# Help for building a music instrument shelf



## sensei (May 8, 2011)

Hi,

New to the forum, and also building shelves. I'd like to build a custom shelf for a bunch of music instruments I have. I made a rough sketch of how it will be made and what instruments will be on it. Does anyone have any suggestions, please? I'm mulling different ways of building it, but not sure what would be a typical way. I'm looking to do this on a small budget. I was thinking:

(see picture link first!)
- Getting 1" thick wood boards for all the wood (any suggestion on type? Looking for cheap and sturdy, don't care much what it looks like)
- Just using wood screws to attach all the shelves and pieces together - no fancy adjustable shelves as I'll be set with the sizes. Just drilling in from the other side of the attaching board
- If you note the bottom, I figure I'll put two more legs for added weight support, just drill in from the top of the bottom horizontal board.
- I might think of staining it - does anyone have any idea what I should get to stain it? Or if it's even worth it for small budget, basement location.

As far as weight, I don't know, I'm guessing everything together may weigh 200-250 pounds. While the speaker cabinet looks big, it's only about 20-25 pounds, if that. The shelf above that may be the only one I'm worried about wood sag...the Accordion is probably 25-30 pounds, the bass amp is 16 pounds and the Meinl is about 5, but that shelf is only about 2 feet or so wide.

So, any ideas for a newbie? Thanks everyone! :thumbsup:


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## Mark_P (Mar 25, 2009)

Being a complete woodworking newbie myself, the only thing that comes to mind would be to dado the uprights for the cross shelves to fit into. Pine seems to be pretty cheap at the big box home improvement stores. I would think you could go with just 3/4" wide material (much easier to find that 1", I think), and then maybe just add a cleat to the front and/or back edge to help stiffen it up.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see how this turns out - my wife has asked me to build her something very similar for all her instruments (mandolins, banjos, fiddles & acoustic guitars).

Good luck!


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## sensei (May 8, 2011)

CruiserMark said:


> I would think you could go with just 3/4" wide material (much easier to find that 1", I think), and then maybe just add a cleat to the front and/or back edge to help stiffen it up.
> 
> Good luck!


Thanks for the response Mark. But I'm even more of a newbie, as I don't know terminology - what is a cleat? From googling it, it looks like smaller pieces drilled in to the side and/or back and then the shelf rests on top of that? I just read somewhere in that search that drilling in to the end of MDF and particle board is bad as it splits...I don't know what MDF is either in comparison to pine or oak or whatever...back to Google search! Thanks.


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## Mark_P (Mar 25, 2009)

What I consider a cleat is a strip of wood that goes on the long edge of a shelf (i.e. - across the front and or back edges) to help prevent it from sagging or bowing.

Here's an example of a basic cleat I found: 










I would personally dado the cleat and then glue it to the front face of the shelving unit. I drew up a quick sketch using Google Sketchup and attached it. I'm thinking something like this:


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