Wire shelving — post extension or hack idea?

[Matt Feifarek]

Hi friends!

I’ve got a handful of these “metro style” knock-off wire shelving units:

https://www.target.com/p/5-tier-wide-wire-shelving-brightroom/-/A-83961121

(and some other sizes)

The kits come with the posts split into two parts: a top and a bottom. The top has a little plastic plug in the “top” of the tube, and male threads on the bottom of the tube. The “bottom” tube has an adjustable foot on the bottom and female threads on the top. You just screw them together.

I want to make my shelving units taller. So I want a “middle” tube that can be put between the top and the bottom. Ideally, threaded on both ends. I am not seeing this product available anywhere.

Getting another kit and just not using the shelves won’t work (at least as-is), because neither set of tubes is set to have threads on both ends.

(It also seems that the “real” metro shelving is a 1” diameter standard, and the knock-offs are various diameters; The little target shelves are 0.75(ish) and the big ones are 0.875(ish). Ish.)

So, my questions:

1. Does anyone know where I can get “middle pieces”? I’ve tried McMaster and AliExpress and Home Despot. No dice. (McMaster has something that might be “close” at $23 each; that’s a little much to “try and see if it works for 8 posts)
2. Any hack ideas?
1. I could buy another kit and print some kind of new threaded insert maybe, and reinforce it with something on the outside?
2. Someone could weld stuff together for me.
3. get a long piece of pipe/dowel and just put it inside, making the actual post into a sort of sleeve?

I’m not storing anything super heavy, but I don’t want to have to worry about it either.

Thanks in advance!

[Chris Meyer]

I might be totally misunderstanding but it seems like you could get some of these double ended ones:

https://shelfadditions.com/wire-shelving-post-connectors.html

(this website specializes in metro-like shelving addons, might be worth looking around)

and then use another section of female-female tube as the extension?

Chris

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[Tanya Cunningham]

Unless your tubes are quite short (like 3') they might be in 2 pieces. I've never seen a shelf tube over about 5' that doesn't come in 2 pieces, though the joint can be quite well hidden. Otherwise you'll probably just have to buy longer tubes. Oh, also there may be threads at the top, under the plug. I have dozens of these shelves and they all have threaded ends. Good luck.

--Tanya

On Wed, Mar 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM Matt Feifarek <matt.f...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Matt Feifarek]

Oh, cool, I hadn’t seen that site.

For those following along at home, MY tubes are actually 1” diameter and 1mm thick.

The “top” of the “top tube” is NOT threaded under the cap (bummer).

I found some extension tubes (that are threaded both ends) for not much money on the site Chris sent.

Thanks all!

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[Meg Mitchell]

I think Uline has the connectors: https://www.uline.com/BL_4216/Wire-Shelving-Supports

But then you would have to buy something from Uline...;)

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Meg Mitchell
http://www.megmitchell.com

Associate Professor

Digital Media

Department of Art

University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.art.wisc.edu/