Shelf pins larger than 1/4 inch?


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Old 12-17-19, 07:59 AM
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Shelf pins larger than 1/4 inch?

So our kitchen cabinets have plastic shelf clip things supporting all the shelves, similar to these. Well the house is about 12 years old and the plastic is starting to get brittle and they're starting to fail. So I went to go buy some new metal shelf pins to replace them. However I've found that the holes in my shelves are larger than all the standard pins. The hardware stores all seem to carry 5mm and 1/4" pins, by my holes are much bigger than the 1/4" pins. I measured m old pins and they are 5/16". But I can't seem to find 5/6" pins anywhere! Anyone know where I can find these bigger shelf pins?

It looks like my wife had replaced one shelf with 1/4" pins some time ago, and because they sit so loosely in the hole, it sags in the hole, and ruined that set of holes when it finally gave way. So I know 1/4" ones won't work. I can see how the ones like we currently have, even if the pin isn't big enough to fill the holes all the way, would work better than just a standard pin, because they have the backing to help keep the pin from sagging. However I know for a fact that the pins going into the holes are bigger, and fit very snug into the holes currently.

Thanks for any help you can give!
 
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Old 12-17-19, 08:09 AM
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5/16" is much less common than 1/4" so you may have to order them. When I search online for " 5/16" shelf pin" or " 8mm shelf pin" a number of suppliers appear.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 08:19 AM
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You could try getting some heat shrink tubing to cover the pins.
Might be enough to snug them up.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 08:36 AM
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5/16" is much less common than 1/4" so you may have to order them. When I search online for " 5/16" shelf pin" or " 8mm shelf pin" a number of suppliers appear.
Yeah I have searched online, but I was only looking for 5/16 shelf pins, and couldn't find anything at all. However, i didn't think about searching for 8mm. Still not a lot out there, but I did find some on ebay. There are others at some other online sites, but they're kind of weird pins, not exactly what I'd consider the best support. But I did find a good variety on eBay. So thanks for your help!

You could try getting some heat shrink tubing to cover the pins.
Might be enough to snug them up.
Ha yeah, thanks I'll keep that in the back pocket as a last resort.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 09:28 AM
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7mm is a more common size. They also make shelf pin inserts (grommets) for oversized holes.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 09:31 AM
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7mm is a more common size. They also make shelf pin inserts (grommets) for oversized holes.


First step is figuring out the exact size of your hole.
Hm, well I have a digital caliper and measured my current pins. They are kind of ridged, so the diameter is just slightly bigger on the ridges than on the flat portions, but on the ridges it measured 5/16", and like 7.96 something mm. I think the flat spot measured somewhere round 7.5mm or something. I didn't measure the hole, but I can do that. So I would think that 7mm would be just slightly too small?
 
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Old 12-17-19, 09:32 AM
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Yes sounds like you might want a grommet and 7mm pin. It will be difficult to drill a nice clean hole if you need to drill a new 8mm hole for example.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 09:39 AM
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Yes sounds like you might want a grommet and 7mm pin. It will be difficult to drill a nice clean hole if you need to drill a new 8mm hole for example.
Yeah you're probably right. I guess I'll have to look into that. What the hell kind of pegs did they use for my cupboards then? Surely if they did these ones without grommets they had to use some sort of standard sized pin? I mean the house was built in 2007, not like it's 50 years old or anything lol. I will try to get a good measurement of the holes when I get home tonight. Maybe the holes are 7mm, and due to the ridges on the current pins they are 7mm with bigger ridges that are able to press into the holes?

Here is a pic of the current pin (broken off). I had nothing at the moment to show scale or measurement, but just to give you an idea of the shape and style.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 09:51 AM
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7mm is slightly larger than 1/4 so that could be it. Hard to know until you try it. Yes some of the holes could be wallowed out somewhat.
 
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Old 12-17-19, 10:34 AM
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7mm is slightly larger than 1/4 so that could be it. Hard to know until you try it. Yes some of the holes could be wallowed out somewhat.
I guess I need hunt around locally, maybe to some cabinet shops to see if I can get a couple sample pegs to see what fits. Cause I'm gonna have to order a bunch online, and I really don't want to do that not knowing what's gonna fit!
 
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Old 12-17-19, 10:55 AM
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Old 12-17-19, 10:59 AM
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Huh, those seem like they might be the right ones. I'm really hoping to replace them with metal ones so they will last a lot longer, but I may have to end up using those. Thanks!
 
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Old 12-18-19, 09:15 AM
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So here are a couple measurements of my current pins if anyone is interested. First pic is of the flat edges at 7.53mm:



And on the ridges it measures 7.9mm:



I measured the holes and they came out to 7.91mm.
 
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Old 12-18-19, 09:39 AM
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Nice caliper. That takes the guess work out of it.
 
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Old 12-18-19, 09:43 AM
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Nice caliper. That takes the guess work out of it.
Occasionally my stash of Harbor Freight goodies comes in handy.
 
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Old 12-18-19, 09:59 AM
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You could drill new 1/4" holes next to the existing holes.
 
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Old 12-18-19, 10:11 AM
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You could drill new 1/4" holes next to the existing holes.
True, I could do that. However I guarantee I would make them crooked and then we would have wobbly shelves for the rest of our days lol.
 
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Old 12-19-19, 06:48 AM
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I have successfully used plastic tubing slipped over the posts of metal brackets to fit them into oversized holes. See if you can find some 1/4 inch tubing with the appropriate wall thickness to fit the 1/4 inch brackets into the existing holes. Multiple layers of heat shrink tubing could also be used.
 
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Old 12-19-19, 09:24 AM
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I have successfully used plastic tubing slipped over the posts of metal brackets to fit them into oversized holes. See if you can find some 1/4 inch tubing with the appropriate wall thickness to fit the 1/4 inch brackets into the existing holes. Multiple layers of heat shrink tubing could also be used.
Thanks, good suggestion. I actually have some heat shrink tubing I could try. For the time being, after taking my measurements, it looks like my holes are of the 5/16's variety, and the link that HeresJohnny gave was an exact match for that size. So I went ahead and ordered a set of those for now, even though they are the exact same plastic ones we have, and I was hoping to move to metal ones. But they were only $8, so that at least gets my current pins fixed for the time being while I can hunt around for some 5/16" metal pins.
 
 

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