# How to trim inside corner under shelf?



## SBH (May 19, 2016)

Hello all,

New member here, with 20 years of hobby woodworking experience (the last 12 years, nearly all honey-dos).

So the wife has tasked me with making and installing drawers under the built-in shelves in our walk-in closet. The shelves (3/4-in. edge-glued pine) sit on 2-in. tall x 3/4-in. thick strips of pine glued and nailed to the wall (which is drywall). The problem that I have is that, although my drawers are dead square, the angle of one of the side under-shelf strips meets the back strip at an obtuse angle. I need to take off 1/8 of an inch (tapering from nothing at the front of the strip, to a full 1/8 inch at the back) to make it square. How to do this, keeping in mind I am working up against the bottom of a shelf?

I have Lie-Nielsen's small chisel plane, a porter-cable heavy handheld belt sander, and a Fein Multimaster, among other tools I was considering to help me do this.

Thanks for any and all help!

-SBH


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Remove it, mark it, then hand plane to the line, reinstall.


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

Agree with Bondo^

or Cut your drawer down 1/8" smaller (1/16 off both sides) and shim your guide out.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

Professional mechanics and carpenters know to take the project apart a little further to expose the necessary elements. If the multimaster can't get in there to make the cut, a good sharp chisel might.

If the shelf can be separated from the ledger, that might be the best option.

Good luck with it.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

First tear the hell out of it and make a *HUGE* mess. 
Next, tell the spouse that you need to buy a very expensive toy to fix it (overestimate cost by at least *2X*)
Buy the toy.
Fix the issue.
Tell spouse that not only were *you* able to quickly fix it but you *SAVED 50%!*
Bathe in glory!

M

PS: As you can tell, I've been married a long time …


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## KellyB (Mar 1, 2015)

> First tear the hell out of it and make a *HUGE* mess.
> Next, tell the spouse that you need to buy a very expensive toy to fix it (overestimate cost by at least *2X*)
> Buy the toy.
> Fix the issue.
> ...


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## SBH (May 19, 2016)

> Agree with Bondo^
> 
> or Cut your drawer down 1/8" smaller (1/16 off both sides) and shim your guide out.
> 
> - jbay


jbay,

That's such a simple solution. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it myself! That's what I'll do. Thank you very much!


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## SBH (May 19, 2016)

> Professional mechanics and carpenters know to take the project apart a little further to expose the necessary elements. If the multimaster can t get in there to make the cut, a good sharp chisel might.
> 
> If the shelf can be separated from the ledger, that might be the best option.
> 
> ...


Pintodeluxe,

I wish it could. That thought occurred to me too. That would have prevented the drawer-trimming hack that I'm doing, that jbay suggested. The shelf is polyurethane-glued and brad nailed in place. If a hurricane strikes, those shelves are so secure I could just dive under them! Removing them would mean destroying the support strips and the wall behind them.

Thank you for you suggestion, however!


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## SBH (May 19, 2016)

> First tear the hell out of it and make a *HUGE* mess.
> Next, tell the spouse that you need to buy a very expensive toy to fix it (overestimate cost by at least *2X*)
> Buy the toy.
> Fix the issue.
> ...


That, KellyB and MadMark, is how I got:

-The Fein Multimaster,
-The Festool Domino,
-The DeWalt tracksaw and three tracks,
-Lots of high-end German and US-made hand tools,
-My entire DeWalt 20V cordless line of tools (6 of them).

...AND SHE STILL HASN'T CAUGHT ON!


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

If money's no object, then the Fein multitool, of course, but I've had excellent service (as in, abused the hell out of) Harbor Freight's version which costs about 1/10th as much. And I'm finding that Grizzly's various blades, at around half the price of everybody else's, perform at least as well as the others. This tool would be the first thing I'd reach for with a task like yours.

But it does seem odd to me that someone would glue the shelf risers in place. (You didn't do it, did you?)


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