I’m working on re-organizing a room of our home and found a great spot where a small shelf would reduce clutter and make things more organized. Have you ever found the need for more shelving? Luckily, shelves are pretty simple to make. You can use about any material you have on have, from hardwood, softwood, plywood. Use whatever works for you. I chose a few Elm boards that I milled up with my chainsaw mill.

The boards I picked are the right size for this project, but they have a lot of cracks and other defects that I need to stabilize before I can use them. Most of the good boards have been used up on other projects and my picking are getting quite slim on this Elm. Thats no problem though.

I started out on the project by marking out a line so I can rip one straight edge using my circular saw. I then ran them through my planer to flatten them out, followed by a pass on the jointer to square up the freshly ripped edge. Now on to the cracks. I mixed up some 2 part epoxy, and added some black pigment to give it some color. Then I began pouring the epoxy into all of the cracks and voids. I didn’t even make that big of a mess. Then I used a heat gun to draw out all of the air bubbles. This can also be done using a small torch. I don’t have one of those anymore. You’ll have to watch the video to see why.

After the epoxy was dry, I ran it through the drum sander to flatten out the epoxy. Now that the boards are solid, I can cut the pieces to size at the table saw. After a little layout work, I used the tablesaw to cut some dadoes that would hold the shelves, then at the bandsaw, I cut some decorative curves on the sides. This step is completely optional, but I think it looks better. After some sanding and a little cleanup in the dadoes, it was time to add some glue to the dadoes and clamp it together.

After a little touch up sanding, I applied some homemade finish to seal it all up. I like the way this home brew finish looks on the Elm. It gives it such a nice chocolatey brown color. I think its one of my favorite finishes for this wood.

I’m super pleased with this little shelf. Its going to work out great for us. If you need to make a shelf like this, its really easy to change the dimensions to work for your needs. You can change the height, add more shelves, or whatever you need to do. The construction techniques are the same. Thanks for stop0ping in, and please check out the video below.

— Affiliate Links to Products Used —
Dewalt Circular Saw – https://amzn.to/2sB6RV
Swanson Speed Square – https://amzn.to/38zR52l
Total Boat Performance Epoxy (medium) – https://amzn.to/2uXmdZa
Titebond 2 Wood Glue – https://amzn.to/2AP3jmU
3m Earmuffs (my favorite pair) – https://amzn.to/3cv3t46

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