I built sleek & strong diy floating shelves, well really just one floating shelf with hidden LED lights for my office.
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DIY Floating Shelves with a Secret –
Building an 11 Drawer Office Cabinet –
My Tech Gear was a Mess so I Built This –
I Bought a $70 “Domino” on Alibaba –
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➤Tools/Supplies Used (affiliate):
ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection – (10% off code: FTBT)
TotalBoat Halcyon Clear Poly – (5% OFF at checkout)
Kreg Track Saw –
Kreg Setup Bars –
3D Printed LED Mounting Rails –
FCOB LEDs –
FCOB LED controller –
12v power adapter –
RGB LEDs –
RGB LED controller –
5v power adapter –
Soldering iron –
3D printer –
PLA filament –
Milwaukee Trim Router –
Drill press attachment –
Stud finder –
Wood Owl auger bits –
Self-centering dowel jig –
½” extended length drill bit –
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Alexandre Chappel – Floating Shelves
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I made these awesome floating LED shelves
last year, But I need another one
and I want to try a stronger design. All that is out and twice the LEDs I I'll be using some maple solid wood
and this thing is huge. It's two inches or eight quarter
if you're fancy. And this is just a big old nice slab of
wood that I'm going to plain and cut down. But don't worry if you want to make one And you don't have machinery
to deal with rough lumber, You can just go grab a two by 12
and you can make one just out of this Because a two by 12
is just about the exact dimensions That I'm going to end up
milling this thing down to. Well, you're going to have to figure out, Though, is
how to get all the electronics in there. But we'll deal with that later. And in. All right. So the original board was not quite long
enough, so I milled it all down. This was the original size. And then I had to take the off cut
and then rip it in half. And I did cut some little floating tendons
in the end. Okay, Dominoes. Or if you want to use
a really cheap version, I got a video up here that can show you
a replacement for a domino, But I'm going to put these all together
and you know It's going to be a little crazy. I won't have to clamp these
down to the sides Because what good is a blow up
if there's not a big chance for failure? So we can do. After The shovel was all dry, I took it out
of the clamps and knocked down the glue. And then I played it flat
and then took it through the joiner. The table saw all that goodness
just to get it down to this Nice looking little piece here. This is not going to be the final shape.
We're still very blocky here on the end
and to make it look nice and sleek, I'm going to put some champers on here,
but I'm going wait to do that later Because right now what I need to do Is figure out How I'm going to drill into the back
and clear out some space for the LEDs. So let me show you the LEDs
and the setup that I want to do here. Now, there are a ton of different LEDs out there because the lights are like
crack for teenagers And YouTubers because of what good is
a project without some LEDs. So here's the three types of LEDs
and these back to right here. These are actually RG will do all colors. And this first one is a special OLED
that only does white. But you can see on the back
you can just see how tiny These little strips are
and how far apart they are. So these are about two inches apart. These are about three quarters inch apart. I would definitely not
recommend these back here And this is what these look like. So even though they are RG
Be when you go to the white It's got a very blue tint to it
so they just don't look nice. Now this one in the middle this is the one
I've used on a lot of projects before. You can see the difference
between the whiteness of these strips. This is a much nicer white. Also it does do red green in the blue,
but it can also do other cool Things like this
and have all kinds of cool Little animations
that will go across there. And these are individually addressable LEDs, meaning
that each one can be a different color. I means last ones here are special. These are called F cob LEDs
and it stands for flexible chip on board. And basically what that means is
it has a diffuser here and there. A lot of little itty bitty LEDs,
but they are very strong together. And if I go up to full brightness,
these are really bright. Some of the use the f cob lights
Just put some light on all the stuff
that I'm going to be working on. And for the RG BS, they'll be shining up
so I can have a little cool light On whatever I'm displaying up there. Now. The plywood shelves that I made
had this nice cavity In between them for the mounting,
