Shelving Suggestions?

[Nacho3]

Billy book cases are particle board and a real space waster.  More than twice as deep as you need.  Would not recommend for media.

This is the one gripe I have with the Billy's, although I just put some empty DS cases, that I got from online that are shit compared to the real ones, behind my games and they line up on the edge real nice. Sheep, which shelves do you use or recommend since you don't like these?

[sheep2001]

At the moment I'm just using regular wall mounted racking.  But looks like shit.  Will get around to building something proper eventually.

My collection has grown way too big. Lol

[MisterDaSausage]

The best advice i can give you, is that if you can, build it yourself, i actually bought a total of 6 book cases from walmart back in the day. None of them are now used as shelves for gaming or book, first off, most of these are way too deep, so you lose space. Second, again, most of them tend to sag a lot cause they are not real wood and are built with just 4 small "pins" to maintain them in place, the middle will curve a lot.
So best advice, if you can, get some pine wood (you can tint it to anything you want), something like 8 inches deep is normally enough for most game or books. You then pick the length you need, grab some aluminium angle ( 1/8 inches thick and around 1 or 1 1/4 width). Support the shelves with the angle, 2 on the side (around 6 inches long) and on the length of the shelves (Mine are 9 feet long). That way, there is no sagging at all, everything is strong and to your liking, and it actually cost me less then the 6 freaking bookcase i bought back then...

My current gaming shelf is 9 feet long by 8 feet tall with a UGC case fitting with 1 inch lose at the top. Then you can made it all the way you want, i made a small shelf in my big shelf just for DS game and so on.
I also made a book shelf for my wife which is 6 feet long, 8 feet tall but i took 10 inches pine wood to fit her bigger book.

My next thing ill be doing will be a complete shelving unit which will fit a big tv, prolly 60 inches, all my console hooked with more space for game. all in all it will be a complete wall (around 20 feet long) of shelving.

I think Arseen actually did this too with is shelving unit he built. If you want, i can provide some picture of it.

[TDIRunner]

If you want, i can provide some picture of it.

I would like to see the pictures of that.  I've been debating between building my own and purchasing something.  The big problem for me is the time constraint in building and either painting or staining it.  If I buy something, I can put it together in an hour and be done.  You are right though.  The ones you buy in the store tend to be cheaper and will probably sag over time.  

If I buy something, it will probably be something like this.

[MisterDaSausage]

Here is a picture of when i finished it last year.



Mine is actually mounted to the wall, but you could always buy some 4' X 8' pine sheet about 3/4" thick and make a back, then fix the shelf right on it, just make sure to have a good 2" X 4" base. And because of the aluminium angle, there is no way it will sag. Unless i put some heavy weight stuff just on the borders of it, which wont happen

[Ozzy_98]

If you worry about the shelves not being strong, that's easy to fix:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Simpson-Strong-Tie-ST12-16-Gauge-12-in-Strap-Tie-ST12/100375152

Screw one on the back of the shelf near the middle, there's no way for it to bow.  If you completely overload the shelf, it'll rip out before it bows with one of these straps on.  And I've stored 3 bags of lead shot on a cheap walmart partial board shelf for a week to see what it would do, and it was fine.   You can get them larger, and if you mount it so the extra metal is higher than the shelf, when you slam a book into the back you get a nice solid *THUNK* sound.  Even solid wood shelves will need support on solid runs, so if you don't have supports from below, these ties are great if you can keep them hidden.  Our basement is covered in homebuilt shelves and he was one of the ones who had the impression solid wood doesn't sag, so he ended up crippling in supports that didn't match the existing lumber.  Won't be fun trying to get everything matched up when I get around to that portion of the house fixup. I'm a firm believer in metal connectors for structure.

And if you worry about a cheap shelf being wobbly, http://www.homedepot.com/p/2-in-Satin-Brass-Flat-Corner-Braces-4-Pack-15071/202034207

I used a setup like that for storing my D&D manuals.  Thin, hardcover books, they weigh more than think hardcover books since there's more cover.  I used cheap shelves from walmart that looked good, and put 2 boxes together into one giant 8' shelf at our old house, with tiers in the shelves because they were too deep for paperbacks. Build a total of 6 of them for under $400.   Worked great, stored about 3,000 books on them all.  When we moved to the new house, the ceilings were too small (Old house was 8' 4") and removing that extra 4" made a mess of the shelves, so we're just going to order about $1500 of billys (That includes delivery fee of like $400) and I'll modify them like I did the old shelves to get more room for paperbacks.  


The problem with building is while it's easy if you have a saw, all straight cuts, no funny math, getting a GOOD finish can be a pain.  I HATE unfinished shelves that look like raw wood, or slightly stained wood.  

