Fridge shelves tend to break over time. It can be quite expensive to buy new shelves from the right brand. Sugru is perfect for the job as it is cheaper than buying new shelves. Sugru will withstand very cold degrees, bond to the plastic/glass, and stay flexible which should prevent the shelves from breaking any further.

What you'll need:

Approximately 1 pack of Sugru for each shelf you need to fix.
Scissor for opening the Sugru.
Soapy water for smoothening the Sugru.

Step 1: Prepare the Shelves

The images above show my broken fridge shelves that needed fixing.

Make sure that your shelves are clean and dry.

Find a good curing place for the shelves. A good place is inside where it’s not too cold, and somewhere they can lay in peace for the 24-hour curing time.

Step 2: Fix Those Shelves

Wash your hands, and place the shelves on a clean table. You need to have everything ready before opening the Sugru, as you can only mold it in around 30 minutes.

Open a pack of Sugru, and divide it into smaller bits. Roll the Sugru inside your hand, to make it warm and flexible. Now roll it into a long and thin line as seen below. If you don’t have large amounts of Sugru to work with, the thinner the line of Sugru is- the longer the whole pack will last. Place the line of Sugru on top of the crack. Press the Sugru down, while making sure that the crack isn’t moving. You should put Sugru on both sides of the crack, for a more durable fix. When you have used the whole pack of Sugru, it’s time to make the Sugru smoother and better looking. You can press the Sugru further down to make it as flat as possible. To get rid of your fingerprints on the Sugru, you can dip your fingertip in soapy water and rub it on the Sugru. This will also give the Sugru a shinier look.

Step 3: Sugru Experiment

There were a lot of cracks on my shelves, and it would take a massive amount of Sugru to fix them all. I divided the cracks into two categories: The cracks that went to the borders of the shelves, and the cracks that didn’t.

The cracks that went to the border were the fatal ones, as they were reducing the functionality of the shelves. These needs full fixing, as in a line of Sugru on top of the crack on both sides.

The cracks that didn’t go to the border was only threatening to become larger over time, but wasn’t doing any harm at the moment. To prevent them from getting larger while saving the amounts of Sugru needed, I made an experiment. I only fixed the point where the cracks ended, instead of fixing the whole crack. I’m hoping that it’ll prevent them from cracking any further, as the Sugru might stop the cracking effect. As you can see on the picture, I took a small ball of Sugru and pressed it down on the ending of the crack. I did that on both sides of the crack, and made it as flat as possible. You have to use a very small ball of Sugru for this, which is why a pack of Sugru will last a lot longer with this method.

In order to be sure that the method is working, I’ll need to give the fixed shelves some time to be used. If the experiment proves to not save the crack from cracking further, I will delete the tip from this Instructable.

Step 4: Curing Time

Now that you fixed your shelves, you only need to give the Sugru some time to cure. Place the shelves on your curing spot and don’t touch it for the next 24 hours. It can be tempting to touch the Sugru or lift up the shelves, but I would strongly advise you to leave them be, as you could quickly ruin the fix.

This Instructable has been made as part of the Sugru workshop at Copenhagen Fablab.