Hi all. I quite fancy douglas fir for my bookshel/cabinet project. SL Hardwoods have 290mm x 19mm x 3m (finished sizes) My question is, is 19mm adequate thickness for the verticals which will be 2.8m high?
Thanks.
Arthur
Yes, why not? If IKEA can use foil-faced chipboard of that thickness for similar heights, solid Douglas Fir should not be a problem at all.
I should have considered that. :) Thanks.
Arthur
You did explicitly say "for the verticals", but just to make sure:
19mm is /not/ adequate for the actual shelves (unless they are about a foot long, and only holding one layer of paperbacks.
This one any good to you? :-)
The bookcase will be about 50cm wide and about 20cm deep.
Arthur
:-)
I made some bookshelves from a similar pine last year. 18mm everywhere. The verticals are no problem, but you have to be careful of the width with books - they can be very heavy. I opted for verticals every 300mm, but another way is to reinforce the shelves in some way.
R.
I should say..the shelves will be about 20cm deep. The sides will will be 25cm wide.
Arthur
You're joking right? 19mm solid wood boards would be adequate for bookcase shelves several feet long. I've got a reproduction bureau with shelves about
1cm thick and 1 metre long and although they do sag somewhat when fully loaded they can hold a full shelf of books ok. A 3/4" shelf, i.e. a floorboard in so many words isn't going to raise much of a sweat with a few pounds of books on it. Without doing a lot of tedious calculations I'd estimate that they'd be fine at 4' long regardless of what you put on them and although they might sag a bit at 6' long a small central vertical prop would solve that easily enough.
:-)
DF reminds me of churches and old school buildings, both of which I find depressing
The OP needs...... The Sagulator!
Yes. Its stiffness you need to worry about with loaded 'slender columns' but shelves and a back will brace that well enough.
I'd go bit longer than that, especially if supported with a screwed down back to the shelving.
I'd say 1.5m or so will be OK for most loads. Ive got cheap contiboard shelves in 12mm faced chip doing that span.
The worst used to be old vinyl records..
No problems at all then.
My gut feel was spot on. An 8" deep shelf, 4' long even with 25 lbs of books per foot is nicely under the target deflection and just goes over it at 5' long. I also think that 25 lbs per foot is way over what any normal books I own weigh although you could probably manage it with A4 sized catalogues like my engine component ones which weigh about 2 lbs per linear inch. Normal books about 8" high would be half that or less and the shelves would be ok up to 6' long.
Why not? Strength or sag, and how long a bookshelf are you assuming?
Assuming 4' span width (typical chimney-side alcove) I'd use 1/2", but I'd also use a bit more complex construction than just a "goalpost". As well as the side uprights, I'd also have a couple of uprights along the back, probably 2" wide.
1/2" is easily strong enough in pure compression for the uprights. Your failure would be if they started to wobble, then a crumpling failure by them bending. However you also need stiffness to avoid wobbling that's annoying, but not structurally damaging, and that will take care of the crumple risk too. Either diagonalise, or just a back panel of something thin that's glued in place (pins will creep out with movement, and it's all long-grain so moisture expansion isn't an issue).Try the on-line Sagulator if you want numbers.
Catalogues or magazines. Book density is at its worst for modern high- gloss, thin paper. Paperbacks are low enough in height that it doesn't matter, most printed "books" are thicker paper with less mineral filler. Hardbacks are actually lighter, as the boards are less dense than the signature blocks. My "heaviest looking" books (huge Victorian antiquarian stuff) are actually some of my lightest , or at least the least dense (per inch of height, although they are heavy per shelf).
Absolutely wonderful - thanks for posting the link.
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