Broken Kitchen Cabinet Shelf Supports - Removing Stems

[Jeff Wisnia]

When I got home from work yesterday SWIMBO informed me that a shelf in one of the kitchen cabinets had fallen down because two of those little plastic brackets the shelf rests on had broken off, leaving their stems in the holes in the sidewall of the cabinet.

The first time I ran into this situation maybe thirty years ago my first thought was to drill out the broken off stems so I could shove new brackets into the holes.

That didn't work out very well, the drill wandered off and enlarged the holes and in one case broke through the outside surface of a cabinet wall requiring some patching and refinishing.

That's when it dawned on me there was a better way to remove those broken off bracket stems. I've used this method several times over the ensuing years with success every time. I'll share it here for those who haven't figured it out themselves already.

I take a Number 8 sheet metal screw about 1-1/4 inches long, hold it by the head with a pair of pliers and heat the pointed end of the screw with our small kitchen torch until it's just short of red hot.

Then I just press the screw into the plastic stem as far as it will go and wait a couple of minutes for the screw to cool off. When I can touch the screw without searing my fingers I grab it with the pliers and pull it and the plastic stub out, leaving the hole in the wood in unscathed shape. Try it, you'll like it.

Jeff

[hrhofmann]

Exactly what I have done, it just requires a steady hand to center the hot screw in the plastic stub.

[DerbyDad03]

...then replace with metal supports.

[Jeff Wisnia]

True enough, but It would take me all day to replace every plastic one in our kitchen with metal ones given every shelf would have to be emptied of what's sitting on it.

Jeff

[Boris]

Jeff Wisnia wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I had never thought of applying the 'hot screw' method to this problem, but I like it.

Alternatively, abandon the old hole, and drill a new hole.

[DerbyDad03]

All day? Empty every shelf? I question both of those assertions.

Heck, in less than a day (yesterday, in fact) I emptied the shelves in two

16? base cabinets, took off the doors, cut out the center stile, built two 31" x 22" drawers, installed 2 pairs of undermount slides (PITA), test fitted the drawers, took them out and put th e stuff back on the shelves. (just until the finish on the drawers dries)

All day? How many cabinets do you have? How many shelves could simply be li fted on one end while the supports are replaced? I've done it, so I know it can be done.

[Jeff Wisnia]

OK, you got me there. But at my age:

A Dozen, a Gross and a Score, Plus three times the square root of four, Divided by seven, Plus five times eleven, Equals my age plus zero, no more.

I find that lately I'm not as anxious to take on more projects than I have to. Plus, I find it's getting harder for me to get back on my feet when I'm sitting on the floor as I would have to do the supports for the shelves in the the lower cabinets.

Jeff

[Nancy Young]

I had to replace mine after two shelves emptied themselves spontaneously all over me. Broken dishes all over, that was fun, too bad I didn't learn after the first one. I actually had hunted down plastic replacements.

nancy

[DerbyDad03]

Your poem works for my age with the exception of 1 of the constants. Hint: The game is tied, 0-0. ;-)

Trust me, I hear you about getting up from the floor. The next time I work on base cabinets, I'm going to raise them up about 4 feet first. ;-)

[Jeff Wisnia]

All we lost last week was a nice quite heavy clear glass water pitcher.

One of my chemically knowledgeable friends told me that the plasticizer evaporates out of the plastic over a period of years leaving it more brittle and subject to cracking. I'm not a chemist, but that sort of makes sense to me. Most of the plastic shelf brackets in our kitchen, save for the few I've already replaced have been there since we bought the home new 34 years ago.

Jeff

[Frank]

I am a retired chemist and it is true that plascitizers can bleed out but I doubt if they are used in transparent refrigerator shelves. Plastics usually degrade by oxidation accelerated by heat and sunlight. Sometimes solvents can cause crazing. You don't put chemical solvents in your refrigerator but oils and things like alcohol at high levers can be detrimental. I worked for a while on automotive resins and we tested samples with all the crap that can fall on a plastic part like oil, gas, windshield washer fluid, brake fluid etc. Plastics are fine for many uses but I have seen a lot of badly designed ones.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Frank:

This thread (Which I started) isn't about transparent refrigerator shelves, it is about little plastic shelf support pegs like these:

The bracket part snaps off the peg, leaving the peg in the hole in the cabinet wall with nothing projecting to pull it out by.

This type is better:

Because it uses a steel peg which extends out into the clear plastic support and it can take a much higher load without failing.

Nuff said,

Jeff

[DerbyDad03]

Better still are pins that are all metal. Lots of choices available.

[Frank]

Metal better for shear strength.

[Nancy Young]

Probably a different type of plastic, mine didn't make 20 years. Came crashing down at the least little bump. Hope you didn't get hurt with that heavy pitcher falling.

nancy