Whiskey the Maker

I managed to finish my "Better than Ikea" shelving! 

Today I brought the 8 foot shelf plank outside, notched the dadoes so the plank would sit on the brackets, but still leave a 1/4" between the shelf and the wall (so my lamp cord could fit through) - I then had to power-plane the edges down, square everything up, and hit the whole thing with my sander. 

Oh and a final touch, I took my mini-finishing plane and gave all the edges a little chamfer, to make everything fit in.

As you can see, they hold a LOT of boxes (I can also add another row on top of each set of two, but that's a little overkill) - they are very sturdy, look nice, simple, and clean.

A little more detail to the modifications I made to my "better than Ikea" shelf yesterday...

The "Better Than Ikea" shelf project continues...

This time I worked on the shorter 4-foot-long section of the shelf.

The spacing of the wall studs/brackets in this case was 32 inches (center-to-center) - The distance from the left bracket to the corner of the wall was 4 feet. 

I had to first cut the two dados so the bracket/brace arms could notch into the shelves. The dados (dadoes?) had to be hand cut with a circular saw, and then filed out to get them clean. I used my japanese pull-saw to cut a 5/8th inch notch out of the dados as well, so the shelf could sit flush against the wall.

After that was all said and done, I had to chisel out the remaining waste from one of the notches, and then I power planed / jointed the edge faces to narrow the depth to the correct measurement (and to square the edges, since I don't like the roundover that's used on framing lumber)

The moment of truth came, and I had to test fit the shelf. It was tight, but fit well. I added the screws to hold the shelf to the brackets, and that job is now done! 

The beginnings of my 'better than Ikea' shelf project...

I started out with some Ikea shelf brackets (Ekby brackets)... and one thing that irked me is Ikea does not sell good shelving material, and its either too short, or not quite long enough. (Common stud spacing in walls is 16" center-to-center)... 

I had a long wall that was in need of some storage. So I measured out the studs, and came to 8' wide, using only 3 brackets/braces for the shelf. Well, 8' is a long span to cover. So I had to run down to Home Depot and grab some 2x12x14 framing lumber (just one piece). That was fun getting home in a Toyota Echo... :|

I got it home, hacked it down to 98"... and did a dry fit on the brackets. I drew in where I needed to make the dado cuts, took it all outside, and had to hand-cut my dados using a circular saw with a standard blade. Also not fun.

I got it mounted back up onto the brackets, and I like the way it fits, the dados were perfect, it recesses the brackets into the shelf... and it's VERY sturdy. 

Now I need to take some of the 'width' of the board off (from 11 1/2" down to maybe 10-ish inches.) That way the shelf sits better on the brackets, and also I can square up the edges. 

Yesterday was finishing day. Applied a satin, rub on polyurethane finish.