Can shelving brackets look as great as they function?
Andrea Hill
6 years ago
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Requesting help designing airy looking brackets
Comments (7)Wow, those ones on ebay are gorgeous. So call me stupid, but is cost the reason you aren't just buying a few of those? Having just purchased a whole lotta lumber, I'm here to say they aren't exactly giving the stuff away, even poplar. I'd cost it out and consider your time too before rejecting simply buying those ones, unless they're the wrong size or something else is wrong with them. Having said that, I've used a lot of shelf brackets and would point out that the strength of the bracket also depends on the method of its attachment to both wall and shelf. From the photo, the ebay listing seems to suggest that there are maybe keyhole openings sunk into the backs of these ones. You need to think about whether that's a good enough method for major weight-bearing. Seems to me you're putting a lot of faith in the head of a screw and the secure installation of the keyhole, if my understanding of the forces involved is correct. If you decide to use a through-screw method instead, you have to be able to get to it with a drill/press and with a screwdriver. I've done a lot of swearing while trying to drive screws where I can only insert the screwdriver obliquely. For that reason, as well as to accommodate the bandsaw, it might be good to design something that you can assemble as you install it. I like Brickeyee's idea of using metal to give it real strength. That said, it bugs me when I look at a shelf and it doesn't look strong enough to support the weight on it. That's why I don't like floating shelves; it makes me nervous just to look at them. The design of a bracket has to instill confidence! To go in a completely different direction, have you looked at the metal brackets available at Lee Valley? They may not convert you from wood, but might give you some ideas. I have the Large Cast Steel Brackets in one installation and I still admire them after years of having them. KarinL Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley shelf brackets...See More5 foot shelves and how many brackets
Comments (4)You don't want more brackets than you really have to have because they make it harder to arrange things on the shelf below. For 60", I'd go 3 brackets... here, this is a sag calculator, seems pretty good:http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/...See MoreWeek 176 - Would you trade functionality for looks?
Comments (32)Reading others' comments, I wonder if we view function in the same way. For instance, I don't see glass fronted cabinets, open shelving or a lack of upper cabinets as choosing form over function. They all serve a functional purpose. Now if those choices were made at the expense of adequate storage overall or adequate storage in the right places, that's another matter. Do they make a little more work - dusting, cleaning glass, etc - for the homeowner? Perhaps. But every surface has its trade offs. Stainless steel counters are impervious but they can be scratched and dented. Marble is great for baking but it can stain, chip and etch. Open shelving gives you a place to display treasured items or make it easier to grab oft used items but you need to dust. I chose to put glass doors and a glass side on my upper next to my window to let me display the silver-plated items I inherited from my mom and my stemware, and to allow light from the window to pass more freely into the room. That's not putting form over function to me. That's about weighing my options to meet my goals and choosing the one that best suits my needs. Kitchen design is all about compromise of one sort or another. I don't see form versus function as a black and white matter but as a continuum....See MoreLooking for these orgainizers/shelves. Any idea where I can purchase?
Comments (19)Many of us continue to buy and/or use products that we probably don't really have any real use for and would probably be just as satisfied if we did not buy them. Still, we buy them with the notion that they are useful, or that they add something essential. But, do they really? I firmly believe that most of the things that the American public buys in regards to items such as "beauty" supplies, household cleaners, and laundry products are not only not really useful, but carry a large negative footprint in our lives, our personal resources, and our environment. All I am saying is that we owe it to ourselves and to our environment to think twice and again as to the real usefulness or need for so many of the things that we buy now days. So much of it is just that we have been sold the notion that these things are a necessary part of life. The major portion of what is on the shelves at the grocery stores, Walmart, and CVS are things that have not existed for...well, never before. Humanity has gotten along quite nicely without them. And, I would argue that the cumulative impact is negative and quality of life has not been enhanced by most of these things. I am in mid sixties and I look around at what people are buying and the it really occurs to me that I have lived this far, quite nicely, without most of that. I was in line at Costco the other day and the number of people around as I waited in line who had enough large packages of bottled water to build a wall was amazing! You would think that we had no potable water in our taps! That is just one example of senseless consuming. Don't they know that the "purified water" they are buying in those plastic bubbles is nothing more than tap water? Americans are trained to consume just about everything in mass quantities. Then, we have storage problems. For the record, I was not at Costco to purchase packages of paper towels that are as large as sofas. The pennies of savings are not worth the hassle of storing all of that stuff. And, most of it is not essential, nor is it really useful. Most of that perceived need is capitalist propaganda and social brain washing. It robs us of our money/resources and it reduces us to mindless consumers. Not buying so much stuff quickly addresses most storage issues. Once, we have decided which of those products really serves a need or a purpose in our life, we can eliminate buying or storing those that don't. First, there needs to be an honest answer as to it's real value, to us. Then, we need to give ourselves permission to step out of that mindset and NOT buy it. And, yes, this does apply to me, too....See MoreAndrea Hill
6 years agoAndrea Hill
6 years ago
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