Laundry Room Cabinet

[Jim Koepke]

For a project being planned for SWMBO, this was asked in the design forum with only one respondent saying he did not understand the idea.

So here it is presented again.

My wife wants me to build some cabinets for the laundry room.
She wants to have six feet of shelves made of pine. She says she is going to paint them, but it may be awhile before she does.

My experience with pine is that six feet is a bit long to avoid shelf sag without breaking it into two boxes or having some kind of center support.

I have been wondering about using a single board divider in the center and having the two shelves at the bottom dovetailed into the single riser from either side. This would allow for the bottom to look flat instead of having some hang down if dados were used. Besides, my fear is that dados on both sides of the board might compromise the strength.

The tails would be on the vertical piece and the pins would be on the bottom shelves on either side.

My question is would it work better to have every other pin on each shelf or to have half pins share the sockets?

Has anyone heard of or done such a thing?

Any reason why it wouldn't work?

Any experience, thoughts or better ideas on this?

Thanks for any help,

jim

[Eric Brown]

Some considerations about your shelves. What is the load weight going to be. (Heavy? Light?). Are you going to have a back on it? If so you could put some dados in and support the back edge of each shelf. For even more support you could add some gussets or a front lip on the shelves

Eric.

[Jim Becker]

In addition to thoughts already expressed, I'd suggest that if these truly are going to be painted, pine isn't the best choice because of the extra prep work you'll need to do in order to avoid bleed through of resins, etc. While I typically dye yellow poplar, it's an excellent choice for this kind of project for painting, has a little more strength than pine and is still easily worked.

[Alan DuBoff]

Jim,

You have 6 feet, put a support under the shelf 1.5' in from each side, 3' in the center. Even pine will hold well over 3'.

[Jim Koepke]

Eric, Jim, Alan Thanks for the advice.

I am not sure what gussets are.

My wife does not want a back on the unit. I am likely going to have support pieces along the back under each shelf to mount it to the wall.

I will also likely make a front frame for the unit. That may be after the unit is installed so it can get put into use sooner. Eventually it will also have doors.

We are using pine, because that is what we have and it is about the cheapest wood here. I think it was about $0.65 bf.

I have used KD pine a lot and it seems to stain and paint well if you keep away from the boards full of pitch.

The loading will likely be moderate. Just a place to keep some things out of the way.

jim

[Eric Brown]

A gusset is simply a a small board that fills a corner giving it strength. Nothing complicated.

Another idea for you is to cut a notch at the back edge of each board in the middle and insert a vertical board. This would tie the shelves together and make them stronger.
Any reduction of thickness on the bottom board, for a dado or dovetail, will make it weaker.

Keep asking, your bound to find a solution.

Eric

[Ron Petley]

If it is along shelf a facing glued onto the front of the shelf adds support, and makes the shelf look a little nicer. One on the back also adds more support, but less typical, or one in the middle. If your board/ shelf is 3/4" thick a 1" facing would do.
I would think the basic dado bottom is good as I have made a lot like this, a 1 1/2" below the bottom is typical.
Cheers Ron