Which material for shelving?

I try to use solid wood as I find it stiffer under heavy loads. Some softwoods are not much better than ply. MMDF I find sags with time as do some chipboards.

All of those & more would work. They all have their pros & cons.

NT

Thanks for the speedy replies. I'd like to use solid wood, though the size might be a problem: I don't at the moment have the facilities to glue and clamp narrower pieces together to get the necessary depth, not to mention the difficulty of finding good enough straight and true timber to begin with.

Most of the gear is the standard 19" wide so at least the weight will be concentrated close to the supported ends of the shelves rather than nearer the middle.

You could use pineboard or not glue the pieces together. You can also glue without clamping if the wood is straight, you pressit together a little with household objects and aren't looking for consistently good glue strength.

NT

I have used solid wood for shelves intended to carry significant weight, but as you say, you have to glue narrower pieces together as you can't easily get the depth on single planks these days (well, I couldn't, locally). Can't remember how I clamped them but it might have simply been flat on the top of the Workmate, although how I did the ends, I don't recall (they were typically 6ft long pieces), but

30mm kitchen laminate offcuts are something else I use, cut to size as required, for garage shelving.

I doubt much of the AV equipment weighs much - with the exception of a meaty power amp.

Plywood is always going to be the strongest material, like for like. MDF probably the easiest to work.

I've got mine on toughened glass. ;-)

To get the relative performance of different materials look up "sagulator"

If you decide MDF will be adequate for your loading, go for MRMDF which will resist the absorption of atmospheric moisture. It also gives a much superior painted finish.

As others have said simple front edge lipping adds little stiffness. However a deeper batten fixed to the underside of the rear edge between the shelf supports can make a useful contribution to stiffness.

Pretty sure you can buy ready made shelving made out of real wood strips glued together. Find the most economical length that can be cut to what you need.

The other way would be (as you said) real engineered wood flooring, glued back to back and clamped until dry. An end of range product could be very good value.

no, but vinyl decks do want a very stiff shelf

except for plain old wood, which has all the grain in the right direction.

a good option, if not the cheapest.

NT

When you look at the time and cost of finishing wood, sometimes it ain't that expensive..

Indeed. And my Revox tape machine is even heavier than my amp.

Ish. A decent deck should have its own suspension built in.

Dave,

An interesting thought, thanks.

If the shelf is of reasonable depth (say 10" or more) then I find 18mm WBP ply with a softwood lipping works well. (you can make the lipping thicker than the shelf so it under hangs the front if you want extra stiffness or a more substantial look to the shelf). I would not use MDF for shelves, since that tends to sag under its own weight if unsupported.

I built this coming up to three years ago:

and the ply shelves have shown no visible sag in that time, in spite of some quite heavy loads on them.

In fact I have just temporarily dismantled that to decorate that room, and had to unload all the stuff from it. The piles of books and DVDs from the top section alone were quite surprising:

Whatever you use, it's tendency to sag can be hugely improved by gluing a length of wood to the underside at a convenient point.

Thanks, John.

of course it will. And for good results it needs a very stiff shelf.

NT

I'd say rather it needs isolation from floor etc vibration. And given turntables generally ain't that heavy (in Revox or power amp terms) anything that looks the part should be OK.