At Shelf Depot we know what it takes to build a superior sliding
shelf and the answer is Quality. We find that quality material and
hardware put together following a quality design are the building blocks
to quality pull out shelving. The one extra item need is quality craft
persons that care about what they do. It does not matter if we
manufacture thousands of shelves per week, we still treat each shelf
with care to be sure we provide the quality craftsmanship that you
expectMaterial
We use 9 ply Baltic Birch for the front, back and sides of our custom
made pullout shelving. 9 layers of birch are joined together with the
grain alternating 90 degrees on each successive layer. The resulting
1/2" thick material is amazingly strong yet attractive and is really the
perfect material for building quality glide out shelves. We cut the
material to size, machine the corner and bottom joinery and round over
the top edge. The material then heads to the spray booth for two coats
of lacquer. The Birch is then hand sanded and ready for assembly.
The 1/4" medium density fiberboard bottom has a vinyl coating on it
which holds up well to pots and pans, provides the friction needed to
keep items in place and is is easy to clean with a damp cloth
Hardware
We only use quality slide hardware from Blum. The average consumer
may not be familiar with the Blum name but ask any cabinet maker and
they will tell you that Blum has the highest quality cabinet hardware
available. There are many cheap knock off slides that look very similar
to the Blum slides we use but if you pick them up you will immediately
feel the difference. The Blum slide can be twice as heavy (or even more)
due to the thicker gauge material used. The simple way to tell the
difference is to read. Companies selling shelves with quality hardware
like Blum will be very quick to list that company. If they don't tell
you the name of the hardware manufacturer there is a very good chance
they are trying to save a dollar and go with the cheap knock offs. We
have used the Blum 230M slide for 20 years because when it comes to
sliding shelves it all starts with the slide hardware.
A quick note about ball bearing slides. Many companies use ball
bearing slides for their pull out shelves. While the slides themselves
are often good quality it is the design that is faulty. Our slides wrap
around the sides of the pullout shelves and actually become part of the
shelf structure. Ball bearing slides simply screw to the side of the
shelves with two or sometimes three screws and if these screws pull out
your shelf will not be able to and even worse it will probably come
crashing down. Even if you are careful and check the screws every 6
months (and who would remember to do that) the ball bearing slides will
still usually fail over time. There are many many moving parts in a ball
bearing slide. Being installed in a kitchen means they will be exposed
to grease and over the years this will build up and gum up the slides.
Then one day you go to pullout you sliding shelf and the little ball
bearings start to come out and roll across the floor
Design
When it comes to pullout shelf design we find simple is better.
Simple things like wrap around slides, rabbet joinery for shelf corners
and a bottom that is held in by a dado all add up to the finest quality
pullout shelving
Rabbet Joints - The corners of the shelves use a rabbet joint to
provide the support and glue area required for a strong drawer. The
average consumer is not familiar with the rabbet joint. They are a very
simple yet strong joint that uses both a mechanical fastener and
adhesive attachment. We find that the rabbet joint is the perfect
joinery for use with the 9 ply 1/2" birch. Many consumers feel that a
dovetail joint is superior for pull out shelves but that is not really
the case. The dovetail joint is actually a prehistoric joint and has
been used to join hardwoods together. the Egyptians of the First Dynasty
(3000 to 2800 BCE) entombed royalty and wealthy nobles with handcrafted
furniture using the dovetail joint. The dovetail joint was needed as
trying to put a screw or nail that close to the end of a piece of
hardwood would invariably split the material. The 9 ply Birch does not
have this problem so the advantage of the dovetail joint is lost and the
advantage of having two forms of attachment takes over
Dado Joint - The 1/4" bottom material for our gliding shelving is not
just nailed or screwed to the bottom of the shelf as some lesser quality
shelves are made. There is a dado joint cut into the back, front and the
sides of the 1/2" birch. A dado joint is a slot cut into the material.
The 1/4" bottom is then glued into this slot and becomes an integral
part of the shelf construction. We don't just use any wood glue when it
comes to building our high quality line of pull out shelves. We use a
specially formulated glue that adheres to unfinished wood and more
importantly to the wood that has already been lacquered. All
shelves over 24" wide receive a plywood support strip to further
reinforce the shelf bottom |
