Sturdy Shelf Stand on the Cheap

Since I made my arcade cabinet, I needed a stand for it. Decided to go with a simple and sturdy design and to also make it functional as a shelf. It's made in mind that I might add another row or two of shelves or completely repurpose it later.

The top is made to only to support the cabinet on it but with making the top shelf same as the bottom one it can be made into a normal shelf stand.

Material I used was pallet wood so the only cost I had was a couple of wood screws.

Find some nice pallets and tear them apart. Pick out only the best looking pieces, since pallet wood is basically free you can be picky about your material.

You will need four 90cm (3 feet) long pieces for the legs. 2x 43cm (17") long and 5x 51cm (20") long pieces per shelf. You will also need additional two 43cm pieces for the front and back to make the thing sturdier. Also you will need a handful of wood screws to combine everything together. You could use nails instead but in that case your shelf will be much harder to dismantle or adjust.

Tools required:

• saw
• screwdriver
• sanding paper
• power drill (optional)

Cut your pieces to size and sand them down.

Assemble the frame for the bottom shelf. I like to drill smaller holes in the wood before putting the screws in to keep the wood from splitting. If you're working with freshly cut wood that won't be an issue, but when working with pallet wood it's a common occurrence since it's dry and usually old.

This is my top "shelf". It's just a frame to keep everything in place since the legs will be the ones keeping the weight of my arcade cabinet.

It's just 3 pieces of wood, the two planks on the side were just used to keep it aligned when I was putting it together.

Attach the legs to the top and bottom shelf.

Add two planks to the vertical, front and back. (Add two more if you need more structural integrity)

Put extra planks to your shelves.

All done and put to use.

Hope you enjoyed the instructable!