Shelving, Plain and Simple.pdf

Shelving, Plain and Simple

Strong, versatile and easy to make,

these shelf units use inexpensive materials

by M. Felix Marti

Front and rear uprights, ori-

ented at right angles to each oth-

er, provide lateral stability.

Inc., 461 River Road, Clifton, NJ 07014;

800-733-7111). There is virtually no chip-

ping on the down side of the shelf stock.

A versatile design for a variety of uses. These shelves can be sized to fit any location.

Dado material for corner uprights

I lay out the shelf spacing on a 9-in.-wide

oak board. This width will yield four 2-in.-

wide upright corner posts with allowance

for kerfs and some cleanup. Using a 1 ⁄ 2 -in.

down-shear bit in my router and the jig

shown in figure 1 on the facing page, I

plow 1 ⁄ 4 -in.-deep dadoes across the full

9-in. width. The down-shear bit makes a

clean cut, and careful jig construction

yields a dado so tight I have to tap the up-

rights onto the shelf stock. Then I rip this

board into pieces a little wider than 2 in.,

which I feed on edge through a planer to

produce uniform finished widths. Finally,

I round over the corners and edges.

s unassuming as these shelves are,

they have many of the features

that I like most in furniture.

They’re lightweight, sturdy and use sim-

ple, effective joinery. The design I use

evolved partly from childhood memories

of shelves in our house and partly from

the built-in storage-shelf system that I

now install in houses. Plastic laminate

glued to both sides of medium-density

fiberboard (MDF) or particleboard makes

the shelving stiff. Tight-fitting dado joints

and front and rear uprights at right angles

to each other make the assembly strong

and resistant to racking.

Laminate shelf stock first,

and then cut to size

I glue the plastic laminate to a sheet of

5 ⁄ 8 -in. particleboard or MDF. Melamine

could be a less-expensive and, perhaps,

a less-stiff alternative, but I have not

used it for my shelves. A cabinet-compo-

nent manufacturer is a good source of

laminated stock if you don’t want to

make it yourself.

With a new shopmade throat plate in

my tablesaw, I cut the shelves to size us-

ing a Forrest Duraline HI-A/T blade made

specifically for cutting double-sided lami-

nated stock (Forrest Manufacturing Co.,

Assemble shelves and uprights

I now fit the shelf into the dadoes of the

upright pieces, so the shelf is flush with

the edge of the upright. I drill through the

corner uprights using a tapered bit and

counterbore. I use a 2-in. particleboard

(not drywall) screw to fasten the pieces

together. The deeper thread of the parti-

cleboard screw makes a strong joint. An

62 Fine Woodworking

Photo at left: author; photo at right: Alec Waters

Fig. 1:

Router jig ensures tight-fitting

joints. To rout dadoes in stock for

corner uprights, the author builds

a jig to suit the exact shelf thickness.

The stock is then ripped to width.

Gap equals

shelf thickness

minus router-

bit diameter.

Dado width equals shelf thickness.

oak plug glued into the counterbore fin-

ishes this simple connection.

For the shelf-nosing stock, I plane a

wide board a hair thicker than the thick-

ness of the shelves and cut it to length.

On my router table, I round over the ends

and edges of this board for the front nos-

ing and rip the rounded edge to a 1 ⁄ 4 -in.

thickness. I round over this fresh edge on

the router table and rip the next 1 ⁄ 4 -in.

piece, alternating between router table

and tablesaw until I have enough nosing

for the job.

I glue and staple the nosing to the shelf

edges using a narrow-crown pneumatic

stapler. The nosing is applied as shown in

figure 2. To me, the effect is a fully nosed

shelf let into the uprights. A scraper flush-

es the nosing to the shelf surface. Using

dry stock for the nosing guarantees that it

won’t shrink away from flush later.

By maintaining sharp planer knives and

feeding stock slowly on the router table,

I’ve just about eliminated any sanding. To

complete the job, I apply a penetrating oil

finish and fill the small wounds left by the

staples with a crayon-type putty stick.

Upright stock

Glue and screw

all joints.

Edges must

be straight

and parallel.

90°

Groove aligns jig on stock.

Rip uprights

to width after

all dadoes

are routed.

Try different materials

or knockdown construction

I could get very different results by using

the same basic idea and unusual materi-

als. Marble or glass could be epoxied into

dadoes in wood or metal uprights, or dif-

ferent woods could be used for the

shelves and uprights (although I’d be

concerned about shrinkage in the shelf

thickness, which would reduce the effec-

tiveness of the dado joint). For a knock-

down version, I’d use threaded inserts in

the shelves and machine screws instead

of particleboard screws. Buttons would

conceal the screws.

I’m pleased with the low cost, appear-

ance and strength of these units—happily,

so is my wife, who has surrounded her

weaving studio with them.

Fig. 2:

Shelf assembly.

Align shelves flush

with uprights, as shown,

and fasten with a

particleboard screw.

A plug covers the screw

head. Glue and staple

(or brad) the nosing

to cover the raw edges

and dadoes.

Positioning

the front

and rear

uprights,

as shown,

increases

stability.

Nosing,

1 ⁄ 4 in. thick

End nosing

butts edge

of front

upright,

overlaps

joint in rear

upright.

Nosing

overlaps dado

by 1 ⁄ 4 in.

Particleboard

screw

Felix Marti is a designer and builder in

Ridgway, Colo.

Drawings: Kathleen Rushton

July/August 1995 63

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: