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Building a bookshelf

SoKlueles

I love Mava
Platinum
I want to build a bookshelf and buy my own wood and everything, I have a million books that are in tubs in my closet.....and thats no place for them! I thought about buying one at walmart or somewhere but I think it may be just as cheap buying the materials and building it myself. My dad has a crap load of saws and stuff to start on my bookshelf, exactly what do i need? brackets or what?
 
Materials - Wood, screws, sand paper, wood stain and maybe some glue
Tools - Saw, measuring tape, work surface.

Draw plans with measurements.
Measure wood, cut wood, and sand wood.
Drill holes for wood screws.
Put it together piece by piece.
Sand with finer grain sand paper, then stain it.

You got a very simple book shelf...
 
SoKlueles said:
You should come teach me how:)
but otherwise thanks buddy:)
If I lived in Tenn, I would...but it would cost ya ;)
If you want to do this, and you got questions, PM or email me.
It's really not hard. Also, you might find some bookshelf
building tutorials with pics on google...
 
I threw three together last year; didn't save a whole lot of money but they're bigger than the store-bought equivalent would have been, so that's a successful tradeoff. Good wood -- wood that is straight and isn't full of knotholes -- is not cheap these days. The cheap stuff has gotten pretty bad.

Design: a big box with cleats (small rectangles of wood) for each shelf to rest on. Put it together with long wood screws, not nails. Trick is to start with the corners square and brace it (bigger cleats at the corners) so it doesn't slump over sideways before you get the shelves in.
If the shelves are so long that they might sag in the middle, you may want to run a rail under the back of the shelf to give it extra support. A shelf supported on three sides should be able to hold a lot.

The expensive way to keep it square is to put a complete back on it, but that could double the cost. (And the Mrs. said "NO pressboard. Nothing but real wood.") So ours have an open back. There's a rail at the top OUTSIDE to keep it the same distance from the wall as the molding at floor level. Find a stud in the wall, screw the rail into it so the sucker doesn't fall over on you.

Raw wood isn't good for books, so you will want to put some kind of finish on it eventually.
 
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