LITTLE FREE LIBRARY – A X-MAS GIFT

SPREAD THE JOY OF READING WITH THIS AWESOME LITTLE FREE LIBRARY!

Finally! Christmas is thru and I can breath deep as my latest project which has consumed much of my time thru December is complete. My future fiance has a great love for books and especially loves sharing books with others and talking about them so I decided to construct a little free library for her front yard. For those who are unfamiliar about the little free library system you can check it out here: Little Free Library Site . The little free library system is already extremely popular in Green Bay and I fell in love with the idea and knew I had to make one.  I knew the project would need to be extremely detailed and I really wanted to create a unique library that stands out but also reflects the architecture popular to the area. So I plucked ideas from houses mostly on my route to work but I also borrowed a few ideas from existing libraries in the neighborhood as well. This little free library features a nice rounded doorway with a poly-carbonate viewing window. The door took a lot of time and patience as I had to cut the rounded portions using a scroll saw and then cut out the window slots / window frame all by hand. The siding was custom cut using a 1/4″ x 1″ scrap material from Menards which I cut to fit the trim and lapped over each other. For the roof I used cedar shingle shims and is really my favorite part.  The fish scales…I had to have, but knew it would be a tremendous effort to custom cut and round the shims using just a scroll saw. I also wanted to have a hanging sign and decided it would look best if I could design some fish scale siding that fit the exact space above the door frame and the back panel to be 3D printed. I also added a flat surface for a sign bracket to mount and hang and then custom designed the sign as well. Of course the fish scale siding would not print at full size so I sectioned it into panels using Solidworks. You can find the original project files for the fish scale siding, my sign post bracket and sign in onshape here: Onshape – Little Free Library Design Files