Rolly Shelves Plans Download

Rolly Shelves Plans - ROLLY01 model
Authored by Davin Hoyt and based upon a Wheaton Lab's as-built model.


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Format: PDF file
Pages: 2
Print size: 48"x36"
Price: 20 USD

Last time I visited Wheaton Labs (Summer 2017), I documented the famous Rolly Shelves.

A list of my drawings here.

I haven't built one for a couple decades, but I used to think it was fun to strive to build reliable shelves using material any sane person would think was too light for the task. For example, I use 3/8" plywood to make 30" wide book shelves.

I figured if engineers could come up with suspension bridges, that would hold lanes of traffic, some of those tricks could be used to build bookshelves that were so light they could be lifted and carried with one hand, and wouldn't sag under extreme load.

To be fair, I did add stiffners to the front. I rabbited the stiffner so it set in the stiffner, as well as on it.

Performance of stiffners is so impressive, I am amazed at how many nice looking kitchen cabinets don't have them, since a reasonable stack of Fiestaware results in sagging. In fact, when I met my wife, her house had some of those cabinets.  I added the stiffners to the back of the shelves and they solved the sagging problem.

The shelf that comes to mind was about 7' tall. I ran some 1/8" aircraft cable [I got for a song and dance at a garage sale] in an X pattern on the back. The cables ran top to bottom and have turn buckles to allow tightening.

Stainless aircraft cable wire is fairly cheap and would allow for a lot of weight reduction, without compromising capacity.

On the matter of casters, I had some heavy duty critters I acquired from who knows where. I needed a rack that would hold my collection of lumber. Up to around a thousand pounds.  The casters could handle it, BUT the wood (2x4's) the caster posts went through couldn't.  They started moving to an angle THROUGH the wood and I could barely move the rack, when loaded.  It was a matter of time and I'd have to call it a stationary storage rack.

I ended up pulling out my floor jack, lifting an end at a time, blocking both sides up (safety), and removing the casters.  I replaced the single caster in each corner with three high capacity Harbor Freight ones.

To install the three casters in each corner, all I did was mount them on about an 8" square piece of plywood, and secured it to the bottom of the rack.

Four years later, the rack still moves freely, with just one hand.