Hexagons are Bestagons - Printer Cupboard 2
Last month, I blogged about the cupboard I built for my printers. This is part two of that build.
This build was considerably simpler. We wanted a simple shelf on top of the cupboard, but also a place to store the 3D printing filament.
The construction of the shelf is similar to what I did before: some routed rabbets that take the shelves. The side panels got some round edges with the jig saw. A flush cut bit in the router made sure both parts had the same dimensions.
A bit more complicated was the edge banding. Again I cut thin strips off a spruce board on my table saw. But making them follow the much narrower curves of the shelf needed some convincing.
I used a small electric kettle and taped over the auto-off switch, forcing the water to continuously boil1). Using the steam from the kettle helped to bend the spruce into the rough form I needed.
The filament storage uses sliding “doors” made from 2.5mm acrylic glass. The needed rabbets were cut on the table saw. I glued a piece of wood on the inner door, to make it more tight - I will add some silica gel later. The filament in use is placed on a USSR - Ultimate Simple Spool Roller and then is fed through a PTFE tube down to the printer.
As mentioned in the last post, our office walls were in dire need of some color. So before finally setting everything up, we added some paint. And because Hexagons are the Bestagons we picked them to add some variation.
I made two templates from MDF to ensure uniform sizes. However doing math on Hexagons is more complicated than it looks. This Hexagon Calculator proved to be useful.
I'm really happy about the outcome. Now if only we could keep our desks as tidy as in these pics…
