Shaughn
Freakzoid
Here is my Pax build, finally finished with it. Between moving, newborn and work, this took a whole lot longer to build than I thought. Hopefully it will help anyone else wanting to use Pax to display their statues.
First off I want to thank everyone that has posted info about Pax builds, because I would never have attempted this if it weren't for those of you who have posted your builds in the first place.
Special thanks to NullMind and Patriot666 who helped me the most by showing their builds and answering all my questions.
First off here are links to everything I bought and used to build these, along with pricing
Pax Wardrobe units (I bought the largest ones) $100 x 2
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90121583/
4 full shelves – 4 half shelves $15 x 4 & $10 x 4
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30277997/#/80277971
Lights & Cords (don’t forget your cords, I had to order them after I got everything in)
$30 x 6 (lights) & 1 power supply, 4 short cords, 1 long cord $26
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40267733/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30121411/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40119926/
Cord Covers $5 x 2
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Legrand-Wiremold-CordMate-Channel-White-C10/202059078
Shelf support brackets (couldn’t find the black ones online, but they are in the store) $6 x 8
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-68-in-Utility-Single-Track-Upright-FG4A7501UTLTY/100133076
Hinges $25 x 6
https://www.kitchensource.com/hinges/ha-344.89.730.htm
Handles $8 x 2
https://www.knobdeco.com/door-hardw...s-door-handle-zinc-nickel-matt-26-x-21mm.html
Door Magnet $8 x 1 (may buy more if needed)
https://www.amazon.com/Furniture-Fi...rd_wg=tMYoH&psc=1&refRID=XYJNY93BJY6V89FWFKTF
Pegs (if link no longer works search 12 shelf support Lug pins on eBay) $30 (I bought 3 packs)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12-SHELF-S...474282?hash=item5d6087d96a:g:R04AAOxy7nNTXTxs
These are cheapest on ebay, don’t buy them from anywhere else
Doors $130 x 2
Purchased from a local Plastics company (no glass companies in my area worked with acrylic) door dimensions are 88¾ x 37¾ x ¼ inches. Definitely need ¼ thick acrylic 1/8 is to flimsy to use for doors.
Glass Shelves $40 x 2
Any local glass company can make you these $40 x 2
37 ¾ x 9 x ¼ inches (1/4 is to thin I recommend going 3/8 or even ½ in)
Glass Shelf support $2 x 3
https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-H...ed-Wood/1/2"-x-1/2"-x-36"-Balsa-Strip/p/72033
Tension Rods $10
https://www.amazon.com/Graber-16-In...8&qid=1479874940&sr=8-9&keywords=tension+rods
Now for the build....
Built the cabinets, cut the brackets for the shelves, mounted the lights underneath each shelf and added the cord covers after I painted them black. This is pretty easy to do it came out looking like this.
You can see each shelf has brackets on front and back and you can see the 2 half shelves I installed as well. What I did not know is that the Pax shelf peg holes are not equal distance from each other. The back set are closer than the front set, as you can see in the picture. The half shelves I bought only fit the front half of this size of Pax. So I had to cut them down and drill holes in them so they would fit in the back half of the Pax unit.
The wiring for the lighting is not fun and pretty messy, here is a picture of how it all looks behind the Pax and behind my desk
After all was built and lit, I start putting statues in to see how it all looks
As you can see I ran into a bit of a lighting issue with the xmen and the sentinel statue. Those shelves cast a hard shadow and made it look horrible. Ill show you later how I solved for this, but first came the doors.
I had 2 acrylic sheets made for me of 88 3/4 H x 37 3/4 w and 1/4 in thick. These weigh roughly 40 lbs each, so finding hinges to hold these things up was not easy. I wanted to get Overlay hinges as opposed to inlay hinges. The overlay hinges allow the door to fit over the opening and not inside of the opening. if you use inlay hinges you will have to cut all of your shelves back in order to make room for the door. The only hinges I could find that would support the weight of the doors and were overlay were the hinges I linked you to earlier. The bonus about these hinges that I did not know is that they lock in place once closed, so the door doesn't swing open by itself. You don't need magnets or anything else to hold the doors in place. The white tab in the middle clicks the hinges shut, but also allows for easy opening of the door as well. Also of note the company you buy your plastics doors from will usually drill the holes for you for free. They drilled mine, but the did mess up on the measurements for one of them, but it still worked fine.
