Space, the next frontier

From: Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
Date: Fri May 21 22:20:43 1999

On Fri, 21 May 1999, Allison J Parent wrote:

> As someone that has done considerable wood work, Pop was a carpenter, I
> know how to buy materials and use basic tools to make nice looking stuff.
> Anywho, for 80$ I'd build a long wall of wood racks. Why? The average
> racks are way overbuilt. Using 3/8" or maybe 1/2" plywood or OSB is good
> and 2x4s for uprights are adaquate but 1/2 or 1/3 pine straping is good
> for the rest and very cheap. If carefully done using screws appearance and
> disassembly should not be a problem.

I used 5/8" plywood and 2x4 all around mounted vertically for extra
support for the shelves. I would not use anything less. Try sticking a
couple S-100 chassis on a shelf of 1/2" plywood or supported with less
than a 2x4 and unless you have additional support in the way of diagonal
cross-members or extra support underneath the shelf it'll bow or break.
Maybe not right away, but with time it'll start to sag.

It saves much time to use steel brackets instead of cutting slots into the
wood. I did my first shelf with the latter design and it took a long
time, was kinda frustrating to get it together, and was not as sturdy as I
would have wanted, but was still more than adequate. On my second attempt
I used metal braces to support the cross members and found it to be much
easier to erect and ever stronger than the other method.

If I had to do it over I'd buy pre-fab shelves like the Gorilla racks.

Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Fri May 21 1999 - 22:20:43 BST

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