Making Boxes

patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
I'm still at the "making boxes" phases of my woodworking journey, so my next box is wall-mounted shelves to hold corrugated shelf bins. The bins vary in size from 2" to 16" or so. They're 12" deep and 4-3/4" tall. It's easy to put some very heavy things in them.

1W766_AS01

The frame and the shelves will be made form 3/4" plywood. The shelves will be 12" deep. The first space for which I need shelves is 53" x 36". Therefore, I'm thinking that's two units of 26-1/2" each so I don't have to use a divider.

I confess to being guilty of over-designing and over-thinking. My first thought was below. It's a French cleat system that would be really easy to install. My curiosity about this systems is, what supports the weight? The cleat is screwed and glued into the sides and the top on the back. Maybe that's okay, but it seems like a lot of load on a few screws and glue. Then I asked myself what purpose the back servers. Sure, it keeps the shelf from racking. Plus, it has some aesthetic value. It also adds weight.

Garage Bench Shelves 03.jpg


Garage Bench Shelves 03b.jpg

Since this design, I'm thinking the make the case just the top and the sides without a back and just screw it to the studs in the wall since the wall has drywall. If I do that, what do I use to secure it to the wall? If I add mounted strips under the top and the bottom, that could work, but now all of the weight is on the top and bottom horizontal members. The top stretcher takes 3/4" of usable space. Maybe that's okay.

Garage Bench Shelves 04a.jpg

The design has now evolved to the sides having shelving standards so that the shelves can be moved.

I'm stuck in analysis paralysis. How are kitchen cabinets made to support the tremendous weight they have to hold?
 

bowman

Board of Directors, Webmaster
Neal
Staff member
Corporate Member
It's a sheer weight, not much leverage points for tilting forward. Since you are mounting to a wall, I would leave the back off, and add an additional horizontal board (or second cleat) in the middle. This would give additional weight support.
 

Wiley's Woodworks

Wiley
Corporate Member
Neal's right. All the weight of your shelf and contents pulls straight down, not out and away from the wall. Ideally you can anchor the wall cleat into studs; if not use high quality anchors that split behind the drywall (extras if you're still concerned). If you're concerned about the shelves racking (going out of square) due to the load once the shelves are full, inset a 1/4" plywood back cut to fit tightly into the rabbets. IMO the 2nd cleat is a belt-and-suspenders approach, but there's nothing wrong with it. It will present some alignment challenges when you mount the 2nd cleat on the wall.

Adding complications here: one of the niceties of French cleats is fixtures can be mounted flush to a wall for a really clean installation. You just have to inset the back and the cabinet cleat into the back of the shelves so the edges will be flush to the wall.
 
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Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
A dado in each side for the shelves to fit into would add significant strength to this cabinet. Also, since the French Cleat is going to be holding a lot of weight, some careful gluing and more than enough screws into the rear of the cabinet and into the wall studs should be employed. In leu of a lower spacer behind the cabinet, a second French Cleat with glue and screws could be used too. I don't have any idea how much weight you plan on putting into this cabinet, but properly done dados and French Cleats could hold many hundreds of pounds, if the wall is strong enough.

Charley
 

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