Homeowners and DIYers: Adding two simple shelves in garage

Last week, I finally received my long awaited Weller soldering iron WES51. After going through some cheap soldering irons that ended up doing more bad than good, I decided it was time to spend some money for a decent soldering iron. This one is actually a "soldering station" so it takes more space than the typical soldering iron, see the picture below.

Weller WES51 Soldering Station

Question that comes up when a new toy arrives: Where am I going to store it? This is something that I use quite often for working on electronics, so I need it accessible and ready, but I have pretty much all my shelf space around my workbench used. Or not? I have some empty space on top of my water softener, and I think there is enough space for a couple of shelves.

Since I always keep leftover lumber from previous projects, I had a few pieces of 2x2s and a big piece of plywood that could be useful for the shelves. I started by cutting the 2x2 with a circular saw to fit the empty space.

The 2x2s are cut to fit the space

I used zinc plated wood screws of 1-1/4 length for fastening the 2x2s to the sides.

Then I cut the plywood to serve as the actual shelves, again with a circular saw.

The 2x2s with the pieces of plywood

Note how the plywood shelves are surrounding a PVC water pipe used by the water softener. I made this opening by using a 1" spade on a drill.

These shelves were fastened to the 2x2s by using three wood screws on each shelf.

Drilling pilot holes for screws

I used a level at all times to ensure the shelves are properly leveled. Note the 2x2s that support the plywood are at the front of the shelves, so the back of the shelves are not supported yet. For supporting the back of the shelves I used "L" brackets that are fastened to the bottom side of the shelf and to the sides, see photo: