Oak alcove shelves

[york]

Hello guys,

Im looking to build theses oak shelves. http://www.atgwoodwork.co.uk/567-2/

Not entirely sure what what thickness of oak to buy. What do we think the battens are and then the thickness of the actual oak!

Im thinking maybe 18mm for the batten and then 32mm of the actual oak shelf. The shelves will be used for books, as well as decorative pieces.

Thanks in advance,

Giles

 

[york]

How do i post a url to another site?

Regards,

Giles

 

[katellwood]

Ive done a similar project but instead of rebating across the endgrain I grooved it with the router then slid the shelves in from the front. They were quite high and didnt want to show any support from top or bottom

That technique is alright unless the walls are out of parallel with the gap at the back being wider than the front as they have to be slid in as opposed to dropped in

The shelves I did were 40mm deep with a 15mm support

They were approx 900mm long and are now stacked with books.

 

[mahomo59]

My previous shelves in oak like these, batten on wall and along the front with batten infils. 12mm veneered mdf on top, 6mm underside and solid oak lipping across the front. Have seen the above method on a site I was on on last year and the guy used 30mm mrmdf and routered out for the battens, the dust! But effective

 

[paulrockliffe]

I've done mine the same way as mahomos, the main benefit is that solid wood costs a lot more than veneered MDF. I went for 2" thick ash fronts, which would have cost a fortune (9 shelves, 1.5m wide, 45cm deep).

With that method, I would er on the side of a thinner batten, the loading is compression on the bit of wood above the screws, then the screw takes the load to the wall. The rest is just decorative, so you don't need very much of it. The load capacity of the shelves is determined by the thickness of the bit of the board above the batten, so the thicker that is the better.