Bookcase / shelves - which materials?

[RogerP]

It's a pity MIL isn't keen on real wood, I wonder why?

The proper way is to forget all this disposable man-made nonsense and use oak!

 

[condeesteso]

Re oak... absolutely, but it might blow the budget?? I think there are very few manmade sheet materials suit bookshelves. Heavy things, books. There is one though - can't recall it's name and don't know where to find it (so not very helpful) BUT that Schwarz bloke made a bench top using a laminate (like ply) where the grain ran along on all layers. It's used for structural beams and is probably quite cheap. Now I reckon that may do it. Anyone know anything useful about that stuff??

 

[beech1948]

Well I'm looking at my 20 yr old IKEA Billy bookcase. Its a full 3/4 inch MDF with an oak veneer for shelves and sides.

Longest shelf span is about 33 inches. Deflection under a huge pile of books is about 1/16th inch at the shelf centre. Checked over 6 bookcases this is true for all of them.

Was there anything special about the IKEA MDF or veneers.....I don't think so, looking at the ends of the shelves they seem to be standard MDF.....hard dense outer and slightly softer middle.

If you are concerned about the deflection of the shelves then build the shelves using a slim torsion box approach using say 6mm ply or MDF as the covers and pine or similar as the torsion box pieces...aiming for say 1.5 inch shelves....a little chunky but with good proportions could look OK.

Al