Shelf unit
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This is one of the pieces I made while on the course at the castle. I got around to putting some finish on it (shellac & wax) last weekend, then hung it in the kitchen this afternoon. Really pleased with how it looks. My wife has a load of stuff to put on it already, so it won’t be bare for long!
To hang it, I took two pieces of 40mm pieces of 12mm diameter dowel, drilled a 4mm diameter hole through all the way through the middle, countersunk one end and put an 80mm long screw through the hole. I then reduced the diameter of the dowel a little using a chisel and bored a 10mm diameter hole in each side piece of the shelves. Drilled two holes in the wall, put in plugs, then screwed the screw + dowel into the wall so there was 40mm in the wall, and 40mm of screw + dowel poking out. Put some wax on the dowel, then pushed the shelf unit onto the wall, so the holes in the sides lined up with the dowel. Feels rock solid and will take some effort to get it off again!
No doubt an over-engineered hanging system but the simple hole + screw system Paul used in the book seemed a bit flimsy/boring for me!
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
George your self unit looks great, nice job. I will eventually build one or two of those myself one day. I like the design and would be perfect for my Wifes Bell and Snow Globes she has collected over the years.
Thanks for sharing !
Steve
Steve Massie, I live in the great State of Florida, US
Thanks Steve! It’s a great exercise in making housing dados.
I’ve attached a photo of the screw/dowel contraption in case I didn’t communicate anything clearly. This is what gets screwed into the wall. If anyone else does this, my tips would be to keep the dowel held in the vise while making the whole thing, make sure the grain direction of the dowel is correct to stop it splitting (parallel to the vise jaws), use an awl before boring the hole through the middle to make sure you’re as close to the center as possible, and don’t drive the screw any further than necessary or the dowel will split. It probably doesn’t need to be anywhere near 40mm long but that’s what’s worked for me.
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
Nice shelf unit George , that sounds like a secure method you have used for attaching it to the wall Good Job
Wigan, Lancs. England :
Well done George! I really like this design of shelf unit. Thanks for adding the info on your hanging method.
http://hillbillydaiku.com
nice job george
"we can learn what to do, by doing" Aristotle
I guess I went to his class before he switched to the bigger shelf.
I distressed mine and my wife had some stuff she wanted to put on it.
Hi,
Thanks for the photos and info. I’m about to build one similar to yours but smaller (about 36″ tall by 27″ wide overall), and it’ll be used in the kitchen to hold glass jars filled with things like nuts, seeds, tea leaves. I was wondering, how load-bearing would you consider the bottom shelf to be? I ask because the housing dado is in the same direction as the load on that shelf. Thanks! and nice work.
Sorry, Mexiquite, I completely missed your post. Nice work! I really like the distressed look.
Thanks for the other feedback too, guys.
Juan, I wouldn’t be confident putting anything too heavy on the bottom shelf. It’s just glue, on a long grain to end grain joint. It’s a 1/4″ deep housing so there are some long grain to long grain surfaces but I don’t have the experience to know if it’ll hold much weight so I’m playing it safe! You could always put some screws through the bottom and plug the holes like Paul did when he attached the bottom frame to the tool chest carcass but you’ll be fine putting jars and nic-nacs on it if your joinery is tight. Personally (and perhaps unnecessarily), I wouldn’t be confident loading it with books though.
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
George I like it. I know just the place I could use one of those!
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
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