Garage Shelf Covers

I do a lot of woodworking in my garage, or as my wife calls it, "drinking beer from the mini-fridge and coming very close to losing fingers.  Anyhow, my other problem involves sawdust.  As anyone who has ever cut some wood knows, sawdust just goes everywhere and the shop-vac never gets everything.  So I got some garage shelves that I have no intention of ever cleaning, but really wanted to keep the dust off of them in a very cost-effective way.  I also had a spare shower curtain that the previous owners of our house left behind (because it's ugly, and matches the bathroom...hey maybe I'll do an instructable on remodeling that butt-ugly bathroom) and a bunch of spare hardware just lying around.  So here is a way to make some cheap shelf covers to keep the mess on the floor and off of your stuff.

Step 1 What you'll need

OK, I bought a rivet tool about four years ago and I never knew why because I have never really used it

a.)  Rivet tool
Here is the one I have, it has pretty bad reviews but for this project, it was fine.

b.)  12 of 1/4" rivets, steel or aluminum - that is your choice

c.)  24 of #6 flat washers

d.)  Leather hole punch

e.)  10 of 10-32 x 1/2" bolt and nut

f.)  Length of 3/4" hook and loop tape (that's Velcro)

g.)  Tub-size shower curtain.  I used fabric because plastic liner will attract the sawdust, but I suppose that is a problem if you want to see the stuff in the shelves.  Mine are used for regular storage, not stuff I use all the time.  If you have bigger shelves, I guess you could use an old bed sheet.

h.)  Drill with a 1/4" step-up metal cutting bit 

i.)  I guess you'd need shelves for this to work, so here's my shelves

j.)  Oh yeah, also 10 of #10 flat washers

Comments

[knoxmj19]

Thanks, everyone. Glad this helped!

[barefootbohemian]

I was literally about to clean my garage (again, since the dirt and everything else blows in there on a daily basis), when by chance I saw this listed under most popular.... and i can see why it's popular! Great idea, and before I get to cleaning i am going by the dollar store and get some shower curtains to do this, pretty sure I have all the rest of the stuff on those shelves that need to be covered ;)

[rimar2000]

Good idea, thanks for sharing. I will need something like your curtains when I start to woodturning. My new workshop is little and crowded with shelves and loose things. Really, is a truly work to clean the wood dust.