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I have a recess in a room about 60x 200cm, but it isnt perfectly rectangular. I'm not even sure the drywall is particularly straight. I want to put a built in shelf there - any advice on how to cut the shelf to fit the recess well?

Triplefault
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Oliver Walters
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2 Answers2

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Get some card (old cereal boxes work well) and cut & tape to fit. Should give you an exact template.

Solar Mike
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While it may be overkill for an almost-straight shape like you have, Joggle sticks used in boat building are an useful technique to know. It comes especially useful if there is a curve involved.

  1. Make a joggle stick by cutting some notches into a 1 meter long piece of wood. It's desirable to make them a bit varying size, this way you don't confuse one notch for another in the drawing. Cut the end of the stick into a narrow point.
  2. Place a table or other horizontal work surface at the height where the shelf would be. It's easiest if it fits into the recess, but it's ok to just have the table as close as you can.
  3. Lay down a large paper on the table and tape it down so that it stays in place.
  4. Touch the sharp end of the joggle stick against the wall and use a pen to trace the notches onto the paper. Repeat for as many points as needed to follow the shape of the wall.
  5. Lift the paper and tape it down on or next to your stock material. Position the joggle stick based on the drawing and mark points on the material at the end of the stick.

Benefit over cardboard templates is that it avoids having to repeatedly cut and remeasure. By having a longer stick, you can scale the technique to areas much larger than the paper, without worrying of a cardboard template bending and sagging.

jpa
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