My heavy duty IKEA Expedit 5x5

after a long search for the best solution for my records, I decided to go with the Expedit. I have seen the tipped over photos and they scared me. however they all seemed to have the shelves on the wrong way.

Here is mine.

I used Tightbond for all dowels during assembly. Then got some ebony stain and ripped a few 1/4" sheets of plywood for the backing. screwed them into all the shelves and perimeter.... with an ample amount used....every 6" in every direction. then I went to a woodworkers store and got a board of popular and had it ripped into 1 5/8" x 3" strips. I cut those down to the 13.25" or so for each shelf and mounted against the plywood. these are my spacers to keep the records a slight bit more forward. I put a 1x6 against the wall into the studs and then pushed the Expedit up against it and screwed to nice and tight to the wall.

this thing is a tank. the only thing I would do differently next time is my spacers could have been 1.75" instead. that and tightbond has a purple bottle for bonding melamine to mdf that would have been nice to use on all shelves. anyways...

 

Cool. Now you need you buy a few records

 

That puppy ain't goin' nowhere.

 

Fill her up!

 

alphabetizing is not as fun as I thought it would be.

 

You should be good to go now, enjoy.

 

I think that a rigid backing is key. I used a sheet of melamine, like you used the plywood. Makes a huge difference.

 

No its not...

 

I like the backing and the spacer idea. I have a 5x5 that's full and it's a pain when I put records back in and the ones on either side get pushed to the back. That and my little ones like to come in and push them back too. For shear strength I put a piece of poplar along the wall and secured it to every stud, then I lined one of the brackets up with the stud and put a heavy duty woodscrew through the bracket, poplar and stud. The next bracket didn't line up with a stud so I just put it through the poplar strip. I recommend loading it up with records and letting it sit for a week before doing this if you have carpet so that it can settle.

I'm now debating whether to get another 5x5 or a 4x4. I have about 12 crates of records that still need storage, mostly 12" singles, children and c&w which I don't play much. I made a 500 record front flip bin recently from plans on the internet, if I had the room I'd do that for all my records. I prefer it to just seeing the spines, it's always nice just to browse the artwork.

 

Someone told me about the spacers some time ago and I thought it was a great idea, but being the procrastinator I am I still haven't got around to installing them. One thing to remember though...this is not completely foolproof as not all LP jackets are of the exact same dimensions and forget about boxsets. Standard LP jackets can go from just under 12 1/4" to as much as 12 1/2" +.

 

Bring on the vinyl!

 

there is plenty of room for box sets. the shelves fit every box I have except the 2012 Beatles set. I haven't tried it but it measured too big.

standard albums are about an inch from the front. I mistyped my spacer thickness, its 1 3/8". either way its a nice depth.

 

You're correct. With the spacer you added you do indeed have more than enough room as the Expedit is 15" deep. I should have mentioned I was referring to a 1x3" strip glued to either the top or bottom of each section, which is what I was told about.

 

I liked it so much I just bought a 1x5 to stand next to this one. I didn't want everything pack super tight where I have to keep shifting stuff over. after getting everything in I didn't feel long term expansion was going to be as long term before it will be full. plus there is a perfect amount of room on the wall and its 3 more ideal height shelves.

 

I have my LPs come right to the edge.. I had never thought about having them a space from the front. It looks nice.

 

Agrees. Hence why our collection is 75% organized. Stuff got a little out of order in the move. The boyfriend is in the process of fixing that. Notice I said boyfriend and not me.

 

I have the 2 x 4 version. What is causing them to tip over? I never get the impression that mine would fall.

 

My vinyl racks are completed unorganized. How do you alphabetize with a continually growing collection? It must be a nightmare when you run out of space between letters, then you have to shift all the music over (imagine this happening at the letter A or B...). Not too bad with CDs, but vinyl is heavy!

I don't have any trouble finding things, since I have a rough idea when I bought something. The cubes are filled in a successive fashion.

I used to keep empty cubes for things like the Music Matters or Impulse! vinyl which have similar spines and look good together. But I started running out of space for that, and there was no way I was shifting things over

 

And, some artist just don't help out....
Johnny Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, John Mellencamp
Lionel Richie... his greatest hits album has quite a few song that he did when he was with "The Commodores"
I know I'm forgetting a few others... =O)

 

I tried to leave about 3" on each bin for it to expand, and if it was a couple letters I thought had potential I left it half full. somehow "N" and "O" took up half a bin. I felt like I was slacking having that little. but I left it like that and went to the next bin because there was a lot of "P" for some reason. I learned a lot about my collection from doing this.

 

I studied the 3 collapsed photos I could find. all three had one thing in common.... the verticle and horizontal pieces were flipped so the long solid boards where going up and down rather than across. all the weight from each cubby was sitting on 4 dowels. the larger shelves where the long boards meet is 4 dowels on each end....plus the divider holding it up. I would think if one shelf gives out when set up like that, it would be a world trade center pancake effect....all that weight collapses to one below and that has to give and then the next goes. now there is a lot of weight going sideways also and nothing to help hold that price in place and that goes too.

I have seen in one photo the shelf was built completely correctly, then laid on its side ... meaning the outside screws were not going in up and down, bit side to side. ...plus you have the same situation of the short pieces holding the load on the 4 total dowels. now the effects of weight are even more pronounced because MDF while strong, is very weak for screws compared to solid wood. the load on the side walls is going to be over before it starts if the shelf gives and compounds the outward push.

the 1x5 however was built to stand upright with load on the short shelves. each shelf has 4 dowels per side....totalling 8. just like the long boards use on the larger ones.

also, when I first constructed this, it was very flimsy IMO. any touching from the side would cause it to sway. this was with everything glued. adding the plywood to the back made all the difference in the world. none of the collapsed photos show the use of a backing board.

I 100% believe in all 3 photos an upper shelf with the 4 dowel (2 each side) gave out as it was not designed for records and the collapsed the shelf below as it couldnt handle 40 more pounds, let a lone 40 more pounds being dropped on it....and then the sideway swaying from ikeas lack of back bracing caused it to fold sideways.

 

When I did my spacers, I used double sided tape at each end to hold them up. I didn't want anything too permanent or something that would leave a mark.

 

Nah. Half the collection is mine. Hehe.