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Thread: Interesting ideas for square tubing cantilevered shelves?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Arlington, VA
    Posts
    1,850

    Interesting ideas for square tubing cantilevered shelves?

    Thinking about putting some cantilevered shelves in my garage--vertical supports lag bolted to every other stud, with cantilevered arms that extend out 20" or so that I can put shelving on for 25 gal. bins of household stuff like holiday decorations, camping gear, etc. I thought about just welding it all together, but I'd sort of like the shelves to be reconfigurable. I'm thinking holes drilled through the vertical bars that I can attach shelf arms too. Anyone seen anything creative along those lines? My original thought was to use 1/4" 1"x1" square steel tubing, but if there is a good design based around angle, I'm not wedded to square stock. I do think square stock looks a little better and would be less prone to twisting.

    Design-wise, my thought was to weld some triangles on to either side of the shelf arms and have them offset so they would slide over the 1x1 on the wall--if I put a couple holes in the triangular supports, I could theoretically move them up/down if there are a series of corresponding holes on the wall verticals. But I wonder if I'm making the job too hard. I've got access to a 60T Ironworker that can shear 3/8" 4"x4" angle--one thought was just cutting a bunch of 1" long 4x4 angle and welding it to the underside of the shelf support--put a tab on the side of the shelf support to bolt it to the vertical and let the angle provide the support.

    Any steel manglers want to weigh in? Anyone seen any other slick designs for adjustable shelving on the cheap?

    (Yes, I realize I can probably buy some garage storage solution that will give me adequate support without a lot of the work. This is part of a larger project, so there's a bunch of steel going into my garage anyway.)

  2. #2
    I have made some fixed shelf set-ups with angle for lumber storage but not any that was adjustable. You idea of using short pieces of large angle sounds interesting. It could also be done with uni-strut and the fittings available for that.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    Eric,

    I just finished making 40 new steel shelf brackets a couple weeks ago. Half of them were for Aaron Koehl's garage and the rest are destined to be used in my barn. I have been making my own shelf brackets for several years and I've used several different designs. I prefer to use 3/16" thick by 1.5" wide flat bar welded to 3/16" thick 1.5" by 1.5" angle iron.

    Drill two holes in the flat bar to mount the brackets on the wall, use three inch long #10 square drive screws or heavier lag bolts depending on the weight you anticipate being on your shelves.

    I can take some pictures if anyone is interested.
    .

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Arlington, VA
    Posts
    1,850
    So you are doing something like:
    KO_Bracket.jpg
    I like the idea of 1.5x1.5 angle--I can shear that on the Ironworker easier than I can cut square stock on the cold saw. And it has better cross sectional area than 1x1x1/4. I'm thinking to make it "adjustable", I'll need to add another tab:
    Bracket2.jpg
    ...but that should actually increase the strength of the joint. But going with 1.5x1.5 angle means my wall verticals have to be upsized from 1x1 too--looks like they make 1.5x1.5x3/16, so that's probably what I'll do...

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