and that allowed me To just put the electronics
wherever I wanted. Obviously with a solid piece of wood,
we do not have that cavity, So I need to make it
so before I start cutting into this bag, I need to know how it's going
to be attached to the wall. So I went into the office
and I measured where the studs were, And then I transferred those locations
onto the back here. So I'll know where those locations are. And then in between those is where I can make the little dig out
for the electronics. So it looks like I'll have a nice
little section right here at the end. And this is where I can put all of the
electronics to draw off this little area. I'm going to use a little order bit, Just like
I used to drill the holes in my benchtop. And I'm not real confident
that I can cut straight holes. So I made a little jig
for this little guy. I'm pretty proud of it, actually. I just kind of glued two pieces
to this little scrap board Right here
and then mounted this in the center. So I know that the holes
will be right in the center. And then also it's going to kind of Help me steady it because it would be hard
to balance this plate right onto here. All right. So it's hard to get this out
and see how it works for not this house. Do not push this down when this little
pole is right under the trigger Or you'll shriek
like an elementary school kid. I'm not sure if this is my best idea
or worst idea, But kind of feeling like it's my worst. Oh, that looks pretty darn nice. I thought this might be an issue,
And drilling through hard
maple is no joke. I broke my little jig here,
so we have to go to remake that. And also, I had to beef up to this bigger
drill here. So the first of all I was using
is sitting in front of that fan right now Because it was hotter than a $2 pistol. So that thing could not take drilling
through this maple. So you're going to drill into one Inch holes and maple or other woods,
maybe don't use those bottom of the barrel Drill holes like your ryobi
or even the cheapest wall drill. Make sure you have something
that's a bit more hefty. All right. And got that done. And do not worry. I have retained my title as world's
second worst chiseler. Yeah. Anyway, I need to figure out where
I'm going to put the LEDs So I can start running the next holes. I am a little bit concerned about how much
I need to recess them on the shelf Because they're going to be here
on the front because it just don't want. I'm just like shooting into my eyes
like a million suns. So to test that out, I'm actually use this
two by 12 that I was talking about. So instead of
just cutting recesses in there, I'm going to get a little bit smarter
and instead just put little strips On the outside to represent a recess. I've got the shelf locked up. And in the center here,
I just have one little corner and strip. Then I add a little eight inch strip on it
to get to 3/8 And then two quarter inch strips
for a half over there. Don't ask me why I did them out of order.
And then I'm going To put this up on the wall
and then just see how it works. All right, let's try to lights. So after looking at the Mock up, I think
3/8 of an inch is going to be just right. And it's because my wife agreed on it
and whatever she says is always right. This one looks good, but I
Take that to heart. Guys. Now I got to do is use my handheld router
to root out the room For two of these strips, And that worked out fairly well. Now I have installed
Channel four, the LED strips in the front. What I have to do now
is get the wiring into this cavity. So the cavity is right here
on the back side and I need to go through. But this cavity is only like
four inches deep, so I'm going to get A smaller bit and drill down
all the way into right underneath here. And then I'll drill another hole
right here to connect those two And sounds easy. We'll see what works. I'm going to step it down
and use this little smaller guide. Problem
is, is that it's not quite long enough, But I do have this big extension
and so I think I'm going to start this With the jig so I can get it straight. Then I'll pull it off and plug this in
and go the rest of the way. And right hand it's going on here. Oh, the spring. The spring is bottoming out. Hatch Is this my hand? I'm thinking of starting a new band,
but it's going to be called Idiots With drills. So yeah, if you're interested
in joining us again, the qualifications, Just let me know down in the comments. We're open. Everybody, all right, here we go. Oh, gosh. That is just a hideous sound. And that's the first single off of our LP. All right, Any luck? There should be a hole right
underneath here. Hey, hey, hey, hey. All right. That worked on the backs of the shelf.
