Question on adjustable shelving

[gkeas]

I'm helping a friend build some book cases for his wife for Christmas, and we're doing some fairly long spans (36" & 42") so were putting a 1.5" face on the shelves for added support. 

My question is, how much shorter should the shelves be than the inside dimension of the cabinet to insure we can get the shelves in and out easily (we have a face frame on the cabinet, too, or it wouldn't be an issue).  Right now, I allowed 1/8", but I think it might need to be a little more.

Any advice would be welcome.

 

[chrisrosenb]

I allow 1/4" on all adjustable shelves. That is what is required for the shelf brackets I use.

 

[waynelang2001]

Not sure what is in inches but I leave at least 3mm overall from side to side. And at least 10mm from the front because what can sometimes happen is the back of the unit might bow, This will push the shelving forward and if the fit is exact the door wont close anymore.

 

[ThomasC]

Garry,

If everything is square, 1/8" will work. I usually make my adjustable shelves 3/16" shorter (width-wise) than the inside dimension of the carcass if the piece is to be stained. If it is going to be painted - especially with a brush/roller, you may want to give yourself a little more room. Depth-wise, I usually subtract 1/8". If you have trouble installing the shelves with the pins already installed, just take the pins out, put the shelves in one by one, and install the pins under the shelves as you go. Good luck. Post some pictures when you're finished.

TC

 

[gkeas]

Garry,

If everything is square, 1/8" will work. I usually make my adjustable shelves 3/16" shorter (width-wise) than the inside dimension of the carcass if the piece is to be stained. If it is going to be painted - especially with a brush/roller, you may want to give yourself a little more room. Depth-wise, I usually subtract 1/8". If you have trouble installing the shelves with the pins already installed, just take the pins out, put the shelves in one by one, and install the pins under the shelves as you go. Good luck. Post some pictures when you're finished.

TC

I left 2mm for the depth, and 1/8" total for the width, but maybe I'll shave them down a bit (now if I only had a tool that would do this easily....)

 

[Top Knot]

According to a scale drawing in Design Workshop. The shelf will be at its "longest" at about 2.5 degrees at 1.5" thick  . In a 36" unit if the shelf is 37.97" 35.97" it just touches... so be sure to stay below that. I do work in Inches so what ever fraction .97 boils down to is what it should be...

 

[gkeas]

We did a mock-up tonight using the top and bottom from the actual cabinet with dominos and made sure it was square.  The width was great, but after a bit of head scratching, I realized I didn't subtract the depth of the back of the cabinet from the depth of the shelves.  As it turns out, a guide rail laid against the face frame of the shelf will yield EXACTLY the cutoff we need, so it was a good miss.