Redkiwi, Hard Maple butcher block is commonly used in the food industry in the USA, but I don't know availability in your native NZ. Maple, although relatively light (compared to MDF or particle board), is dense, and when large solid lumber strips are glued together, the combined grain structures, glue bonds and naturally occurring differences in density in the various pieces, makes for a unique shelf material. You can visit McMaster Carr via the internet to look for yourself. Go to: WWW:MCMASTER.COM. The shelf material to look up to begin with is #4882T52. It is two and a quarter inches thick, thirty inched deep, and six feet long. The price is $271.10 (US) and will make multiple shelves for that price. I had three six foot pieces of this material shipped to me, half way across the USA for about $75.00. It is also possible that they have distributors that deliver in NZ. Their site says "worldwide," so who knows? Long distance air shipment is not always out of the question, I once had Flying Tigers ship a four hundred pound, 8 foot long item from Holland (Amsterdam) to DFW Airport (Dallas) for only about $135.00. Granted it took almost two weeks, as I bought the most economical (stand by) service, but it certainly made it affordable. Obviously, if this or a similar item is available nearby, this would be ideal. In any case, I wish you the best, and hope that some of the information I have provided will give you alternatives.
Shelf Material
I have tried so many different shelf materials, and some are better than others, but I feel like I am just spraying bullets that always miss the bulls-eye. So far, I cannot live with the brightness of glass, the ringing of marble or granite, the sluggishness of acrylic, the muddiness of mdf etc. Light and rigid seems better than heavy and dense - in that I can live with the downsides more easily. I use heavily constructed welded steel racks - spiked to the floor and upward spikes supporting the shelves - and I reckon this is right. I like the way bladder products get rid of the resonances that plague shelves, but find that the way they slow down the pace of the music is hard to accept. Does anyone have some answers on this?
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- 88 posts total
- 88 posts total