Mounting the doors is a pain, I suggest you get someone to help you with this step. The next issue I ran into after the doors were mounted was that the doors were bowing out slightly. I think this was due to me having them on their side in the garage for to long before I was able to mount the doors.
to fix this I used a simple magnet from amazon and it closes perfectly now
The second door I do not have a picture of, the whole door slightly bows off of the cabinet about a 1/2 inch, so I think I will take the door of and let it naturally bow back by setting it on its other side for a day or so. (I'll update after the holidays if this works of not)
Now that the doors are on I needed to figure out how to fix the lighting on the half shelves and get more depth for my sentinel. To do this I ordered 2 glass shelves and used Patriots666 idea of using Balsa blocks to use shallower shelves. When I bought the Balsa blocks they seem pretty flimsy but the are sturdy enough to get the job done.
Now I called a bunch of glass companies for shelf advice, told them how I was building it and they said 1/4 in tempered glass would work. 1/4 in is not think enough because there is only 1/2 support on either side with the Balsa blocks. My glass shelf start to bow slightly when I had 3 1/6 scale figures on it. So instead of buying brand new glass shelves and hoping they worked, I bought a couple tension rods instead. These work perfectly and are so thin you can hardly see them.
It was a long process and here is how everything turned out.
I wasn't going to build doors on my Pax but my wife convinced me to do it and I'm glad I did because this little guy will be walking soon
I have a list of statues I am still hunting down so, these cabinets should be full in no time and then I'll have to try and figure out more space.
Please ask any questions you want and I can give more detail and PLEASE give any extra pointers, ideas and feedback on how I may be able to do things differently and possibly better.
Thanks
First off I want to thank everyone that has posted info about Pax builds, because I would never have attempted this if it weren't for those of you who have posted your builds in the first place.
Special thanks to NullMind and Patriot666 who helped me the most by showing their builds and answering all my questions.
First off here are links to everything I bought and used to build these, along with pricing
Pax Wardrobe units (I bought the largest ones) $100 x 2
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90121583/
4 full shelves – 4 half shelves $15 x 4 & $10 x 4
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30277997/#/80277971
Lights & Cords (don’t forget your cords, I had to order them after I got everything in)
$30 x 6 (lights) & 1 power supply, 4 short cords, 1 long cord $26
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40267733/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30121411/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40119926/
Cord Covers $5 x 2
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Legrand-Wiremold-CordMate-Channel-White-C10/202059078
Shelf support brackets (couldn’t find the black ones online, but they are in the store) $6 x 8
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-68-in-Utility-Single-Track-Upright-FG4A7501UTLTY/100133076
Hinges $25 x 6
https://www.kitchensource.com/hinges/ha-344.89.730.htm
Handles $8 x 2
https://www.knobdeco.com/door-hardw...s-door-handle-zinc-nickel-matt-26-x-21mm.html
Door Magnet $8 x 1 (may buy more if needed)
https://www.amazon.com/Furniture-Fi...rd_wg=tMYoH&psc=1&refRID=XYJNY93BJY6V89FWFKTF
Pegs (if link no longer works search 12 shelf support Lug pins on eBay) $30 (I bought 3 packs)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12-SHELF-S...474282?hash=item5d6087d96a:g:R04AAOxy7nNTXTxs
These are cheapest on ebay, don’t buy them from anywhere else
Doors $130 x 2
Purchased from a local Plastics company (no glass companies in my area worked with acrylic) door dimensions are 88¾ x 37¾ x ¼ inches. Definitely need ¼ thick acrylic 1/8 is to flimsy to use for doors.
