@RainMan 2.0 Never thought about hiding the pin that way. I have a couple of large bookshelves around my TV, and the face frames hide the holes in the front. The bottom shelf on each are dado'd in place for rigidity.

 

It wasn’t so much as hiding as it was holding . When the shelf just sits on the pins it’s not very solid. You pull it ahead 2 inches and it falls ,but when the pins are recessed the shelf seems very solid imo .
Definitely going to do this with shelf’s in my gym now ,but I’ll take my time to hopefully get them as accurate as possible

 

One way to make sure the shelves do not fall off in an earthquake.
The Japanese have a very special way with wood joinery.

 

There are a lot of Japanese joinery videos on YouTube. Always fun to watch. And Japanese pull planes are wonders of woodworking. Don't use push type saws anymore either,

 

The only thing I'd recommend is making the front slot wider to account for expansion/contraction of a solid wood shelf unless the case sides are the same solid wood. I speak from personal experience.

 

Never thought of that . I’m glad you mentioned it because I’m going to make some shelves for my gym‘s cabinets soon the same way .
This is actually going to be helpful , as if I miss by a little bit I can compensate by making holes wider to help with expansion and contraction while I’m at it . Thanks for posting

 

I had to install some knock-down fittings on the edges of melamine clad chipboard shelves. The easiest way I found was to clamp two boards together, and drill a hole with a wood bit centered on the line where the two boards touched. Gave a half-cylinder hole on either side. The fittings were designed to fit that half-cylinder.
‘Quicker than trying to line up on a router table..

 

I had to install some knock-down fittings on the edges of melamine clad chipboard shelves. The easiest way I found was to clamp two boards together, and drill a hole with a wood bit centered on the line where the two boards touched. Gave a half-cylinder hole on either side. The fittings were designed to fit that half-cylinder.
‘Quicker than trying to line up on a router table..

I knew there had to be a better way to line things up ,thx

 

Yes. I usually try to have my shelves level...LOL Did not think of that.

 

It’s all good James , you’re not 65 anymore

 

Ok don't pick om may age, Rick.
Turned 78 last Wednesday......

 

Well happy belated birthday James . I turned 64 in April , no spring chicken either

 

We build a lot of store fixtures in our shop, and we do this all the time. It's dangerous for the shelf to be sliding around in a retail store.

 

I made this shelf system 40ish years back and it has followed me through 3 different houses and 3 different configurations. Rather than shelf pins I used pan head screws into keyhole slot cut in the shelf sides. For the shelves that aren't solid wood I widened up the front keyhole slot to account for the vertical side panels expanding/contracting seasonally. Mostly white ash with a mixture of solid ash shelves, laminated chip board with ash trim front edge, and frames for glass inserts.

4D

 

I made this shelf system 40ish years back and it has followed me through 3 different houses and 3 different configurations. Rather than shelf pins I used pan head screws into keyhole slot cut in the shelf sides. For the shelves that aren't solid wood I widened up the front keyhole slot to account for the vertical side panels expanding/contracting seasonally. Mostly white ash with a mixture of solid ash shelves, laminated chip board with ash trim front edge, and frames for glass inserts.

That’s a very interesting way of doing it . Never heard of doing it that way till now . Can’t see why it wouldn’t work great