Ideas to prevent sag on the front edge of book shelves.

[Dick Bringhurst]

If it's an adjustible shelf, I use hardwood for the visible edge and angle iron or aluminum on the back edge. Dick B.

[Scott Loven]

How about cutting a deep saw kerf underneath about 2 inches back from the front and glue a piece of steel in the slot. Should make it much stiffer and almost invisible. I also would do a dado on the back and sides.

[Scott Hildenbrand]

If you really need to beef up a shelf, you can somewhat hide a piece of angle iron behind that lip of the shelf. I made some shelves like that once - 2 1/4" lip with 1 1/2" piece of angle iron behind them. They span almost 6' and have text books on them (heavy!) and it doesn't sag at all.

Wow.. A 6' unsupported shelf span.. You crazy man.. You crazy...

So.... Is this kind of what you did? This is the best thing that comes to mind when I think of doing such an overkill thing.

But then, with a 6' span, it needs to be overkill.. Wouldn't say to go through this with a standard bookshelf.

Anyway.. Glen.. You still hadn't said what WIDTH the shelves will be.. Or the depth.

[Glen Butler]

Sorry, been away from the puter for a while. Thanks for all the resonses. I especially like that load calculator. The MDF core veneer has already been purchased, it was difficult to find plywood core. The shelves are 12" deep, well I guess 11" actually. They are spanning 28.5". I like the idea of the angle iron or bar stock steel if I am still having problems after running a 1x2 along the front edge. But it sounds like the consensus is that a 1x2 will look fine and some simple roundover on the edge will look just fine.

[Greg Portland]

A 1x2 hickory edge will be extremely strong, assuming it is properly attached to the shelf. If you are only using glue then be sure to rough up the MDF edges. With my shelves I liked the look of the simple 1x2 and slightly more elaborate crown and base moulding. I used pocket screws + filler plugs for 1/2 the shelves and then used a domino for the rest (faster & better looking joint).

[Jeff Monson]

I've made a few display cases, and have used a 3/4x1 1/2" hardwood strip with a roman ogee routed in the face to "dress it up" glued to the front of the shelf, then I will take a strip of the same hardwood that is 1/2"x3/4" and glue it to the bottom of the shelf 1 1/2" from the front. It really dresses up the shelf and I have not had one bow yet.