Custom Wood and Cable Shelves

From Zanecorpwiki

Contents 1 Goal 2 Overview 3 Materials and Tools 4 Steps 4.1 Basic Shelves 4.2 Route for Bracing 4.3 Adapting Brackets 5 Considerations 5.1 Bracing 5.2 Bracket Adaption

Goal

Easy to build, attractive custom length shelving.

Overview

Use cable mounting to hang well finished boards. Clean, modern look. Shelves with longer runs will require a simple brace. Use partial rabbet to attach smaller brackets to thicker boards.

Materials and Tools

• boards; I use 6' (l) x 7 1/4 (w) x 3/4 (thick) aspen pine (6x8x1 nominal) in the exemplar project
• cable brackets; available in 3/8-1/2 and 5/8-3/4 (TODO: provide link)
• circular saw
• sandpaper
• random orbit sander (optional)
• stain (optional) and seal or paint; I use linseed oil (TODO: reference)

You may also need:

• 6'(l) x 1 1/2 (w) x 3/4 (thick) (6x2x1 nominal) boards; for bracing
• Wood glue (Elmer's white); for bracing
• router and router table; for bracing and/or bracket fitting

Steps

Basic Shelves

Basic shelves are unbraced, and use pre-fitted brackets. I don't have hard guidelines for when a shelf requires bracing, but I'd recommend bracing any non-laminate board.

1. Measure for length of shelves. You'll want the brackets to inset at least an inch and preferably a little more from the edge of the board. If space requires the brackets be mounted flush to the edge, consider capping the edge to keep the bracket from sliding off.
2. Cut shelf boards to length.
3. Brace as necessary/desired.
4. Finish and hang.

Route for Bracing

1. Route a channel (dado) through the board. For longer boards, this will probably require two people to keep everything straight and stable... unless you have a really nice woodworking table, in which case you probably don't need me to be telling you any if this. (TODO: picture)
2. Route the partial rabbets to fit the brackets, if necessary.
3. Sand the top and side surfaces before assembly; it's much easier that way. Don't bother with anything but rough sanding on the ends, you'll want to make them flush with the brace.
4. Glue and clamp the brace to the shelf:
   1. Determine how many clams you'll want. I like to clamp every 8-9.
   2. Get two clean scrap bits of wood to act as buffer between the clamp and the brace/shelf.
   3. Lay out the clamps and buffer bits at the appropriate points. Always clamp both ends! (TODO: picture)
   4. Lay a thin to moderate bead of glue along the entire channel. Stop about a quarter of inch from the ends with a period. (TODO: picture)
   5. Place brace in channel, aligning edge of brace to shelf.
   6. Push brace into channel. Ideally, the fit will be too tight to push the brace all the way down. For longer boards, you most likely won't be able to get the entire brace in.
   7. Starting at one end, attach first clamp (don't forget to use buffer scraps between clamp and work), tighten lightly. Attach second clamp and tighten till the brace has been pushed into the channel an equal depth.
   8. Continue along length of board till all clamps are attached and the brace is into the channel 1/8-1/4 along the entire length.
   9. Return to first and tighten till the clamp starts to push the brace into the channel 1/8 or so. Keep checking alignment to make sure brace stays flush with shelf. The second clam will now be a little loose, tighten, and move down the line.
   10. Repeat till the brace is fully into the channel along the entire length.
   11. Fully hand tighten all clamps.
   12. Check along the channel and at ends for where the glue may have been pushed out of the channel.
5. Sand the edges flush.

Adapting Brackets

The cable system uses small brackets to hold the board in place. If the board is thicker than than the brackets will allow, one can route a rabbet in the shelf to fit the smaller bracket to a larger board.

1. Determine the depth of the rabbet. This will be the difference between the depth of the board and the depth of the bracket.
2. Set up and route the rabbets according to the general instructions.
3. You may either route short rabbets in each corner, or route a rabbet for the full length of the board. I generally prefer the former. If doing corner rabbets, you'll be able to route the a front and corner back straight. The other two will have to be dropped routed.

Considerations

Bracing

The primary reason to brace a board is to prevent bowing. A cable shelf is supported near the edges. The unsupported center will tend to sag under any non-trivial weight.

Weight isn't the only thing that can cause wood to sag or change shape. Wood is an organic material and interacts with the environment. Even well prepped and sealed wood will change over time. Especially single boards, because they lack any counter forces within the structure.

Bracing the wood, as described here, will prevent bowing of the board. Bowing is the most likely and dramatic deformation to expect. I would brace any non-laminate board in this kind of application, but then I often overbuild so take that with a grain of salt.

Bracket Adaption

3/4 pre-finished boards are generally the best choice. It's got decent thickness, and 3/4 brackets are available so that adaption is not necessary. If a thicker board is desired, or your cabling system uses smaller brackets, you can still adapt the thicker board for use with the thinner brackets.

In my case, I'd actually purchased both 1/2 from The Container Store, then found 3/4 brackets online. By the time I actually started the project, I'd forgotten that I'd purchased both and happened to grab the 1/2 brackets, so ended up unnecessarily adapting my 3/4 boards.

Don't do that.