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s unassuming as these shelves are,

they have many of the featuresthat I like most in furniture.

Theyre lightweight, sturdy and use sim-ple, effective joinery. The design I useevolved partly from childhood memoriesof shelves in our house and partly fromthe built-in storage-shelf system that Inow install in houses. Plastic laminateglued to both sides of medium-densityfiberboard (MDF) or particleboard makesthe shelving stiff. Tight-fitting dado jointsand front and rear uprights at right anglesto each other make the assembly strong

and resistant to racking.

Laminate shelf stock first,

and then cut to sizeI glue the plastic laminate to a sheet of58-in. particleboard or MDF. Melaminecould be a less-expensive and, perhaps,a less-stiff alternative, but I have notused it for my shelves. A cabinet-compo-nent manufacturer is a good source oflaminated stock if you dont want tomake it yourself.

With a new shopmade throat plate inmy tablesaw, I cut the shelves to size us-ing a Forrest Duraline HI-A/T blade madespecifically for cutting double-sided lami-

nated stock (Forrest Manufacturing Co.,

Inc., 461 River Road, Clifton, NJ 07014;800-733-7111). There is virtually no chip-ping on the down side of the shelf stock.

Dado material for corner uprightsI lay out the shelf spacing on a 9-in.-wideoak board. This width will yield four 2-in.-wide upright corner posts with allowancefor kerfs and some cleanup. Using a 12-in.down-shear bit in my router and the jigshown in figure 1 on the facing page, Iplow14-in.-deep dadoes across the full9-in. width. The down-shear bit makes aclean cut, and careful jig constructionyields 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 toproduce uniform finished widths. Finally,I round over the corners and edges.

Assemble shelves and uprightsI now fit the shelf into the dadoes of theupright pieces, so the shelf is flush withthe edge of the upright. I drill through thecorner uprights using a tapered bit andcounterbore. I use a 2-in. particleboard(not drywall) screw to fasten the piecestogether. 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

Shelving, Plain and SimpleStrong, 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.

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

A

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oak plug glued into the counterbore fin-ishes this simple connection.

For the shelf-nosing stock, I plane awide board a hair thicker than the thick-ness of the shelves and cut it to length.On my router table, I round over the endsand edges of this board for the front nos-ing and rip the rounded edge to a 14-in.thickness. I round over this fresh edge on

the router table and rip the next

1

4

-in.piece, alternating between router tableand tablesaw until I have enough nosingfor the job.

I glue and staple the nosing to the shelfedges using a narrow-crown pneumaticstapler. The nosing is applied as shown infigure 2. To me, the effect is a fully nosedshelf let into the uprights. A scraper flush-es the nosing to the shelf surface. Usingdry stock for the nosing guarantees that itwont shrink away from flush later.

By maintaining sharp planer knives andfeeding stock slowly on the router table,

Ive just about eliminated any sanding. Tocomplete the job, I apply a penetrating oilfinish and fill the small wounds left by thestaples with a crayon-type putty stick.

Try different materialsor knockdown constructionI could get very different results by usingthe same basic idea and unusual materi-als. Marble or glass could be epoxied intodadoes in wood or metal uprights, or dif-ferent woods could be used for theshelves and uprights (although Id be

concerned about shrinkage in the shelfthickness, which would reduce the effec-tiveness of the dado joint). For a knock-down version, Id use threaded inserts inthe shelves and machine screws insteadof particleboard screws. Buttons wouldconceal the screws.

Im pleased with the low cost, appear-ance and strength of these unitshappily,so is my wife, who has surrounded herweaving studio with them.

Felix Marti is a designer and builder in

Ridgway, Colo.

July/August 1995 63Drawings: Kathleen Rushton

Fig. 2:Shelf assembly.Align shelves flushwith uprights, as shown,and fasten with aparticleboard screw.A plug covers the screwhead. Glue and staple(or brad) the nosingto cover the raw edgesand dadoes.

End nosingbutts edgeof frontupright,overlaps

joint in rearupright.

Groove aligns jig on stock.

Fig. 1:Router jig ensures tight-fittingjoints. To rout dadoes in stock forcorner uprights, the author buildsa jig to suit the exact shelf thickness.The stock is then ripped to width.

Glue and screwall joints.

Nosing,14 in. thick

90

Dado width equals shelf thickness.

Rip uprightsto width afterall dadoesare routed.

Edges mustbe straightand parallel.

Upright stock

Gap equalsshelf thicknessminus router-bit diameter.

Nosingoverlaps dadoby14 in.

Positioningthe frontand rearuprights,as shown,increasesstability.

Particleboardscrew