[MisterDaSausage]

Ozzy, what thickness is that simpson tie? Cause from what i saw, 16-gauge steel is normally 1/16" which i don't find thick enough to resist bending, unless there is some other size or it was hardened. (It might resist, don't quote me on that, just going off personal preference and *steel experience*)
*edit* Nevermind the thickness, just saw there was some 12-gauge tie, which i would personally use since its closer to 1/8" thick.
And yea, if you don't have tools and are not somewhat of a manual person, don't build the shelf. Cause most of the time you will encounter weird stuff in your house, nothing will be straight and perfect. So you have to improvise a bit.
As for myself though, i love raw wood color So the painting didn't actually cause a problem, just put a clear on the pine, so it is kind of glossy. If you are not close enough, you wont even notice the clear i put on. But, you have to like raw wood though hehe

[larryinc64]

I may go the custom building route. Ether made by myself or maybe go to a custom builder.
What would I need t make a custom adjustable shelf like this?
I was thinking I can go to Home Depo and get the wood cut and I assemble it at home.

The Atlantic 1080 shelf I was looking at may be a good thing to fix up instead of building from scratch, but the shelf also has this issue:

[Beastman1975]

you dont have to stain or paint wood to make it look nice i actually like the look of unfinished wood plus buildingh your own means you can make sure shelves are spaced out for any odd ball items like sega cd/saturn games in thier long boxes

[TDIRunner]

you dont have to stain or paint wood to make it look nice i actually like the look of unfinished wood plus buildingh your own means you can make sure shelves are spaced out for any odd ball items like sega cd/saturn games in thier long boxes

Don't forget 3DO long boxes.... I mean loooooooooong boxes.

[larryinc64]

you dont have to stain or paint wood to make it look nice i actually like the look of unfinished wood plus buildingh your own means you can make sure shelves are spaced out for any odd ball items like sega cd/saturn games in thier long boxes

Don't forget 3DO long boxes.... I mean loooooooooong boxes.

I have 2 of thous and one Saturn case.   

[TDIRunner]

After buying a few 3DO games, I don't believe Sony and Sega made "long boxes."  I believe they just made "boxes."

[Ozzy_98]

Ozzy, what thickness is that simpson tie? Cause from what i saw, 16-gauge steel is normally 1/16" which i don't find thick enough to resist bending, unless there is some other size or it was hardened. (It might resist, don't quote me on that, just going off personal preference and *steel experience*)
*edit* Nevermind the thickness, just saw there was some 12-gauge tie, which i would personally use since its closer to 1/8" thick.
And yea, if you don't have tools and are not somewhat of a manual person, don't build the shelf. Cause most of the time you will encounter weird stuff in your house, nothing will be straight and perfect. So you have to improvise a bit.

The gauge actually has very little to do with the strength in this setup.  You put the strap flat on the back of the shelf (Works best if there's a backing for the shelves, plywood or cardboard:



So for the shelf to bow down, it'd have to bend over an inch of galvanized metal. The gauge of the steel mostly comes into play ig you do not screw it into the shelves very tight, and it pulls loose.  As you press down on the board, it'll push the metal tie outward.  But if you have a good string contact between the shelf and the tie, it'll not be able to bow out. 

Here's one I beefed up in my office:


I didn't have any screws with proper heads on them for the ties, but the most important thing is the screws work good in the shelving material and don't pull out (Mostly an issue with particle board shelves).   Screwing through a plywood backing into the shelves if you have plywood will also greatly reinforce the shelves, since plywood will not sag.  That's why they use it in I-joists\engineered joists.  Heck, just tacking the shelf to the cardboard backing makes a big difference in cheap shelves, at least in keeping them from swaying.  People need to know not to skip that step (Or at least cheat like I do an use a staple gun).

The shelves that were build in my house used 2x12s and 2x16s.  If you ever tried picking up a 2x16, this is HEAVY. about the same as 4 2x4s.  People would think it would make sturdy shelves, but they can't support their own weight for long runs.


He used 12' spans on each, but crippled in supports on most shelves at about 6' marks, so they're nice and sturdy. 

[mojoeskateco]

This was the shelving idea I have in mind.


The shelf I posted in the top post was like this, bur aperently it's crap.
I think I have a Billy Shelf, I got it at a tag sale.

@mojoeskateco
What it the thinner shelf you have in that set up? It looks like the one I have.

Maybe a bunch of these side by side would be good. The extra depth would be nice for the figures, but  are any thinner alternatives would still work.

The smaller shelf is just a smaller billy bookcase

The gripes others have worth these bookcases are a little nit picky IMO. 

I don't care that they are heavy as once you set them up it doesn't matter.

The depth of them doesn't really apply the where I have them.  They make stick out a few extra inches but if you are that hard up for space then something smaller might be better.

[wiggy]

The best trick to prevent shelves from sagging is don't make them so damned wide. You'll notice that store-bought shelving doesn't really use 5'+ wide shelves. That's intentional.  You'll have no problems with sagging using just plain old common pine board if you keep the shelves under ~36". 

The good thing about keeping the shelves narrower is that it allows for more modularity. I.e. If you want to span a 9' wall with shelves, then having three columns of 3' shelves will allow you to more effectively store items of different heights. So instead of running a single 9' shelf across the wall just to store a handful of 3DO long boxes plus a few hundred jewel cases, you can set just one of the 3' shelves to accommodate the 3DO games, and the others can be stacked closer for the jewel cases to save space

(Does that make sense?  If not, I'll post pics of my setup to better illustrate).