Glass Shelves $40 x 2
Any local glass company can make you these $40 x 2
37 ¾ x 9 x ¼ inches (1/4 is to thin I recommend going 3/8 or even ½ in)
Glass Shelf support $2 x 3
https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-H...ed-Wood/1/2"-x-1/2"-x-36"-Balsa-Strip/p/72033
Tension Rods $10
https://www.amazon.com/Graber-16-In...8&qid=1479874940&sr=8-9&keywords=tension+rods
Now for the build....
Built the cabinets, cut the brackets for the shelves, mounted the lights underneath each shelf and added the cord covers after I painted them black. This is pretty easy to do it came out looking like this.
You can see each shelf has brackets on front and back and you can see the 2 half shelves I installed as well. What I did not know is that the Pax shelf peg holes are not equal distance from each other. The back set are closer than the front set, as you can see in the picture. The half shelves I bought only fit the front half of this size of Pax. So I had to cut them down and drill holes in them so they would fit in the back half of the Pax unit.
The wiring for the lighting is not fun and pretty messy, here is a picture of how it all looks behind the Pax and behind my desk
After all was built and lit, I start putting statues in to see how it all looks
As you can see I ran into a bit of a lighting issue with the xmen and the sentinel statue. Those shelves cast a hard shadow and made it look horrible. Ill show you later how I solved for this, but first came the doors.
I had 2 acrylic sheets made for me of 88 3/4 H x 37 3/4 w and 1/4 in thick. These weigh roughly 40 lbs each, so finding hinges to hold these things up was not easy. I wanted to get Overlay hinges as opposed to inlay hinges. The overlay hinges allow the door to fit over the opening and not inside of the opening. if you use inlay hinges you will have to cut all of your shelves back in order to make room for the door. The only hinges I could find that would support the weight of the doors and were overlay were the hinges I linked you to earlier. The bonus about these hinges that I did not know is that they lock in place once closed, so the door doesn't swing open by itself. You don't need magnets or anything else to hold the doors in place. The white tab in the middle clicks the hinges shut, but also allows for easy opening of the door as well. Also of note the company you buy your plastics doors from will usually drill the holes for you for free. They drilled mine, but the did mess up on the measurements for one of them, but it still worked fine.
Mounting the doors is a pain, I suggest you get someone to help you with this step. The next issue I ran into after the doors were mounted was that the doors were bowing out slightly. I think this was due to me having them on their side in the garage for to long before I was able to mount the doors.
to fix this I used a simple magnet from amazon and it closes perfectly now
The second door I do not have a picture of, the whole door slightly bows off of the cabinet about a 1/2 inch, so I think I will take the door of and let it naturally bow back by setting it on its other side for a day or so. (I'll update after the holidays if this works of not)
Now that the doors are on I needed to figure out how to fix the lighting on the half shelves and get more depth for my sentinel. To do this I ordered 2 glass shelves and used Patriots666 idea of using Balsa blocks to use shallower shelves. When I bought the Balsa blocks they seem pretty flimsy but the are sturdy enough to get the job done.
Now I called a bunch of glass companies for shelf advice, told them how I was building it and they said 1/4 in tempered glass would work. 1/4 in is not think enough because there is only 1/2 support on either side with the Balsa blocks. My glass shelf start to bow slightly when I had 3 1/6 scale figures on it. So instead of buying brand new glass shelves and hoping they worked, I bought a couple tension rods instead. These work perfectly and are so thin you can hardly see them.
It was a long process and here is how everything turned out.
I wasn't going to build doors on my Pax but my wife convinced me to do it and I'm glad I did because this little guy will be walking soon
I have a list of statues I am still hunting down so, these cabinets should be full in no time and then I'll have to try and figure out more space.
Please ask any questions you want and I can give more detail and PLEASE give any extra pointers, ideas and feedback on how I may be able to do things differently and possibly better.
Thanks