I needed a little extra space on a shelf so I made a shelf completely out of Lego
I had this idea when over the hot summer inside my apartment. My router was constantly overheating. when this would happen the WiFi SSID would just disappear. I suspected the overheating was caused by the devices being stacked on top of each other. I wanted to have a way to keep the couple electronic devices I had stacked to still be in the same place yet not directly on top of each other.
Build Idea Formation
Enter my Lego shelf idea. I had 3 similar sized devices that I wanted on this shelf. That said I thought 4 slots would be plenty. I made the bottom from 2 large green flat pieces. I wanted to do the same for the first height level but ran into an issue because the flat green pieces meat for building on do not have connecting pieces on the bottom. They are flat on the bottom to sit flat of the table or flat. To solve this I used several other flat pieces and connected them together to form a the first shelf level.
The key that holds it all together is the slider piece shown above. It coincidentally fits into the flat green pieces as shown below this is not meant to be used this way but worked really well for my purposes. I found 8 of these pieces and built up three separating walls for the two sides and the middle. then placed the 4 sliders pieces on each side and the first level slid in. It could not have fit any better, one reason why I love Legos, they undiscriminatingly fit together all of the time.
Build Deails
The bottom sides are built with thin single nub pieces and the middle with standard 2 nub pieces all the way to the top. The top sides are built with 2 nub pieces despite support concerns with building on skinnier pieces underneath. This is mostly to cover the gap between the flat green shelf and the snug piece. I also added apiece that extrudes out the back middle piece for extra support in the middle between the top and bottom. It doubles as a handle if it needs to be moved.
The top shelf is built from a big thick pieces that fit together with big flat pieces. I had the bricks ascend to the top slowly as shown. The middle piece ascends lower for easier access to the first shelf level.
I also added windows throughout the shelf not only to take up space and make building easier, but also for an extra design touch. I a window in the top middle in case I had any wires going across devices in the shelves. The windows are a nice touch and make it more unique than just bricks.
Summary
Overall the build turned out very well. I do wish it was a bit sturdier but since I am using bricks for other pieces than were intended. I enjoy the shelf because I get 3 levels where I would normally just have one. I like that I can look up and reminisce about my time using Legos as a kid. People that visit always ask about the pieces as it stands out and I enjoy talking about it. It is a very useful thing that didn't take me very long to build if you don't count the years of collecting a monstrous amount of Legos.