Hanging Shelves Made From Longboards

This is my first instructable, so bear with me. Any suggestions to improve it are very welcome.

I recently decided to get rid of my old DVD/Media shelves as I was tired of them and they took up too much floor space. After pondering a bit about a solution, I found this instructable:

www.instructables.com/id/Industrial-looking-hanging-media-shelves/

Inspired by that design and also by not wanting to buy the tools to crimp cable ferrules, I came up with the idea of using shaft collars instead of crimp on cable ferrules. I then went even further and decided to incorporate my favorite activity, longboarding, by using longboards for the shelves. Read on to see how it all came together!

Step 1 Materials and Tools

First off, a materials list. I bought the cable and shaft collars from www.mcmaster.com. Part numbers are listed at the beginning of each item.

*Part # 3458T979 - 1/8" Diameter Stainless Steel Cable
*Part # 9414T3 - 1/8" ID Shaft Collar
*Wood For Shelves - I used blem longboards, you can use plywood, pine boards, etc..
*Various Screws
*Wood Stain (I used black leather dye and Wipe-on Poly)

Now the tools list. It doesn't take much, but a few more specialty items are needed and are noted below.

*Pencil or Pen
*Tape Measure and/or Ruler
*Drill and/or Drill Press
*3/8" Forstner Drill Bit (Needed to recess holes for shaft collars)
*1/16" Allen wrench/driver (To tighten shaft collar set screws)
*Screwdriver
*Sander and/or Sand Paper
*Table Saw and/or Skill Saw (Only needed if you are making your shelves.)
*Bolt Cutters (Needed to cut the cable. Regular hand cutters won't cut it.)
*Level
*Stud Finder

Comments

[ao'barr]

i want to make

[HoboWhisperer]

You've gotta love McMaster.  They sell absolutely everything.  And they've had one of the best web interfaces in existence for the last 6 years at least.  It's almost as good as wandering through a Hardware store thinking "I need a thinggy that kinda looks like..."

[NitroRustlerDriver]

 Exactly. I can spend hours just looking through all the stuff they have. I had a job a few years back where they actually had a printed catalog. I wanted to steal it. :) lol

[HoboWhisperer]

Yeah, I just checked - they only send them to their current customers.  I'm surprised they don't give you the option to buy one!  That's the only product that they don't stock :)

[xavier_bustos]

Excellent idea, congrats. I built something similar based on your instructable. Still have plenty of free place. Thanks.

[dugitup]

 mountain bike brake cables might work nicely.  The head of the cable is turned 90 degrees so it wouldn't fit quite as perfectly in the recess, but nobody's going to see it.

[NitroRustlerDriver]

 They could work, but you would still need collars for the shelves in the middle of the cable. Might work good for the very top hanger though, then use collars down below.

[SCUBASTEVEAU]

 Why not put trucks on with 2 screws and put the cable through the other holes and collar below the trucks? and use boards with artwork on the bottom, for a teenage bedroom. Cool idea though! Re your disclaimer about weight i was wondering if a blob of Epoxy below the collar would help, though it would make it difficult or even impossible to adjust after that.
Just some ideas, but love it

[beahelf]

 Hi I have used leftover laminate flooring for the same kind of treatment. Good instructable.

[abraxas1]

Wow, really nice looking shelves. great finished product.
it's a much nicer solution then crimping, but i'm a little worried those set screws won't loosen up someday. cable compresses and all.

it would be great if that little block of ply on top could be aluminum and if the cable wasn't cut there, but just looped though. then would hardly need the set screws at all. but need a little machining for the block to loop the cable through.

great idea, gonna do this in the back office. Thanks!
m

[NitroRustlerDriver]

 I was a little worried about the collars initially as well, but after assembling, I have much more confidence in them. They hold amazing well. I think because the cable is a twisted braid, the set screw locks in between the spirals and doesn't allow it to slip down. Also, the set screws can back out because of how the collars are recessed into the wood. The set screws are about flush in the collar when tightened.

[kenbob]

Excellent instructable - good directions, good photos, good results.  Lots of variations could be done on this theme.  And, you can vacuum under the shelves!

[NitroRustlerDriver]

 Yup, I work at TLS. If you've ordered anything over the last few months, I probably assembled it and packed it.

I like the idea of the Evo bookends. Might have to do something like that myself.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

AWSOME!!!! you work at the longboardstore!!! that is so cool! and awsome shelves too!!!!

[BiggieSOMD]

You get to work at TheLongboardStore? You are a lucky person, I wanna try and make some of these out of my old broken boards. Would an old evo provide bookends for the shelves also

Also, you guys are my goto source for everything, just wanna thank you all for nothing but awesome service

[_mattb]

Nice idea with the collars!  Adjustable..easy to attach.. 

No doubt one of the best sets of shelves on instructables. 

[Doctor What]

 Those look great!  Very modern look.

[NitroRustlerDriver]

 Thanks!