floating shelves


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Old 12-28-09, 10:34 AM
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mik
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floating shelves

I want to hang some floating, or bracket-less, shelves in my son's room. Does anyone have any suggestions or how-to advice on floating shelves? I've never tried building & hanging them before and would like some guidance.
I'm thinking of routing out the back edge of some thicker boards then attaching each board over a strip I've already screwed to the wall (studs).
 
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Old 12-28-09, 10:48 AM
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in a hospital I was working on the build, they attached 2X6's in the wall very securely and stuck it outwards a couple inches shy of the depth of the shelf. They then had shelves built that slid over the boards protruding from the wall. For a shelf about 5 feet long the used three members sticking out from the wall.

the problem with that is the shelf ends up the thickness of the 2X plus twice the thickness of the material used to make the shelf (top piece plus bottom piece). Quite a massive shelf.

One thing you must remember: the weight placed on the shelf will have the advantage of leverage. The closer to the front edge, the greater the leverage so whatever means you use to secure it to the wall must be able to support that force.

In the method described above, the force is supported by the attachment within the wall. In your description, the force will be supported only my the means of attachment to the strip itself and the strip is supported by what?

So, before you design and engineer a shelf, you have to determine what might go on the shelf so you can engineer the shelf's capacity to meet your needs.
 
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Old 01-02-10, 06:59 AM
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It depends on how much weight the shelves will hold. The advice given will be the best if you're planning on holding up a lot. If the weight is reasonable then you can use a pocket hole jig with long screws directly into the studs.
 
 

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