DIY wall panel consists of several flat geometrical surfaces laser-cut out from plywood of different thickness and glued together. The screw nuts are fixed in place in-between layers.
It may be used as a playground for kids, provided you consider your children safety first. It is your decision. Kids appreciate that they can play with real adult stuff, not toys. Matching tool types with screw head types and screw sizes with nut sizes is great for improving cognitive skills. Using tools with different handles and with different screwing and unscrewing motion types is great for the general dexterity and eye-hand connection development for young children. But I don't recommend that you use this design as a toy for children.
The grid in the panel is 20x20 resulting in 400 screw slots. There are 200 M8 screw slots and 200 M10 screw slots randomly permuted.
The outer dimensions of the panel are 595x595 (in mm), the total thickness is 38 mm.
I uploaded my realization photos. If you do it yourself, make sure to upload or share with me your realization photos, too.
You will need 200 M8 (8 mm thread) and 200 M10 (10 mm thread) screw nuts at the assembly stage of the panel. The M8 screw nuts I use are 6 mm thick and the M10 screw nuts I use are 8 mm thick, that is why 2 layers of 4 mm plywood are needed as a support for them (read the EXPLANATION at the end for a further discussion). If you can't buy 8 mm thick M10 screw nuts and <8 mm thick M8 screw nuts, you should reconsider all dimensions in the panel and also the recommended dimensions for the screws.
To diversify the experience, use a variety of screws. Some of them should match M8 nuts (8 mm thread), some should match M10 nuts (10 mm thread).
I recommend using screws with a thread not longer than 35 mm, to avoid piercing a wall behind the panel. Other than that, to enable mounting object of different sizes to the panel, screws should be of different lengths, actually some should be longer than 35 mm, provided the thread-proper is not longer than 35 mm.
To avoid danger of suffocation (if you decide to use the design provided, against my recommendation, as a toy for children) you should not be using screws shorter than 35 mm, either, or any screws that you consider too small. In this case, obviously, your children safety is more important than the wall behind the panel and it is you who are ultimately responsible for your children safety.
I recommend using screws with various sizes and types of heads. I recommend the semicircular and cylindrical headed screws of the following types:
- ampoule 5 mm
- ampoule 6 mm
- ampoule 8 mm
- torx 40
- hexagonal head (size 13, for 8 mm thread screws matching M8 nuts)
- hexagonal head (size 17, for 10 mm thread screws matching M10 nuts)
Mix and match the screw head types with their thread width and their length for maximal variety.
To match the various screw heads, I recommend the following tools:
- ampoule wrench of 5 mm (I recommend the bent standalone wrench without a handle which can be used as a wrench and as a screwdriver, too)
- ampoule wrench of 6 mm (I recommend the bent standalone wrench without a handle which can be used as a wrench and as a screwdriver, too)
- ampoule wrench of 8 mm (I recommend the bent standalone wrench without a handle which can be used as a wrench and as a screwdriver, too)
- torx 40 screwdriver
- hexagonal wrench size 13
- hexagonal wrench size 17
I recommend using a wood glue for gluing plywood. It is usually a (relatively) safe adhesive. Choose the safest brand.
- The frame consists of 2 layers of 12 mm thick plywood (2 x file: design_PDFs/12mm_frame.pdf). Glue them together. The thickness of the frame is 24 mm.
- The panel proper consists of 3 mm inner layer (1 x file: design_PDFs/3mm_inner_layer.pdf), followed by 2 layers of 4 mm thickness (2 x file: design_PDFs/4mm_layer.pdf) with holes for the screw nut grid, followed by the outer layer of 3 mm (1 x file: design_PDFs/3mm_outer_layer.pdf). Glue all of them together, but before you glue the outer 3 mm layer, press the 400 screw nuts into their slots! The thickness of the panel proper is 14 mm.
- Glue the frame with the panel proper. The thickness of the panel with frame is 38 mm.
- Mount the panel on your wall with 4 mounting screws. The frame should be facing your wall, the panel proper should be facing yourself. As the thing is quite heavy, consider using at least 8 mm wall plugs.
- As your kids might get the idea to unmount the panel from the wall, you might consider masking the 4 mounting screw heads with silicone.
- Let your family draw with crayons, pens, etc. on the mounted panel. Actually, they will draw and paint on it in all assembly steps. Have fun!
EXPLANATION: The unique reason I chose to use 2 layers of 4 mm for a grid, not one 8 mm layer, is that the laser cutting workshop I work with doesn't cut in 8 mm plywood. They cut in 3, 4, 6 and 12 mm plywood only.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT recommend this design as a toy for children. On the other hand, it would be great for their cognitive skills, dexterity and eye-hand connection. It is you who know your children best. Please carefully think if my recommendations for tools, glue, screws and nuts are adequate for your children, considering their age, abilities, danger of suffocation and so on, before you make your decision. Ultimately, it is you who are responsible for your children safety. If you decide, against my recommendation, to provide your children with this wall panel as a toy, make sure you supervise your children playing with it at all times and do not leave your child with the panel, screws nor tools unattended.