SUSTAINABLE SHELVING

ME270 Course Project · UIUC ·

Skills used: CAD, design for manufacturing (DFM), additive manufacturing, material selection, sustainability analysis, load testing, technical drawing, bill of materials, lifecycle costing.

In engineering, it is easy to overcomplicate, adding features and material until the design pulls focus from what the project is actually about. This shelf was designed in the opposite direction, giving a broken or worn-out skateboard a second life by stepping back and letting the board be the centerpiece. A simple pair of 3D-printed brackets holds the deck at a slight angle, displaying its graphic underside while keeping it functional. That simplicity is also where the sustainability lives: fewer parts mean less material, less print time, and less energy spent making something new, while the most important component in the assembly is the one that was already going to be thrown away. The result is a shelf anyone can print and assemble at low cost, that keeps a meaningful object out of the landfill, and that proves restraint can be a design choice in itself.

Phase 1: Problem & Concept. Skateboards break or chip and usually get thrown out or hung on a wall as dead decoration. Designed a slightly slanted shelf that mounts a board to display the graphic underside while keeping it useful as a shelf.

Phase 2: Manufacturing Research. Compared forging, casting, injection molding, and sheet-metal forming for the bracket. Chose additive manufacturing for cost, accessibility, and the ability to print at high infill for the strength a wall shelf needs.

Phase 3: Bracket Design. Iterated through bracket geometries including a simple L-shape, working around the 0.5–0.8 in skateboard thickness range. Optimized for 3D printability with no required supports, and set 80% infill to balance strength against print time and material cost.

Phase 4: CAD & Documentation. Built the CAD assembly, generated dimensioned engineering drawings, and produced a bill of materials covering the PLA filament, wall screws, and reclaimed skateboard.

Phase 5: Load & Sustainability Analysis. Tested shelf deflection across 0–50 lb to characterize stiffness. Ran a material-recovery analysis comparing the repurposed-skateboard route against equivalent new-build shelving to quantify the sustainability gain.

Outcome. An open-source, low-cost shelf design anyone can 3D print and assemble, with documented load capacity and a clear sustainability case. The project reinforced the value of choosing simplicity over complexity when the function allows it.