I had purchased 80 grit and 180 grit sandpaper for the shelf. The plan was only to sand critical parts. No good is done by sanding top and bottom if they are not going to be painted. That opens up wood pores and makes the wood more succeptible to damage. The milling job on the flat face surfaces of the maple shelf is nearly perfect. It wasn't quite so perfect on the edges, particularly the rough cut edge, which even has a crack (now facing the floor) that extends about half an inch.
My friend has said she does not want the shelf painted, but instead plans to coat it with beeswax, just as she does now with her pine shelf. Fine.
So using the 80 grit sandpaper, I lightly beveled the corner edges on the two sides, especially the cut side, and along what I chose to be "the front" because it was free of gouges. It took very little sanding with the 80 grit paper. The bevel is very minimal, with effective radius of about 1mm. After that the board seemed very nice already so I didn't even open the fine sandpaper. I know that fine sanding can actually create sharp edges.
Putting the shelf in place was trickier than I would have thought without removing the closet doors.
If the closet doors weren't there, you would just slide it in right at the level it needs to be and that would be that. But removing the closet doors looks to be a non-trivial task, so instead the shelf needs to be worked around into position. Because the board is nearly a tight-fit in most of the closet space, it must either have the two sides flat to the wall, or be at a steep angle, there is not enough room to make the transition from one to the other easily. So this was like a puzzle. Finally I found a way to squeeze it in, up, and around, just barely making a few transitions (and possibly leaving some slight indentations in the sheetrock).
I was proud of all this, but when my friend came for inspection, she immediately saw the gaps on either side of the board and asked why it is too small. Well I measured it to fit the narrowest space, in the back of the closet. The width at the front of the shelf is wider by about 3/8 of an inch, so you'd see about half that on either side, I expected.
But actually, nearly all of the gap was visible one side, and the whole board could be moved back and forth a bit. I'm not sure by how much, maybe half of an inch. So it looks like my measurements were off a bit, though if I had gone for 48 inches instead of 47, it probably wouldn't have fit at all.
Also there was some gap underneath the shelf but above the moulding which supports it. I'm not sure why, either the board is slightly warped or the carpentry of the moulding isn't perfect, or a bit of both which is what I believe. I'd flip the shelf over except then the crack now on the bottom would be on the top, and there is no way to flip it except by removing from closet, and I don't want to go there again. But because of the gap and/or warpage, the shelf did not stay flat but would easily rock front to back about half an inch.
I found some plastic shims made out of polycarbonate (about as strong as steel) in my junk drawer. Actually, it is a set of shims of decreasing size, the entire set being about 5 inches long, and I had two such 5 inch sticks. I inserted one below the shelf on the side, and one below the shelf in the back. The shims fit in the moulding gaps perfectly, so now the shelf does not have a front-to-back wobble. I inserted the shims lightly so they are not supporting all the weight, but just enough to eliminate noticeable wobble. Shimming the back means that the front edge lays flat on the mounding, as it should. There might be a very slight incline from back to front, but that's OK as long as the shelf doesn't wobble. Actually, a incline going the other way would be equally problematic, things could roll to the back where they are hard to get at, and even fall behind the shelf down to the molding. Anyway, the incline is so slight I doubt anything not perfectly round is going to roll at all.
The shelf can still be shifted from side-to-side about 1/2 inch. When slid all the way to the left, the visible gaps are about the same. When shifted all the way to the right, the visible gap on the left disappears, but the visible gap on the right appears almost 3/4 of an inch. I'm going to get some more of those polycarbonate shims, to keep the shelf fairly centered, mostly pushed toward the right to make the bigger gap smaller.
I pulled down on the center of the shelf will all my weight (about 215 pounds) and it bends very little. I suspect this shelf can easily support much more, maybe 500 pounds of live weight (like two people) or 1000 pounds of dead weight (like a stack of metal disks that just sits there). The fact that the shelf is only supported by the edges of the moulding in front (due to the gaps) does not appear to be a problem. A pine shelf would bend more and also support less weight.
My friend has said she does not want the shelf painted, but instead plans to coat it with beeswax, just as she does now with her pine shelf. Fine.
So using the 80 grit sandpaper, I lightly beveled the corner edges on the two sides, especially the cut side, and along what I chose to be "the front" because it was free of gouges. It took very little sanding with the 80 grit paper. The bevel is very minimal, with effective radius of about 1mm. After that the board seemed very nice already so I didn't even open the fine sandpaper. I know that fine sanding can actually create sharp edges.
Putting the shelf in place was trickier than I would have thought without removing the closet doors.
If the closet doors weren't there, you would just slide it in right at the level it needs to be and that would be that. But removing the closet doors looks to be a non-trivial task, so instead the shelf needs to be worked around into position. Because the board is nearly a tight-fit in most of the closet space, it must either have the two sides flat to the wall, or be at a steep angle, there is not enough room to make the transition from one to the other easily. So this was like a puzzle. Finally I found a way to squeeze it in, up, and around, just barely making a few transitions (and possibly leaving some slight indentations in the sheetrock).
I was proud of all this, but when my friend came for inspection, she immediately saw the gaps on either side of the board and asked why it is too small. Well I measured it to fit the narrowest space, in the back of the closet. The width at the front of the shelf is wider by about 3/8 of an inch, so you'd see about half that on either side, I expected.
But actually, nearly all of the gap was visible one side, and the whole board could be moved back and forth a bit. I'm not sure by how much, maybe half of an inch. So it looks like my measurements were off a bit, though if I had gone for 48 inches instead of 47, it probably wouldn't have fit at all.
Also there was some gap underneath the shelf but above the moulding which supports it. I'm not sure why, either the board is slightly warped or the carpentry of the moulding isn't perfect, or a bit of both which is what I believe. I'd flip the shelf over except then the crack now on the bottom would be on the top, and there is no way to flip it except by removing from closet, and I don't want to go there again. But because of the gap and/or warpage, the shelf did not stay flat but would easily rock front to back about half an inch.
I found some plastic shims made out of polycarbonate (about as strong as steel) in my junk drawer. Actually, it is a set of shims of decreasing size, the entire set being about 5 inches long, and I had two such 5 inch sticks. I inserted one below the shelf on the side, and one below the shelf in the back. The shims fit in the moulding gaps perfectly, so now the shelf does not have a front-to-back wobble. I inserted the shims lightly so they are not supporting all the weight, but just enough to eliminate noticeable wobble. Shimming the back means that the front edge lays flat on the mounding, as it should. There might be a very slight incline from back to front, but that's OK as long as the shelf doesn't wobble. Actually, a incline going the other way would be equally problematic, things could roll to the back where they are hard to get at, and even fall behind the shelf down to the molding. Anyway, the incline is so slight I doubt anything not perfectly round is going to roll at all.
The shelf can still be shifted from side-to-side about 1/2 inch. When slid all the way to the left, the visible gaps are about the same. When shifted all the way to the right, the visible gap on the left disappears, but the visible gap on the right appears almost 3/4 of an inch. I'm going to get some more of those polycarbonate shims, to keep the shelf fairly centered, mostly pushed toward the right to make the bigger gap smaller.
I pulled down on the center of the shelf will all my weight (about 215 pounds) and it bends very little. I suspect this shelf can easily support much more, maybe 500 pounds of live weight (like two people) or 1000 pounds of dead weight (like a stack of metal disks that just sits there). The fact that the shelf is only supported by the edges of the moulding in front (due to the gaps) does not appear to be a problem. A pine shelf would bend more and also support less weight.
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