Materials Needed

  • 4X: 5’ 2”x4”
  • 10’ 2”x2”
  • 3X: door hinges
  • 4X: 36”x24” white boards
  • 4X: 36”x24” cork boards
  • 1.5” wood screws
  • 2X: all purpose adhesive
  • 1X: dark stain with polyurethane
  • 6X: 2” wheels with mounting plates
  • 16’ whitewood pine
  • 12’ ½” square trim
  • 1 Spring
  • 2 small hinges

Tools Needed

  • Router with ¼” and ½” bits
  • Band saw
  • Circular saw
  • Drill with drill bits and Phillips head bit
  • Clamps
  • 2” brushes
  • Caulk gun

Step 1-Readying the boards

  1. Lay out a single white board and a single cork board.
  2. Using the caulk gun and the adhesive, draw a line around the edge of the back of the whiteboard. Fill in the remaining inside area with some adhesive.
  3. Carefully line up the cork board with the edges of the white board and place it onto the back of the whiteboard.
  4. Repeat for the remaining 3 white boards and cork boards.
  5. Let the boards set overnight.

Step 2-Readying the frames

In order to offset the bases enough to give them space to not collide while folding, one of the sets of frames is only going to be routed out 1/8” on either side, while the other is a full 1” deep. The procedure is mostly the same for both sides, but the 1” deep side needs two passes due to the router bit only being ¾” long.

  1. Lay the 2”x4” board with the 4” wide side facing upwards. Clamp this parallel to the side of a table.
  2. Lay another 2”x4” board with the 4” wide side perpendicular to the side you are routing. Clamp this down far enough away from the first board so that when the guard of the router is touching, the router bit is centered on the routing side of the 2”x4”. You can make sure the router is centered by drawing a center line along the length of the 2”x4”.
  3. Using the ½” router bit and router, follow the center line down 49 3/8” using the rig to keep it straight. For the 1/8” deep side, set the router depth to 1/8” deep. For the 1” side, set it to the deepest that the router bit will go and still cut.
  4. Since the 1” side is only ¾” deep, set the router depth 1” and do another pass.
  5. Measure down 24” from the top of each board and mark the outline of the 2”x2” boards which will be the cross members in the frame. Make sure the 2”x2” are centered on the board.
  6. Route out the outlines of the 2”x2” to a depth of 1”, doing multiple passes as before.
  7. For the frames made out of the whitewood pine, cut the tops to size, because one side is longer than the other. After the tops are cut, do the same routing procedure as described in Step 3. The only difference is that the depth will only be ¼” deep.
  8. After the centers of the top supporting frames have been routed out, route out where the side frames are touching the top frames. Route this depth to ½”.

Step 3-Cutting supporting boards and bases

In order to make sure the partition will not fall forwards or backwards while unfolded, simple supports in the form of a triangle will be used to connect the frames and their bases. Since the partition will collapse in half, the outside boards of each frame needs these added bases and supports. To make sure there is no collision when collapsed, the supports can only go as high as the bottom of the white boards. Using a 45-45-90 triangle, the bottom supports need to be 25” long, giving a little less than 12” for either horizontal component of the support.

  1. Cut the 2”x2” into two sections, each 25” using either the band saw or circular saw.
  2. Cut the 2”x2” into four sections, of 12.5” each using either the band saw or circular saw.
  3. Mark a 45° angle on each end of the 12.5” sections, making sure the marks are NOT parallel.
  4. Cut along each mark using the band saw, as the circular saw is unsafe cutting at these close distances.

Step 4-Staining

  1. Sand all of the edges of the boards until slightly rounded and smooth. Make sure there are no splinters on the faces of the boards.
  2. Using the stain and brushes, apply multiple layers to each piece of wood, until the coat is even and dark in color. Let it dry completely.

Step 5-Assembly

  1. With the caulk gun and adhesive, put adhesive in the trenches that have been routed out for the boards.
  2. Place the boards and cross beams into the routed trenches and press them all the way in.
  3. While holding the outside of the frames together, put a screw into both sides of the cross beam.
  4. Attach the bases and supports to the side that was routed out 1/8”.
  5. On the 1” side, attach the bases as done on the opposite side, but cut the bottom support on the whiteboard side. Hinge this to the rest of the bottom support and hinge the angled portion of the support to the vertical part of the frame.
  6. Cut a 3” portion of the ½” square trim and angle 2” of it to 15. Attach this to the inside of the bottom support with the angled face towards the hinge.
  7. Using the eyebolt and hook, attach the spring on the inside of the boards.
  8. Cut the trim to the inside of the frames, along the bottom of the top whiteboard’s tray. Cut the whitewood to the same length on both sides. Place the trim underneath the 2”x2” and resting alongside the top of the bottom whiteboard. Screw the whitewood flat against the 2”x2” so that the trim is bracing the top of the bottom whiteboard’s frame.
  9. On the back of each board, screw the whitewood planks flush against the 2”x2” cross beam.
  10. Attach the 6 wheels, two on each side of the bottom supports and one on each of the central posts.
  11. Sand down any areas where wood may have been raised after the screws went in.