Saggy Freezer Shelves

Every time I opened the freezer door, I would be met with an avalanche of frozen, rock hard missiles.

For some unknown reason the front stays on the shelves no longer sit well within their plastic guides.

An extension of the powder coated wires needed to be made.  Welding was not possible due to fumes from the powder coating and rust of the steel shelves.

The solution was short aluminum tubing extensions.

For some reason I am unable to add more than one photo per step tonight.

This shows how close the unladen shelf is to coming adrift

A length of aluminum tube that has an internal diameter to allow it to fit snuggly over the powder coated stay.

A pipe/ tube cutter.

A sharpie for marking (not shown below)

A vice. (Not shown, I never show off my vices:-) )

Align the tube beside the stay.

Adding the depth of the plastic channel mark for the centre of the cut.

Use the tube cutter to remove the extension from the main tube.

Some hints to make this easier :-
          Hold the tube in a vise.  It is important that the work does not turn.
          Use something soft in the jaws of the vice to save marking the tube.
          Only tighten the cutter a small amount each time.
          Rotate the cutter toward the back rib of the tool as this makes scouring the tube easier.
          Rotate the cutter until it turns freely.
          Then tighten it a little. Repeat this until the extension piece comes off.

The trick is to work slowly.

Remove any burrs from the cut end.

Slide the tube over the end of the stay.

Repeat the process until you have cut sufficient extensions for your shelves.

Place an extension on each end of each stay.

Carefully place shelf, with extensions, back in the freezer.  You may need to jiggle the stays a little to ensure that they seat properly.

Overload the shelves as normal :-) and they stay on place.

Hooray! Problem solved.

MMmm A freezer is a big box, would I be too lateral to enter it in the box contest?
Nah!!!