Book Books and a library

[michael080]

Very interesting thread. Many clever solutions.

BUT ... if you load 50kg of books on a wooden board, it will sag. That is simple physics. Let it sag, ignore the sag, enjoy the books.
After all, the sagging is an indication that you have a nice extensive library.
Michael

 

[daifly]

Unfortunately my sagging caused the shelf to disengage from the side supports. Many kilos of books and shelf suddenly added their weight to the shelf of books below with the inevitable consequence!

I solved it by the method Richard outlined in post #35. Sagging just has to be stopped before hundreds of pounds worth and weight of books get damaged!

Dave

 

[Martin Shaw]

Mindful of Dave's prescient reminder that gravity only works one way, I went to B&Q this morning to acquire some suitable strips of plywood, more accurately recycled orange boxes that they call plywood. Apart from not having any full sheets of 12mm, the smaller supposedly hard wood ply was pretty awful, multiple splintered cuts and far from straight. I came away empty handed refusing to pay for not much better than firewood and about as useful. I have an idea where I can get actual plywood locally which will I suppose be not cheap but it will at least work. Might well be back to the angle ali yet.

The test weight for the shelves arrived from Bath this morning, managed to smuggle the books into the library without being spotted, the small wins do cheer one up.
Gone tree spotting
Martin

 

[Richard Gawler]

If you have a shop for model boats nearby, they might do nice quality birch ply in 4 x 1 ft sheets, quite a handy size for this sort of project.

 

[Martin Shaw]

Very nearly 4 months on in which time my daughter is now 36, and I approach 69 far too soon, where does the time go, today has been the final chapter in my bookshelf replacement. The joiners, who in my wife's opinion are doing far more important things, made me a posh set of intermediary shelf dividers with nicely veneered front faces to match which were delivered this morning. This does mean yet another rearrangement but I suppose I'm not really doing anything much else. A positively balmy 13 C today compared to -8 C last week, weird country we live in and not just the weather.
Best wishes and a Happy Christmas everyone.
Martin

 

[Heather Kay]

Ooh! A jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces are the same shape and there’s no picture to guide you!

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

I similarly have quite a large collection of books. Recently I've been asking myself why do I keep most of them. About 10% get reasonably frequent use and the rest have been looked at once or twice and never returned to. My thoughts are to keep those which are useful to my modelling and specific interests then move the remainder on. Unfortunately after helping dispose of the collection of a deceased friend I realise that they are worth very little.
Have others gone through this process and what was the result?

all the best
Tim

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have a cull every year or so. Otherwise I run out of shelf space and end up with piles on the sofa and the living room floor.

I try to keep the railway books I have enjoyed reading, books I have read more than once, and books with clear and potentially useful photographs. Also books received as presents from loved ones who have died, and books of a specialised nature where I took years to find them and, whilst not actually useful yet, just might be.

The books I let go are the ones I have bought within the last few years and found to be useless; books which I enjoyed reading but know I will never look at again; and the ones I have never read.

Thinking about the local area, the Community Bookshop in Chelmsford (near the market) and the St Helena Hospice Bookshop in Frinton-on-Sea seem to be happy recipients of all titles railway.

 

[fenman]

I similarly have quite a large collection of books. Recently I've been asking myself why do I keep most of them. About 10% get reasonably frequent use and the rest have been looked at once or twice and never returned to. My thoughts are to keep those which are useful to my modelling and specific interests then move the remainder on. Unfortunately after helping dispose of the collection of a deceased friend I realise that they are worth very little.
Have others gone through this process and what was the result?

all the best
Tim

Tim,
I take my railway books to the North Norfolk Railway for them to sell in their second hand bookshop. They also have an E Bay site.
All the best for Christmas and the New Year, Pete.

 

[Martin Shaw]

Well I suppose that apart from the info that is to be gained from them for modelling purposes I get as much joy from the pleasure of ownership and as such I don't consider how to dispose of them. I think the executors of my estate might be a tad dismayed by what they're actually worth to a third party, and no doubt my late mother might be pleased that I am so interested in books, the subject matter would be accorded some disdain. Storing them is a challenge but fortunately I have the room and an understanding wife.
Regards
Martin

 

[MarkR]

I get as much joy from the pleasure of ownership and as such I don't consider how to dispose of them.

Hi Martin
I think you have hit the nail on the head!
Mark

 

[Osgood]

Well I ended up going for the steel shelving option.
I obtained a single bay first to check it would be suitable - whilst certainly strong enough it could be considered a bit utilitarian, but I am satisfied that with the odd fix and workaround it can be tarted up enough to look reasonably presentable.

