Freezer Shelf Project

April 2023

The Problem

The freezer door in the side-by-side has shelves, but the brackets that hold the food broke off years ago.

This is what a working shelf should look like

But the plastic that holds the shelf to the door breaks off easily.

As you can see here

I went to the internets to find a replacement.

$113 ????

I have 3 broken, so $330??????

I think not!

After measuring, I jumped into OpenSCAD and started designing. I realized that I couldn't do the shelf in one print because there was stress in 2 different directions and the layers are the weak plane.

I designed and printed the part that will go into the hole in the door. The stress will be 90 degrees to the layers.

compare the original (left) to my printed shelf (right)

Putting the two together. Notice the hole and the slot.

I used these to connect the two end pieces through the slot and hole.

screw on both sides

slide it in and then down

notice the screw is pulled all the way back, tightening the shelf to the door.

This was a great project for several reasons. First I enjoyed solving a real life problem with our freezer. Second, I definitely stretched my knowledge of OpenSCAD. Lastly, I hope to publish my design in the hope other’s will save time.