I am building a floating shelf that needs to have a very narrow profile (3/4†thick max). The best plan I can come up with is the imbed a ¼â€ threaded rod into the non-load bearing 2×4 wood stud. The rod will stick out from the wall about 6†and will be at a 90° angle to the wall. I’m looking for any suggestions on ways to secure the rod into the wall. I tried using a threaded insert but that does not give me a strong enough bite into the wood to make me feel comfortable with its downward pull-out strength. I’m considering using a glue/epoxy setup to secure the rod. If you think this would work, does anyone have any suggestions on type / brand. Any other suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
Ryan
Replies
How deep will your shelf be?
My first thought is you should use at least a 3/8" rod. Drill the hole in the stud slightly smaller than the rod and using a double nut set up screw the rod into the stud. You can add epoxy if you want as well but threaded in tightly will work. I've done things like this many times.
Mostly now when I want a floating shelf I have my wielder make me an angle bracket that has a plate down along the stud side. This way I can bolt it into the stud and bury the support within the shelf.
Recently I built a vanity that looked to be a solid 3" thick 4'wide shelf of Teak suspending out from the back wall. I weigh quite a bit and can sit on the vanity shelf with no deflection.
Hey JAGWAH,
Thanks for the post. The shelf will be ¾” think, 7 ½” deep and 3’ long, MDF. I’ve decided to use MDF because the front has to be routed to a specific profile to match some other details in the room. I have tons of it (pun is intended, my aching back) left over from some past projects and I want to get rid of some of it. There will not be much weight on the shelves, maybe a few pictures frames and some odd nick-knacks. I figured the total weight max weight to be about 20 lbs plus the weight of the shelf itself. I first toyed with idea you mentioned about using double bolts and threading the rod in but the rod didn’t have aggressive enough treads for me to think it bite the wood enough. Maybe I’ll revisit that idea since you have had success with it. Slightly small holes might give it more bite.
Ryan
Drill a hole in the stud which goes almost all the way through. That way you have 3+ inches of steel in the stud. Use epoxy or construction adhesive to hold the steel in the hole. There's almost no force trying to pull the steel out of the hole, so a weak glue joint will be okay. Use one of those drill guides to ensure the hole into the wall is exactly at right angles to it. If you're putting more than two rods in the wall, tack a straight board to the wall for the drill guide to rest on; that ensures the holes are all in a line.
Don't make the holes in the shelf by attempting to bore into the edge. You'd have to be very accurate to bore a long distance into the shelf and not come out one of the faces. Instead, make the shelf from two pieces of wood laminated together. Cut dados almost all the way across each piece. When the pieces are laminated together, the dados fit face to face to form the channel for the rod to slip into. If you don't have resaw and lamination capability, use two pieces of plywood, and apply solid wood edging after the lamination step. Use steel rod larger than the 1/4" you mentioned. With this lamination method, you can easily fit 1/2" rod in a 3/4" shelf. A 1/2" rod is eight times stiffer than a 1/4" rod. I'd use drill rod, not all-thread -- you get more net thickness without the threads.
Get a long enough lag bolt so that it stick out after it is screwed into the wall.
Screw it into the stud and then cut the head off.
I'd be for the glue in place method. Seems like the support has to be dead level and parallel to it's mate or you've got a tippy shelf. Epoxy would give you a little wiggle room and time to tape / prop/ hold it in proper position.
Drill the hole
Test fit rod
Mask the wall to catch the inevitable drip
Slather some epoxy into hole with a smaller dowel
Stick rod in and align
have a latte
or
use drilling jig to assure perpendicularity to wall....assuming wall is plumb
>>Slather some epoxy into hole with a smaller dowel
For a less messy method, go to your local veterinarian (or farm supply store) and buy a syringe (no needle required) and squirt the epoxy right where it belongs.
Benn there, done this. I used lag bolts, I think they were 3/8" x 8", predrilled and ran them into the wall and then cut the heads off. Used a drill press to bore 7/16" holes in the edge of the shelf (in this case it was 6/4 oak) and epoxied the shelf onto the lags. The shelf holds a couple hundred CD's. Works fine. I imagine that a 3/8" lag will work fine for a 3/4" hole. We tried to leave the bolts sticking out about 3" or so, for a 5-1/2" wide shelf.