Infinite Library Book Nook

Hey! My name is Donovan, I am a sophomore at Illiana Christian High School in Indiana. In our Computer Integrated Manufacturing class, we all made projects to submit for this contest. I really wanted to do something with an infinity mirror, and this contest gave me the inspiration to actually do it. I made a library book nook with an infinity mirror on the inside, creating the illusion of an infinite library. This project is heavily inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.

• Fusion 360
• Lightburn
• LED light strips
• 1/4" thick wood panels for the walls
• 1/8" thick MDF panel
• 3/4" thick wood for CNC routing
• 1/8" thick two-way mirror acrylic panel
• CNC router
• Drill and screws for securing the wood in the CNC router
• Laser cutter
• Table saw
• Orbital palm sander
• Spindle sander
• Sand paper
• Super glue

The first step in the design process is to identify what you need and the constraints of the project. This contest really had only one constraint: it has to do with books. I made myself my own constraint, as well. I wanted to use an infinity mirror.

I then had to research how infinity mirrors worked and learned they work by putting LED lights in between a mirror and a two-way mirror.

Finally, I had to brainstorm ideas. The book nook immediately came to mind because I had seen someone use and infinity mirror in a book nook before, and I wanted to make my own version. I settled on making an infinite library in the book nook with the infinity mirror.

The first step of designing a book nook is getting the measurements of your books and bookshelf. I wanted my book nook to fit in with the books so I wanted the height and depth to be around the same as the books. For me, this ended up being 8.25 inches tall and 8 inches deep. The width of the book nook I made was 5 inches.

Now that I had the measurements, I went into Fusion 360 and began designing. I wanted assembly to be easy, so I made the walls fit together like puzzle pieces with little notches that fit into each other. On the top piece, I cut out a slot going through the entire piece that was 1/8" deep and 1/8" wide so I could easily slide in the two-way mirror when I assembled the book nook.

For the floor of the library, I designed a 6.75" x 4.50" x 0.25" piece with diagonal lines cut into it. I also put the slot for the two-way mirror in the floor and made sure it lined up with the top piece in the final assembly.

The front piece of the nook, I designed to be an arch to give it a medieval aesthetic.

I also had to design tiny bookshelves for the actual library. I designed these to be made using laser cut pieces of the 1/8" MDF panel. The books I also designed for the MDF by creating a sketch that looks like a bunch of books.

After I designed all of these, I put them all into one assembly design to make sure it all fit together.

To laser cut these pieces, I make a drawing of the panels in Fusion and exported it as a DXF. I imported the DXF into Lightburn to laser cut them out of 1/4" thick maple wood. To cut out the slot on the top piece, I used an offset fill. For everything else, I used a normal line cut. After they were cut out, I made sure they fit together and sanded the surfaces to get rid of the burn marks and to make them smoother.

To make the floor, I did the same thing I did with the sides and brought them over to Lightburn. I used the same offset fill for the slot, but a less powerful one for the diagonal lines. After it was cut out of the same 1/4" maple, I sanded the burn marks away.

I used Fusion's manufacture workspace to create a toolpath for the CNC router to cut out the front piece. After exporting the toolpath, I secured a piece of 3/4" thick wood in place on the CNC router using screws and a drill. When the CNC router was done cutting, I unscrewed the wood from the machine and had to cut the edges using a table saw. To get the front to fit just right, I had to use a spindle sander to sand down the edges.

In Lightburn, I used the rectangle tool to make the correct number of pieces I needed to laser cut out with the correct dimensions. I also exported the Fusion sketch of the fake books as a DXF and imported it into Lightburn. After laser cutting them out, I sanded the edges and used super glue to assemble the tiny bookshelves. The overall dimensions of the bookshelves were 4.75" x 1.50" x 0.75".

I also used Lightburn to laser cut the mirrors. I used Lightburn's rectangle tool to make two 8" by 4.50" rectangles to be the mirrors. BE CAREFUL WHEN LASER CUTTING ACRYLIC. The fumes produce by the acrylic can irritate your lungs and nose so be sure to wear a mask or keep the cover on your laser cutting down (if it has one) when cutting the acrylic.

To begin assembling, I super glued one of the mirrors to the back plate and then super glued the back to the bottom. In one of the side panels, I laser cut a little hole in the back to fit the LEDs through. I then glued that side panel in place and then glued the top on, using the front piece as a guide to make sure it's in the right place.

The LEDs were way too long, so I had to cut them on the copper lines that show where to cut them. I fed the strip through the hole in the side panel and peeled off the sticker liner and stuck it to the side and the top and left the rest hanging until I assembled the rest.

The next step is to glue the bookshelves onto the floor. Then I glued the floor onto the bottom panel.

With the bottom in place, I could glue the other two-way mirror in place by sliding it into the slots I made in the floor and top.

After all of this was assembled, I struggled to get the last side panel on while also sticking the rest of the LED strip on, but got it eventually.

After all the side panels were glued in place, I glued the front piece into its place, and called it good.

And, yes, the energy drink is necessary.

This project was really fun! I enjoyed conquering all of the challenges I face along the way and am very pleased with the final result. Thank you for checking out this Instructables! This project can be adjusted in many ways to fit your own needs or aesthetics.