to wrench them down, a tump over elastic safety guard was added to keep back both bookend sides in place by the weight of the books being held up.

Step 1: Design

Using a Dog or drawing program work up a 2D project for the water jet Beaver State metal band saw cuts. I did the elephant 2D work in Adobe Illustrator. The intention should include 2 silhouette face up plates and 2" all-encompassing stand plates running the distance of the silhouette plus 1-3/4" beyond the silhouette. For the elephants, I besides added notch extensions on the feet of the elephant and corresponding 1/4" mountain pass outs in the stand plates to pull through looking like the elephant is standing happening the stand plate. The notches also was the positioning of the weld points.

For the tip over safety guard, I first of all drew up a 48" x 2" rectangle with rounded corners that would embody cut KO'd of the same 1/4" steel home the bookends are made from. The length of the guard is founded the maximum distance you think you will put between the 2 bookends. In my case the end stand they are on is 48" long. Next notch out 1/2" from from each one end of the of the rectangle a 1-3/4" slot that will fit the bookend stand ends. Next design a intertwining jigsaw cut normal down the rectangle for the expandable pieces of the tip over guard. It should be the same pattern for each edit so the pieces can be interchangeable. In the case of the elephant book stand the first 2 end pieces are 6" in length and and then subsequently did 2" segments down the eternal sleep of 48" rectangle. This provided the initial width of the guard to equal 6" of infinite for books between bookends and expandable by 2" added segments as required. For the tip over safety guard cap, I antitrust purchased 2" / 1/16" steel strip and cut to fit each section with the steel strip down overlapping the slot of the jigsaw puzzle connection and nobelium cap complete the male end. As you behind hear from the pic's provided my saber saw gravel connection was hardly a three-way one-armed bandit to allow them to snap in place, only not exist pulled apart when egg laying straight.

Stopping point step in the design is to implication the disregard design of the 1/4" steel plate into the water system jet software and formulate the water jet tool around paths. For the littler bowl over refuge safety device pieces, I secondhand two 1/16" tabs to insure the parts didn't fall into the water jet pool.

Step 2: Cut

As a member of a local TechShop, I used the water green to clipped my bookends. I assume you could also do a lot of the cuts connected a metallic bandsaw, but doing so will certainly increase your time and truth. Likely the upset safety guard would pose the greatest challenge with a band proverb if you were to stick to the triangle eccentric jigsaw pattern I used for the elephants.

Step 3: Weld

I used a TIG welder to affiliated the bookend base plates to the silhouettes and the knock over base hit guard 1/16" depth cap pieces on to 1/4" guard guard al-Qaeda pieces. A MIG welder would work as well, but you might need to grind off any of the slag slosh the comes with a MIG weld (at least with my non professional MIG welding skills).

Step 4: Powder Coating

Again, being a member of localised TechShop is a plus thus I powder coated the bookends for a moral durable finish. If you don't pulverisation seashore then surely spray blusher works meet likewise. From the pictures you can come across I chose elephant hoary with pink polka-dots. Prep tinny using sand chargeman, dampen with simple green solution, and bake dry. Using purchased Kapton 1/2" dress circle tape dots, I first did the elephant's dead pink, practical the dots after the pieces cooled, and then powder coated the gray over the knock.

Mistreat 5: Fill With Books and Delight the Smiles

My 1 year old daughter favored the bookends and continues to pull same book from the group aft another. I no yearner have to cream up all the books that fall concluded from the old subordinate weight bookends I in use to use. I also find safe that if she pulls on the lumbering pieces they are less prospective to fall and hurt someone since the lean against over safety caps are supported by the books that lean against information technology and the bookend connected the opposite final stage. This was a fun project that provided me some good experience improving my skills with a CAD, water jet, TIG welding, and powder finish.

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