Shaker style record cabinet

Hey all


I’m thinking of building a piece and would love some feedback.


It is a shaker style cabinet for a large collection of 45s. The dimensions of the case would be 40” x 60”x 8” with a base slightly larger.


I’m considering a few different construction methods for the case. I have a df500 which would be the easiest, or pinned rabbets and dados are the two joinery methods I’m most considering.


The base would be constructed with half-blind dovetails and the typical shaker arches cut away. Reinforced with some secondary where needed. I’m not above using screws.


I’d like to use cherry wood.


My concern is strength. Records are heavy. I’d estimate 300lbs of records as the load. This will be free standing. Should I consider flipping the dimensions? 60 wide and 40 tall? I’ve seen similarly tall bookcases and they seem to stay upright. Although I’ve built a lot of shelving units that have turned legs or where the bottom of the case directly meets the ground, I haven’t used this type of base before. I’m wondering what the common consensus is on weight limitations for a design such as this.

I’ve attached a photo of my inspiration.


Please critique! and give opinions/advice if necessary.


Thanks!

So you're worried about the weight. What's the effect of the weight? Well, it might make the bottom of the case sag. To reduce that, make the span less. That is, make the cabinet 40" wide by 60" tall.

I'm wondering what you're going to do about drawer slides. Full-extension slides would be good, so you can see the entire bunch of records in a drawers. My default slides are undermount, but they're not available in 8" length. I think that gets you to sidemount slides. Or you could make the cabinet deeper so you can use 12" undermounts.

If you make the cabinet 60" tall and 8" deep, I'd tie it to the wall. Okay, maybe you don't have earthquakes in Brooklyn, but still I'd hate to be in front of 300 pounds if it does decide to fall forward.

I'm envisioning these drawers as bins, with the records standing on edge so you can flip through them. Here's something I did back when I had records.... When you stand records on edge like that, and you don't fill the bin entirely, the stack of records tends to slump down flat in the bin. A fix is to corrugate the drawer bottom. Use the table saw to make shallow kerfs perhaps a sixteenth deep space a sixteenth apart. The stack of records leans against the back of the drawer, and doesn't slump down. It is also useful to put an angled back in the bin so the record stack has something to lean against.

The 8" depth seems extremely shallow, making the cabinet very prone to tipping, even with a slightly deeper base. I certainly wouldn't build it that depth without tying it to the wall as Jamie suggested.

At that depth, the drawers wouldn't really function as drawers - they'd just be "boxes" that you would remove completely from the cabinet to find the record you're looking for. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you intended. You would want to position drawer runners so that the sides of your drawers don't rub on the stretchers.

I don't see anything wrong with floating tenon joinery on this. Cherry is wonderful wood, and common in Shaker style furniture. I'd probably use something less expensive for the drawer boxes.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I did a poor job in my OP. This will actually not have any drawers. The 45s will be exposed. So no issue there.

My real concerns are, like you both mentioned, tipping. Unfortunately this can’t be attached to the wall. I’m making it for someone and they some nice old wall paper they aren’t willing to put holes in. I could suggest we go with a bit more depth but I have a feeling they will want the records close flush with the front. My second concern is with sagging if I were to flip the dimensions. A tall case is also what is wanted by the future owner, so this is my real issue to work out. I have made a record shelf for 12” that had a groove cut and then fitted with a 1/8” strip of ash to work as a stop. I could do that here with a deeper case, but I kind of worry about all the weight then being concentrated on the front of the unit, making it even more prone to tipping forward. Is that crazy?

Hunh? No drawers? How is this going to work? How are you going to see the rear records? Maybe a sketch of your idea would help.

Typically records are stored spine out, like books. Unless you’re in a store, where they are displayed cover out for easy browsing.
Sorry! I should’ve added that detail from the start.

I’m remembering 45s coming in paper sleeves. They had no spine so to speak. You had to look at the face to know what the record was. No?

Most of us store them alphabetically and by genre. Some keep then in cardboard boxes or those old 7” holders. This person doesn’t want to do that. When you have 1000+ its really the only way that makes sense. Many do come with covers, and anything pressed between the mid 70s and now very likely do.
If you are familiar with your collection and working with vinyl in general its pretty easy to find what you’re looking for.

Anyways, to get away from the discussion of faces out vs spine out, here is a rendering. As you can see it is basically a classic shaker style bookcase, maybe a bit more minimal than a typical example. My main concern is the face that it will be tippy. If the case is 8" deep, the base will be at least 1.5"-2" larger, which will give it a slight bit more stability but still a kinda worrisome. I'm extra concerned because this is going to the 6th floor in 1900s era apartment building in Queens. It is a beautiful history building, but being so it has all original flooring. I'm sure it is sloped not insignificantly towards the middle of the room. I may have to shim it level too much to go with my original idea of just shimming it towards the wall ever so slightly.

I will correct my earlier comment. A typical 7" weighs around 40grams. So even if it stores a couple thousand on this shelf, it would be less than I previous estimated. I'm no longer worried much around sag after consulting the sagulator. The only real concern is tipping. As stated before I'm a newb when it comes to this type of cabinetry so I don't fully understand proportions when it comes to base size vs case size.

One detail not significant to the this issue is that I plan to use ship lapping for the back. Most likely white pine.

Attachment 462771

An issue with loose shims is that over time they may get lost. They also might not look good. Instead, consider leg levelers. These are screw jacks built in to the furniture. They'll always stay with the furniture. And if you're careful with the design, they won't be too obvious and ugly. You can buy commercial leg levelers of many different shapes and styles. You can also build your own.

You don't have to put leg levelers on all four feet. You can just put them on the rear feet. You make the rear feet a bit short, so that on a flat floor you'd have to jack up the rear to get the furniture to stand level.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton

An issue with loose shims is that over time they may get lost. They also might not look good. Instead, consider leg levelers. These are screw jacks built in to the furniture. They'll always stay with the furniture. And if you're careful with the design, they won't be too obvious and ugly. You can buy commercial leg levelers of many different shapes and styles. You can also build your own.

You don't have to put leg levelers on all four feet. You can just put them on the rear feet. You make the rear feet a bit short, so that on a flat floor you'd have to jack up the rear to get the furniture to stand level.

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That's a good point! I like your idea of levelers, and of making the back slightly shorter. I think I could potentially hide the hardware in the corners of the base joinery. I'm also thinking to make the back portion of the base full width across the back so that I can screw it to the wall at the baseboard. They don't want any holes in their wallpaper since it is a rare find but holes in a painted baseboard shouldn't be a problem. Do you think this would be sufficient to stabilize against tipping? It's an old building with original 8-10" moulding.

Okay, so they won't let you bolt the thing to the wall. How about bolting it to the floor?