Nice Rack... and she's cheap and easy!

Well, I am pumped! I just built my first rack, and the collection may begin to boom! I was surprised at how easy it was to do.

Here's a quick rundown (I am planning on another one and will most likely include more picturese!) with somewhat step-by-step instructions:

First, I purchased the materials. The rack only took a few pieces:
(2) 15 1/4" x 48" melamine (3/4") shelving
(2) 23 1/4" x 48" melamine (3/4") shelving
--I had this ripped into (3) pieces measuring 23 1/4" x 16" to be used as the individual shelves. The lumber store also made the cuts for me...

Honestly, that's the only wood that I bought, but there is room for a few more shelves, so I will be going back for I more piece of the 2x4 melamine tomorrow hopefully.

Other than that all that I needed were a few screws, some edging (which I haven't applied yet) and the rubbermaid/sterilite bins.

Here's a pic of the supplies all laid out, cuts already made...


Next, I put the top piece on the table and put each of the sides in place. I predrilled and screwed the first pieces together and then placed the first rubbermaid into place (upside down since I'm working from top to bottom.) In order to prevent too tight of a squeeze and binding, I placed a CD-R under thre rubbermaid as spacers... CDs are cheap.

On top of the rubbermaid I set the next shelve, then predrilled and screwed into place. After removing the CDs the rubbermaid slid in and out with just a tad bit of friction, worked great!

I added the other five pieces (and will add the other three in a day or so) and it now looks like this...


I'm holding off until I add the rest of the shelves before I do the rest of the edging. I'm not sure if it'll be easier to do before or after completion, but this way saves on materials (edging) and I'm cheap so I decided to give it a go this way.

The only thing left to do in order to make the rack inhabitable was to then add the airholes, which I marked out with a template and then burned through with a soldering iron. Here's a nice close-up...


Well, that's about it. I was planning on running an 11" piece of heattape down the back and relying on back heat, but now am considering trying to run 4" heat tape back and forth as belly heat (the next rack will be 3' deep so I will go with 11" belly heat.)

The cost was not too bad either since my melamine shelving was on sale at the time too. Cost breakdown:

(2) 15x48 melamine @ $4.88 each
(2) 24x48 melamine @ $6.99 each
melamine edging @ $1.49
Subtotal: $26.74 with tax

Then I had to get some more edging (first store only had one 8' roll left) and the screws. Total there came to $10.65

Finally I got the Rubbermaids 5@ $2.94 came to $15.59 with tax.

Total cost so far: $52.98

All that I need still is the heat tape and one more piece of melamine, so this will EASILY fall under $100 total construction.

Any questions just shoot me an email. (or post 'em here obviously!)

Have a good one,
Brent Strande

Nice job. I think many people would be surprised at just how easy a rack is to build.

If you want to save on edge-banding altogether you can have your boxes slide in width-wise. This way all of your cut edges are covered. Well except for the very top but I usually put some sort of work surface up there anyways.

I just cut the shelves about to a depth about 1/4" less than the sides. If you're using the bull-nosed shelving (which it looks like you are) then the edges are hidden.

Width-wise insertion also allows you to use one full size box or two half sized boxes per level.

Looks good! If I was to build that it would fall over...