Bookcase (tonk) strip - how wide to make the shelves?

[rowanj]

I'm getting towards finishing a bookcase (about time - it's supposed to be up by Christmas!) I've got the carcase all there, grooves cut for the (flat) bookcase strip. The last job is to cut the moveable shelves.

I've been playing about with scrap pieces and for the life of me I can't get the width right. It's either too tight - in which case I can't get the shelf in, or it's too loose - in which case the clips won't go far enough into the slots in the tonk strip. The best I can get is one clip in and the other sort of perching on the edge of a slot.

Anyone got any hints? At this rate I will be putting the clips in first and screwing the shelves to them in situ which kind of defeats the object of using tonk strip in the first place.

 

[foxhole]

Tried a tape measure?

 

[rowanj]

yeah, got that far...!

It's not so much the width of the shelves as the distance between the clips if that makes sense. There just doesn't seem to be any way of getting the little blighters in.

 

[foamit]

Just seen your post, did you solve your problem?