I'm going to also be doing a groove,
and that'll be for the B lights. It's going to be
pretty much exactly what I just did. So we're just going to blitz through it. I got the channel ratted out,
and I did one deeper pass in the middle And then a wider one on the top
and the LEDs down on the bottom channel And then the plexi on top. So it'll be nice and flush. Now I just got to connect it
down into the base. This it'll be much,
much easier than the other side. There you go. Now, all this is ready for wiring. All right, Now we are at the pucker
point of the project. That is the point
where things start pucker up. And that is because it is
time to drill holes in the wall As well as in the shelves here. I've gone back and forth Between two different sizes of rod
that I want to use for this. These are both steel rod. This one is a half inch
and this is five eights. I'm going to go with the half. And that's
just because this can be a lot easier And more accurate for me to drill
the holes and make everything fit. And my initial idea
was to go with the 5/8 rod Because it's here
and everybody likes be here And I'm going to use this little guy,
which is great for drilling vertical. But as you go horizontal,
the weight of the drill And everything just makes it flex
and there is too much play for me To try and line up the holes in the wall
as well as in the back of the shelf, Especially if I'm doing three
or four different holes. But I do have a tool that can be a lot
more accurate that is half inch. So instead I'm going to use this self
sintering down jig, which has a Half inch hole in it right here. And then I just went out
and grabbed a half inch drill bit And it's nice and big
and I can just put it right in there.
So on drill
two and a half inches into the stud And taking into account the half
inch drywall, that means three inches. Right before I started drilling I had an idea this thing is kind of heavy
and my arms are kind of weak. So what would be great is
if I could had something to prop it up on And I cut this little two by four
and this is going to be perfect. Now, there's one variable
I don't have to worry about Because I know the top of this
cabinet is level because I don't I went ahead and cut down the bars
into little 11 inch pieces And I put a little bevel there on the end
to help it go in. Now we're going to see if it fits
in the hole and more importantly, If it's level. All right. Number one, Let's see if we are square. Yes. Oh, that works so nicely. All right. If the rest of these
are as nice as that one. All right, We can work with that. All right.
I am so relieved that that went well. That was awesome. So I grabbed the shelf
and I put it on top of the little rods, And then I was able to grab my carpenter's
square And mark out where each of them should go. So it translate
to exactly where they're at on the wall. And I got that tip
from Alexander Chapelle. He did it on one of his videos. Alexander Great tip. It worked very well. So I just laid out the little center mark
and now I can line that up with my self Centric jig,
which is going to work out really nicely. And I also put a new piece of blue tape
where I need to go to. So I'm going to be drilling
quite a bit in here So it can have lots of support
and the shelf is going to be super strong. All right. The holes all look good.
Let's go give it a test. See how this goes. Come on, You can do it all. Oh, that is down to heck. Yes. All right. It looks like with just a little bit Help, this thing is going to go in there
just fine. So I can do the Chamfer is put some finish
on this thing, get all the LEDs Installed and get a final reveal. I really dig in the way
that the bevel turned out on this And it really makes it look nice and sleek
for the finish. I put a couple of coats
of total boathouses On clear on there
and that'll be a nice protective finish And it will match
what we already have in the office. So now what I'm going to do
is just start installing the LEDs. So I modeled and 3D
printed some of these little strips here And these are 410 millimeter LEDs
and then I can just super Glue them into the channel
and then LEDs are going to snap right in. And I will upload this to principals
and have a link to it. So if you want to print them out
and use them for your own projects Somewhere, glue these in here,
get the LEDs in, then flip it, overdo The bees with the plexi
that we can get to install From it. Now my other polling shows
I ran off battery And although that was a cool idea
and nice and novel, It was a pain in the butt to have to
recharge the battery all the time. So we were running power through the wall
and going to some In-Wall cable And then I'll have this little job here
and that cable can come out. It'll be hidden behind the 3D printer
and then I can plug the things Into a power strip. All right. With a hope and a prayer,
this should go up and I can get everything Plugged in. So I did
Run two lines
here, a 12 volt and a5l line. So each of these will have their own
dedicated power And I can always change out the Chargers And not have to mess
with anything up there Because this cable is just a patch cable
that runs from the bottom up to the top Right? Oh, I started To pull the 3D printers in here
and put a few things on the shelf. Now let's check out the lights. First of all, the task lighting. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Tons of light here. I still have this bare wall, but
it's a perfect spot to use some of these. For the next video,
you'll see what this is about. But let's check out the abs of top. This is great. It's just a nice little ambiance up there. I'll put some signage up there
and it will look really cool, But I am super happy
with how this turned out. It looks amazing in
the office is really coming together. If you want, check out
the other LED shelves I built. The video is right there
a big thank you to FTB builders. Come until next time guys
get out there and build something awesome.