Cable Spool Library

Many years ago it was ultra-cool to have a big, wooden spool for a coffee table, end table, or bedside table. Most people now prefer a little nicer furniture but those wooden spools can still be useful. There are lots of things you can make out of a wooden spool and you don’t have to have a hippie’s decor to sport one in your own home. Take one of those spools and turn it into a rolling library for a bedroom, living room, or other room; you’ll love it.

Just in case you’re unsure of what a wooden spool looks like, it has two large, round pieces of thick wood, with a cylindrical-shaped wooden piece, in the center, between them. You don’t have to be a woodworker to make the rolling bookcase. And, you don’t need any specific size of a cable spool. Paint the spool or leave it in its unfinished state.

If you want rollers on the spool you’ll just attach them; it’s not absolutely necessary to add the casters. If you want them, purchase them at a home improvement store, and screw in the hardware that holds the casters in place.

With the spool standing on the casters, or on one side if you aren’t using rollers, begin adding wooden dowels to the spool. Purchase small-diameter, wooden dowels and cut them to size yourself or have them cut at a home improvement store. They’ll cut them for free if you buy the dowels from them. Measure between the two wooden circles to find out how long you need the dowels to be.

For now, apply wood glue to each end of a dowel. Slide the dowel in place, between the two wooden circles, a few inches from the edge. Make sure the dowel is perfectly straight, up and down. Move around the spool, a foot or so, and glue in another dowel. Do this with a few dowels so that the dowels are all the way around the spool, but spaced evenly apart.

To strengthen the dowels, hammer a nail in from the top, down in through the top of the dowel. Do this to each dowel, on one of the wooden circles. Flip the spool over and do the same thing to the other side, driving a nail into each dowel.

Stand books up and slide a few at a time in between the dowels. The rolling library not only provides a place to store all your books, but also serves as a seat for little kids or a foot stool for anyone.


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