Maple Shelves for Books

I finished these shelves up last weekend. These match the set that I made two years ago for my son. He had outgrown the other set and needed a place to keep his books. This set is made from Maple like the others, but these shelves are taller and narrower.

Overall, the shelves are 52” tall, 28” wide, and 10” deep. I based the dimensions on the various sizes of books he currently has, the space available in his room, and the shelf span needed to prevent sagging under the heavy load of books.

I used the Sagulator from the Fine Woodworking website to help make sure the shelves won’t sag under the heavy load of books. The Sagulator is an online calculator for calculating shelf sag. I took 12” stack of his largest books and weighed them (15 lbs.). I knew I would be using 1/2” Maple. Based on these inputs, the calculator helped me in determining the span for the center shelves. I also decided to make the bottom two shelves 1/16” thicker than the other shelves since they can hold taller books. According to the tool, this was not necessary, but it seemed safer. Also, I like the grounded look it gives the piece.

The joinery, the details, and the finish are all the same as the original set. The color and grain is a good match to the original set.

-- Daniel, Southern Indiana -- "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." -- http://blackdogwoodshop.etsy.com