Shelf Making and Installation
Installing Shelves
There never
seems to be enough shelves in the garage, workshop, or
basement. Buying shelving brackets can be expensive and are
usually of poor quality and cumbersome to install. More
often than not store bought brackets do not support the
shelving. The easy solution is a DIY project of shelf making
and installation. Making storage shelves is an easy DIT
project. Making the wooden shelving brackets to support the
shelves is also just as easy. Shelves and brackets can be
made using standard shop tools and scrap wood. I usually use
¾ inch strapping to make shelving brackets. It’s adequate to
support most any shelf and easy to work with. The bracket
illustrated in Fig 1 is for a 12 inch by 48 inch shelf. It
can be expanded in size to meet any shelving requirement.
Making The Shelving Brackets:
Take three pieces of
strapping, cut to length and glued and screwed together using 1
and1/2 inch sheetrock screws. The horizontal and vertical pieces are
joined by a piece cut at a forty five degree angle on each end. The
bracket is mounted to the wall by pre-drilling two holes in each
bracket and screwed to the studs using 2 inch sheetrock screws, see
Fig 2.
The top shelf
is made
from ¾ inch pine and is screwed to the brackets with 1 and ½ inch
sheetrock screws. If you want a shelf that is longer than 48 inches
you may want to use additional brackets as necessary to support the
shelf and the items that are intended to be placed upon it. I
recommend that a bracket be placed at least every 32 inches, or on
every other wall stud.
Installing
The Shelf:
-
Locate the studs and mark their locations on the wall.
-
Using a level draw a level line on the wall to
mount the brackets.
-
Align the bracket on the level line over the stud
locations.
-
Mount the brackets using 2 inch sheet rock screws
in at least two points. If you plan to store heavy
objects on the shelf use three mounting screws.
-
Place the shelf board on top of the brackets and secure
with 1 and 1/2 inch screws.
That is all there is to it. You can increase
your storage capacity quite easily by making your own shelving
brackets and install your own shelving.
Typical Shelving In The Garage
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