The main order came this week.
This is what I have to work with:


This is the sort of railway book library I'd been thinking about:


Going to have to scale back my plans - maybe lose one or two levels......

 

[Mike W]

I have fitted one wall of the Dining Room with commercial twin slot shelving floor to ceiling, with sliding plywood doors painted to match the room so that, at a glance, it looks like a wall. All works OK aesthetically, but the wall is brick (outside of the house with garage the other side) and I find unless I remove the books every year or two and clean them, mould forms on the faces of books adjacent to the brickwork. I've taken to leaving one door at each end slightly open, but that doesn't seem to make much difference. Any suggestions please?

Mike

 

[simond]

Mike,

Is it possible to put an insulation layer between books & shelves and the wall?

My guess is the normal humidity in the room (people breathing!) causes some condensation in the airspace between the wall, which is presumably colder being an outside one, and your books. I’m not sure ventilation will help.

 

[Osgood]

Airflow - must have airflow to avoid mould.
If your shelving is 250mm deep Mike, there will be no gap behind the majority of books.
300mm deep shelves can cope with 99% of a typical book collection and provide that essential air gap for most.

Some forced ventilation might help your situation - the shelving and books have been effectively sealed up by your plywood doors.
If there is room to do so, what about installing one of those really quiet bathroom extractor fans at one end, with the outlet at the far end?
You can put it on a programmable time switch so that it runs say twice a day for 15 -30 mins to change the air.
I've done this with great success in storage containers.
It all depends whether air can circulate behind the books I guess - as a last resort you could drill a series of large diameter holes at the rear in the metal shelves, say 50mm dia. or more, to provide airflow.

I had originally specced up plain shelving as being the more aesthetically pleasing of the two options (plain or slotted) but this had been discontinued and slotted shelving made standard, although the manufacturer had just enough stock left for what I needed so I went for plain.
But then I got thinking about air flow and realised that the slots might assist with airflow so plain might not be that sensible for the very reason you have discovered.
I also found I could get dividers for use with the slotted shelves and realised that once the shelves are full of books the slots cannot be seen anyway - dividers would solve the magazine storage issue. Order changed!
The dividers have two tabs at the bottom that locate as per arrow in the pic below:

 

[Tim V]

I had those wide bookshelves, but a major collapse finally made me cut the shelves in half and with new uprights I had a new system with much safer shelves. Shelves now 2'8" wide.
Seen here part way through doing it back in 2018!

 

[Martin Shaw]

Tony
That looks distinctly superior in the strength department compared to the Ikea offering I installed amd Tim's warning does reinforce my and others caution. Could I ask you to point me at the website please, may yet change things.
Martin

 

[Osgood]

Martin,

Delta Plus Steel Shelving | Anco

Delta Plus Steel Shelving is a highly adaptable steel shelving system, perfect for the office or storeroom. Delta Plus can be customised with a series of dividers and accessories.

www.ancostorage.co.uk

Sold through distributors (office equipment / furniture suppliers) but delivered direct to customer from Anco - nobody appears to stock it.
Main problem was that I couldn't find a supplier who listed / priced all the items I needed, and none offered one particular size, and some online sales sites were listing sizes in their online shops which are no longer available from Anco (I checked availability direct with ANCO), so I had to get a supplier to obtain quotes for what I needed.

The quality seems fine and when assembled forms a strong rigid unit (even more so if made up as double sided 600 deep bays with 300 shelves).
Available in 686, 902 and 986 wide bays, minimum depth 300, minimum height 1930 - for each run you need one starter bay (2 x uprights) and then extension bays (with 1 x upright).
I've cut two bays in half to make a double-sided 600 wide x 1400 long x 965 high island unit with a wood worktop on for standing reading.
Paint (a pleasant satin soft white RAL 9010) is not overly thick and there is the odd surface blemish, but no shelves had both front faces affected so any unsatisfactory faces could be hidden.
So long as it is not in a damp environment I don't think it will start rusting up!
Front face of each shelf has ANCO pressed in to one side, but this is only noticeable when the light catches it.
End panels look a bit utilitarian with visible clips but can be overclad with a thin ply or similar.

If you do go this route let me know and I can advise a couple of useful fixes and workarounds to make it a bit better.

Ruling out the top end brands on cost alone, I couldn't find anything else comparable in terms of value - overall I'm very pleased with it.

 

[Martin Shaw]

Thanks very much for that Tony, more pondering in idle moments.
Martin