sources sought for wire tension support systems

[The Night Tripper]

Hi All I have a little project in mind - making some small wooden shelves for part of the kitchen. One side of these will have to be 'suspended', and I am wondering about using some form of wire tensioning system to support them.

I've googled a bit and come across:

looks promising - but are there any other places I would benefit from checking out as well, as a beginner to this stuff who only wants a small amount of the wire and fittings etc.? I know they are used for lighting systems, for a start.

The shelves will only be about 400mm long by 150mm wide. They will be suspended in an alcove and I would guess tensioned wire of 2-3mm would be plenty, if I can get the arrangement right.

Thanks for any pointers

jon N

[Adam Aglionby]

and in the sign industry

[Andy Dingley]

You can Google as well as we can.

15 years ago, when I was designing lighting, this stuff was a pain to get hold of in small quantities. These days though, dead easy. Everyone is on-line and if they aren't, there's always eBay.

Mostly what I used was stainless cable and a lathe. It's not hard to get copper or aluminium crimps, but you can also turn up your own fittings from brass, steel or stainless steel and it all silver solders together beautifully for a neat and strong job with very low- cost tooling.

[Jonathan]

Fishing shops? Stainless steel wire which is plastic coated. It's what I used to suspend some stained glass in front of a window. I used wire that was under 1mm thick and had a breakibng strain of 28lbs. I think you can get much tougher stuff for shark fishing.

Jonathan

[Clive George]

I've got fairly heavy bookshelves suspended on what is probably 4mm stranded wire rope, joined with three wire rope grips on each wire to make the loop. (Suspended from 8mm eye bolts). Local DIY shop has this stuff in stock. (used three for paranoia - don't trust one, and the third gives me a spare).

[Tabby]

Either toolstation or screwfix has wire hanging anchors. If it were in a workshop you could just use 2mm iron wire, not for a kitchen though

NT

[Justin C]

[snip]

Plenty overkill. I've only got 6mm holding up the mast on my boat and there are tonnes involved in the forces acting on that... well, when the sails are up and the wind's blowing... Just avoid sharp corners/bends and pinching it too tight in your clamps.

Justin.