One of the challenges of many woodworking projects is, how do you hold your parts steady as you’re assembling them?
In fact, I’m dealing with that situation! I’m building a shelf and I’m going to attach a face frame to it. But it’s kind of wobbly, so I’m going to get some assistance from a metal shelf bracket.
Now, I’m not going to use this metal bracket to support the shelf; I’m going to use it, instead, to steady the parts as I’m putting the shelf together.
If you do a lot of woodworking, follow this tip: get one spring clamp and clamp the metal bracket to the workbench and then grab another clamp to hold the upper part of the bracket to the shelf.
Do you see how rock steady it is? It’s not going to shift out of position or flop over as you’re assembling the shelf.
Now, imagine if I was building a cabinet. You could take a second bracket and clamp it on the other end. And these brackets come in a range of sizes, so this tip is versatile for all kinds of projects.
The other thing I want to mention is I’m only building two or three shelves, but if you’re building several of them, you might want to screw down the bracket. That way, it will be permanently locked in place. Then, you only need to use one clamp.
Now that the parts are held in place, I can finish assembling this woodworking project.
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