Solid wood floating shelves

[LarryS.]

So my girlfriend wants a couple of floating solids wood shelves in our new kitchen.

I'm not sure where to start, the delves need to be about 150cm long and 15cm deep, roughly 3cm thick. Has anyone fine something similar?

I'm wondering how I drill perfectly straight holes in the wall and the wood, and how I stop the wood warping over such a long length?

Any advice appreciated!


Paul

 

[Beau]

Done a few floating shelves. Used injection resin to secure some threaded bar into the wall. Drilled the hole as close to level as possible but if you leave the bar over length you have a enough leverage to square it up when the resin has set. Then cut the bar back to desired length and drill holes into the shelf to line up with the threaded bar. If it needs to be super secure either drill right through the shelf so a nut can be fitted on the front and then plugged or a slot in the underside so you can get a nut and spanner in like you might do on kitchen worktop joints. All this presumes you have a solid wall to attach to.

 

[LarryS.]

Thanks beau, how do you drill the long holes in the shelf, does it require a drill press?

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[Beau]

I just do mine with a cordless drill, auger bit and an extra pair of eyes to help site from the side. Your shelves are only 150mm deep so a 100mm deep hole in 30mm thick should be reasonably straight forward as you have lots of thickness to play with. 12mm threaded bar should be more than enough but there may well be better ways to do it this is just how I did mine.

 

[No skills]

If you have the time go on YouTube and search diresta live edge shelf, you may find what he does usefull.

 

[custard]

All this presumes you have a solid wall to attach to.

That bears repeating.

Floating shelves aren't difficult, the tricky bit is finding the right walls to hang them off!

 

[woodpig]

You can also use these rather than drilling deep holes in the wall.

http://www.oakhurstinteriors.co.uk/Acce ... GwodvYEGlw

 

[busob]

Hi All,
It's my first post so hello All
I did some floating shelves (200mm deep, 23mm thick up to 2400mm long) and I've used this kind of brackets

They can be adjusted on "slope" so even when I drilled not straight holes, I could easily adjust it to level.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Do these things actually make for a secure shelf ? I've always been skeptical about the whole floating shelf idea, but the engineer in me says that the above picture and woodpig's link show something highly improbable. The one in the link claims 30 kg evenly distributed load per pair with a 30cm deep shelf. The plate against the wall is only 15mm wide. So, half of 30kg at an average 150mm out from the wall is a moment of 1/2 * 30 * g (call it 10) * 0.15 = 22.5Nm. That is countered by the tension in the mounting screws and the pressure fo the bottom edge of the plate against the wall - but they are vertically only 7.5mm apart, so the tension in the screw and the force pressing the bottom edge of that plate against the wall is 3000N, think of it as 300kg. No hope if you have an aerated block wall, and a gypsum plaster will probably crush under that ?

 

[Wuffles]

The IKEA solution is more robust I think, than the small ones being suggested now I mean. Providing you use the correct screws anyway. I've had some decent loads on them before now.

 

[busob]

Here are shelves "floating" on the brackets from post above. Screwed to concrete wall.

 

[flying haggis]

The IKEA solution is more robust I think, than the small ones being suggested now I mean. Providing you use the correct screws anyway. I've had some decent loads on them before now.

ikea use a long metal plate, slightly shorter than the shelf with the rods fixed to the plate, and there are plenty of holes to screw the bar the the wall

instructions here
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/assembly_inst ... 10_pub.pdf

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

The OH wanted the shelves gloss black, so didnt need any nice quality hardwood so i made mine from 6x2 construction timber that had been acclimatising in the house for a while and were surprisingly straight (but they arent 1.5m long though). Anyways, i had luck using these bought from the bay...

...and i started the holes in the wood with a forstener bit in the drill press (not long enough) and finished the holes using a brad point bit in a standard drill using those holes as guide holes.



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[rafezetter]

There is the other option of making the shelves as box sleeves that can slip over a wooden frame attached to the wall either as a box frame or as an "E".

There is a good instructable (from site of same name) to make a shelf "safe", as above but the box frame attached to the wall has a bottom to hide things in, like passports etc.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hidden-Compartment-Shelf/

 

[Steveshj]

Hi,

I have also used the fixings shown by Sawdust. These units have a screw threaded section for insertion in a standard rawl type plug and a knurled outer section, the two are very slightly epicyclic (slightly off the same axis). The small section between the threads and the knurled area has a hexagon shape designed to be turned with a spanner until the knurled section grips the shelf. Once the fixing has gripped the shelf it can be pushed fully home (with the help of a rubber hammer in my case!).

Using these fixings it is extremely critical that the holes are not drilled oversized and are accurately located, there is next to no give at all in them.

They do look good though and are very strong, the top two shelves in the picture below are 2 x 6 x 36 inch solid meranti for bottles and bar bits.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Steve

 

[LarryS.]

Thanks all for the great advice, I'm off to look at the timber tomorrow and will update you as soon as progress is made
Cheers

Paul


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