I have some Ikea Akrobat shelving units at home. They’ve been quietly holding up the TV, our blu-ray collection and other things for decades. One of the square units hosts our TV kit – which used to be a VCR, DVD player and satellite receiver. Which all stacked, one top of another, behind a glass door. Over the years, that kit became obsolete and got smaller. To the point that we wanted to put the equipment that we do have on wooden shelves to space it out and not have a sad little pile at the bottom of the cube.

Unfortunately Akrobat was discontinued by IKEA in 2001 and is now described online as “vintage”. I have had a search on eBay for 15 years to find some more units. I had one hiit about 12 years ago which we bought. But I have no spare shelves in stock. Similar systems at Ikea are different sizes.

Enter our new CNC machine here at Pangloss. I designed some new shelves with ventilation slots, cut them out of 15mm plywood and added an edging band in beech. Some sealant and matt varnish later and I have three new shelves.

So sorry, Ikea, I will not be replacing my wall units just because you don’t make spares any more.