While I was attaching the cleats to the wall, I noticed that as I got closer to the top I still had quite a few cleats left. Based on my plans I should have had just enough cleats, but for some reason I ran out of room with several cleats to spare. I looked at the plans again and then it hit me. I had written down a 6 inch spacing between cleats, but I had planned for a 4 inch spacing. The extended space meant that I would need to add a small foot at the bottom of each vertical support. Normally the support would rest against the cleat below, but with a 6 inch gap I would need to make overly large supports for that to work. Adding the feet was easy, and in the end I kind of like the 6 inch spacing. The laundry room is small, so the larger space helps keep the room from looking too busy.
Making the shelves was pretty straight forward. I began by deciding how big the shelves needed to be, then I cut corresponding cleats. The shelf surface is just a rectangular board of the same length, and the width was cut to whatever it needs to be. I then cut another rectangle the same width, minus .75 inches. I cut the second rectangle in half diagonally to create the vertical supports. I made a bunch of small feet for the vertical supports, and these bridged the gap between the vertical supports and the wall (the gap created by the wall cleat). That may sound confusing, so the following images help illustrate the process.
To create the vertical supports, I cut a rectangle in half diagonally. I used my crosscut sled with a stop block and couple of right angle blocks to set the proper angle for the cut. On a side note, I plan to get some hold-downs for my crosscut sled. Although I'm comfortable enough with the table saw to hold the pieces this close to the blade, it's still a bit unsafe. Some hold-downs screwed to the sled would have helped hold everything in place.
For the ironing board holder, I cut a notch in the vertical support instead of adding feet at the bottom of the support. It creates the same bridge to the wall, but with two fewer pieces to glue and tack. this is another example of a table saw technique that technically isn't safe, but works well enough for anyone comfortable enough to try it. Instead of getting out the stacked dado set and changing out the blades, I set the blade to the right depth and ran the wood across the blade, advancing the wood forward a little bit after each cut.
With the vertical supports made, I used glue and a few finish nails to hold everything together. This is a picture of the finished ironing board holder. The shelves are essentially the same, but without the notches in the vertical supports. I gave the holder a test fit, and I found that the notch is too close to the cleat, so I'll have to trim just a bit off the bottom.
The finished shelves work perfectly. Here you can see the shelf surface sitting on the cleat; the cleat bears all of the weight. The vertical supports and feet to keep the shelf from sagging. And the mermaid? Her magic is what makes all of the physics work. Either that or my daughter wanted to help show off the new shelves. Let's go with the first one.
As I said at the beginning, I still have a few more shelves to make, as well as a couple of "pins" for the mop and broom. Plus, I don't really like how the ironing board holder turned out. I want more support on the top surface, and the vertical supports should have the wood grain running vertically, not horizontally. The rest of the shelves are made in the same way as the three above, so for now I'll call this done.
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