Thread: materials for in-built bookshelves

Plywood can give structural strength and can be painted or stained as required.
I consider screws to be stronger than nails and if an item needs to be dismantled can make the job easier if they are not seized.
Two things to consider are that ply is more expensive than MDF & particleboard and screws are more costly than nails.

Also bear in mind that MDF sags a lot, so will require support over any sort of span (from about 600mm or more). Otherwise, it's cheap and paints up well.

MDF does paint up well,better than ply in my opinion.
To overcome any concern of it sagging you can put an edge of pine or even better tassie oak along the front of each shelf,I have done this many times looks OK and makes it a lot stronger

Hi Kyzer79,
I had mine built, & put up against a wall. He made a hell of a mess, as I wanted one shelf 320mm. high, as I had some big books.
He said it would look awful & maybe not fit, so I backed down, silly me. I now have 95mm from the top to the ceiling.
Those square Box like B/S look good & would not sag.
If you made them 500 wide x 320 high x 280 deep, & in 5 ply, I think they would look pretty smart.
Go Google, & see what is on there.
The 320 high ones, you may only need them at the top.
So don't forget to measure your books.

thanks for the advice. What about treated pine or tas oak, as this is readily available at many hardware stores. I'll post some picks of the space for the shelves and my designs soon!

No need to use treated pine(that is full of chemicals) ,you will find pine or hardwood (sometimes called tassie oak) at most hardware stores.
good luck

I recently built a wall of bookcases in a small family room.

The materials used were Tassie Oak-veneered MDF, and Jarrah face frames. Construction was simple, but strong, dados. These were run with a router in a sled. It made for accurate joints but still were time consuming and dusty!



The dimensions for the books were determined beforehand (as the spacing is fixed), with consideration made for large books and paperbacks, etc. The short spans ensure that the MDF is stable and shelves will not sag.

The face frames were simply cut to size and glued and nailed on.



The backing was ply, and panels were added to create interest.



It always starts to look better with books



Still a work in process.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek

I was looking at you book shelves & wondering what felt wrong with them.

Then I realized - you forgot to put the shelves under the window

derek.. best way is with veneered chipboard and no longer than 900ml face the chipboard with tas. oak and use sliding half dovetails.. My cases are 2400 high 900 wide 300 deep.built them to join up as one piece. Have just moved house and for a bit of furniture to have survived without any glued in shelves and only screws on the hinges and 8 screws on the base its good.. has 6 shelves at 300 centres and bottom at 350.. doors are tas oak frame with glass .. if you have the half dovetail facing up th weight of the books keeps everything nice and tight annd no sagging at all

sorry here is photo to show what I mean

Option B:

Hunt up e-book versions of most of your books, get a kindle/iPad/galaxy, chuck the physical copies and store all your books on a few SD cards.

No dusting, no sorting, no re-laying shelves to fit new acquisitions, no floor space taken up!

Ok...now I am thinking of making a tiny little bookshelf for SD cards....