Cantilever Shelf Plans

[Indycars]

.
In 2009 I found a website with some plans for some cantilever shelves. I want shelves that would NOT keep me from
pulling a car into the garage and closing the door, so I needed something that didn't go all the way to the floor. Also
the first shelf was actually going to be a work bench with Butcher Block material.

Here are the two links that got me started thinking. You can see how strong this cantilever design is, note this is for
17.5 inch shelves, where mine are 24 inch.
http://woodgears.ca/shelves/index.html
http://woodgears.ca/shelves/garage.html




I wanted my shelves to be 24 inches and the braces to be 22 inches, so I modified the plans using Microsoft Visio 2007. Here are the plans:






I made a jig for the screw holes. I wanted long screws, so to keep them from hitting each other, I would flip the jig
over depending on which side it was for.



After cutting out all the pieces, then I started to assemble them with wood glue and deck screws.



Here you can see where I drilled a hole on the bottom of the support. This screws into the vertical 2x4s on the wall.





I needed 3 vertical supports for the shelves. They were spaced at 32" on the wall.




You can see how I flipped the holes from side-to-side to keep the screws from hitting each other. I didn't use wood glue
on these joints so I could adjust them later if needed.



Starting to assemble them on the wall, again vertical supports are on 32" centers.



I've come along ways, but since I'm putting 1 3/4 inch butcher block on the bottom shelf I still have a ways to go yet.




The butcher block was only 5 feet long, so I had the splice it together for an 8 foot bench/shelf.



Finally the FINISHED shelves !!!

Things I would change if I did this again.
I would make the space between the 1st and 2nd shelf larger or maybe the make the 2nd shelf less deep. Say from 24" to
20 inches. When I lean over to work on something up close my head wants to hit the 2nd shelf.

Over time the outside edge of the bench started dropping, it was no longer level. Every time I laid something down, it went
rolling off the bench very quickly. The drop from the wall to the outside edge was about 1.5 inches after a few months. Therefore
I would install the bench top sloping towards the wall initially. If you glue these joints, then maybe it won't be necessary.

I would have made one brace and tested it installed on the wall before making all them to the same dimensions. Since
I have the heavy popcorn texture, my brace would NOT go all the way back against the vertical 2x4s, I had to trim 1/16"
off the back of the shelf brace. See picture below.



.

 

[Indycars]

Over time the outside edge of the bench started dropping, it was no longer level. Every time I laid something down, it went
rolling off the bench very quickly. The drop from the wall to the outside edge was about 1.5 inches after a few months. Therefore
I would install the bench top sloping towards the wall initially.

Above is what I said I would do differently next time. But I got tired of everything rolling off the bench top, so I needed to do something now to fix it. I loosened the screws on all three supports. Using my floor jack I pushed up until I could slide these tapered shims in. It took 3-4 tries until I got it level with the full weight of the bench top pressing down.

In the four months since I did this, it has not dropped again since. Problem Fixed !

 

[grumpyvette]

I wish I had your photographic skills, your skill even at basic shelf design far exceeds most jobs Ive seen done, now, you do truly amazing detail work, ID bet the shelf's I built for my load bench are as strong or stronger but they don,t look like I took the care during construction that you obviously did!

when I built my reloading press bench, which is 22 feet long, and 2 feet wide, and 1.5" thick not counting the bracing, along the back wall of my shop, I wanted to have a clear easily swept floor under it, so I placed a pair of twin parallel a 2x4 mounted horizontally at about 12" and 44" off the floor and bolted them with TAP-CON SCREWS every 12" after using a level, and a square to verify they were the correct distance and level and parallel, I then use 2" deck screws about every 6" about an inch in from the edge on several 2ft wide and 8 ft long sheets of 3/4" finish grade plywood to screw the plywood edge to the upper surface of the upper horizontal line of 2x4 boards securely fastened to the wall,
that left about 29" between the lower edge of the plywood and the upper surface of the lower row of 2x4s so a bit of math showed I needed about a 34" brace to extend from the outer edge of the 2ft wide plywood to the upper surface of the lower 2x4 it would seat against and a bunch of metal bracing to screw threw, after using a level on the upper shelf surface, once that was secure I use a second set of 2ft x 8ft plywood off set by 2 feet on the end gaps and firmly glued and screwed to make a solid non flex surface, resulting in something that looked similar to this

btw if you need to calculate brace length etc.
http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/geo/stri.html

these I not my shelves but these are very similar, but I used short 2x4 sections for the diagonal bracing

http://www.uline.com/BL_4025/Heavy-Duty-Steel-Shelving



but with DIAGONAL BRACES MADE OF SHORT 2x4 sections every 2 feet from the lower support to outer shelf edge

 

[Indycars]

That looks to be a lot easier to build than mine. Most of your cuts look to be square.