Suspend capbinets from ceiling

[Aaron Fude]

Hi,

I have just built a set of cabinets designed to be suspended from the ceiling. The piece has steel cables running through it and I intend to screw hooks into ceiling joists. I was going to make a loop out of the steel cable and lock it with a swaging tool. But there is now way I will be able to get the length right on the first try. So I need to be able to adjust the length.

Are there solutions for doing that?

For example, some suspension devices with threads?

Or, using split bolts instead of the thingies that you swage?

Many thanks in advance.

Aaron

[Bob F]

Turnbuckles?

[SteveBell]

Put a turnbuckle in the cable.

I have doubts about cabinets suspended this way. Good luck with it.

[Aaron Fude]

Please share you doubts with me.

[SteveBell]

I'm nervous that you won't be able to get the cables tight enough, and that the cabinets will swing like a hammock. Also, cables (actually "wire rope" according my brother the engineer) stretch, so you'll have to tighten them up periodically. Thin cables stretch a _lot_. Did you ever twist the head off a bolt? That was the steel stretching.

I first envisioned two cables running from one end to the other of a long row of cabinets with the cables held to the ceiling with hooks into the ceiling structure. Then I thought of four vertical cables per cabinet, one on each corner.

How do you plan to install the cables?

[Aaron Fude]

I plane to cradle the cabinets in 1/8" cable. Each is rated for 250lb and I will have three (or five) cables forming an right-side-up U with the cabinets snuggled inside the U. The cables run on the face and on the back so you see a U when you look from the side.

Three more details:

1. The cables run in a "fan". The middle one is straight up but the rest are slanted away. With three cables, the face lookse lile this: \ | /
2. The space b/w the ceiling and the cabinet is only about 8".
3. At the top of the U, the come together a little bit, making it snugger.

Thanks!

Aaron

[SteveBell]

OK, I feel better.

Put the turnbuckles under the bottom so you can snug them up later.

Why did you choose cables instead of conventional fastening?

[Aaron Fude]

For an airy look. Is there conventional way of fastening as far as hangning from the ceiling. Our kitchen sufferes from a lack of light so I'm trying to let in as much light as possible.

[trader4]

I guess the more conventional way of hanging from the ceiling would be to build a soffit. But with no back support, you'd have to make sure the cabinets were structurally designed to be hung rom the top, as opposed to fastened to the wall.

[John Grabowski]

*Yeah I am wondering why they are not just getting screwed to the ceiling?

[ransley]

Cable, so they will swing by themselves when bumped-used?

[Eric in North TX]

What do you intend to store in these? A good sized cabinet full of china could easily weigh several hundred lbs & with the U arrangement, only one would have to fail to dump it.

[Andy]

de quoted text -

The cables will be plenty strong enough, and the angle will keep swaying to a minimum. The "wire rope" can probably hold at least 10 times what you will put in it. It is not likely to stretch enough that you would ever notice. Structurally and functionally, I don't see how this will be a problem. Where I see a problem is appearance. How are you going to fasten all of these hooks and have them be symmetric? Are you going to put blocking up in the celing? Also, your connections are probably going to have some cable saddles. How would you hide these? Does the cable have a colored coating? How does the cable fasten to the cabinets? More hooks? I like this idea, but I'm not sure it won't look like an industrial installation.

Why not use all thread? You can get the hanging appearance; it can be easily adjusted; and it can be easily hid.

[SteveB]

Turnbuckles will work. You MUST not swage because there will be no allowance over time for drooping. However, ceiling suspended cabinets have to be made extra large so that "normal" people can access them from the floor. Short people will have to be allowed for, too, if as in my case my wife is five feet tall. That leaves you with a very large cabinet. Access to top shelves by ladder only. If you're going to put them away from a wall, there's the swing/vibration factor. I have seen them professionally mounted over islands, tho. As Steve said, I have doubts, too.

[aemeijers]

quoted text -

Back in the stone age, for the California Modern 'flying wing' houses, open space above the cabinets was pretty common. Usual approach was a L-shaped short wall with a pass-through at counter level, and wall mounted cabinets. Double-sided cabinets above a breakfast bar would be ceiling-mounted to a box-section soffit that was held up on far end by a short full-height wall that framed the entry to kitchen space from the dining area. Hard to make suggestions without seeing the kitchen, but rather than cables, I'd be inclined to to use a boxed-in soffit suspended from threaded rod or pipe and flanges or something. A 2-inch iron pipe painted in the ceiling colors would almost vanish to the eye. I think anything on cables will be way too wobbly, and drive the user of the kitchen flat crazy.

-- aem sends...

[gpsman]

Threaded rod. -----

- gpsman

[JP]

Do your ceiling joist go across or with the lingth of your cabinets?

[Aaron Fude]

They run the length (unfortunately?).

[Red Green]

"SteveBell" wrote in news:gnqq9l$7o9$1 @newlifehomeimprovement.motzarella.org:

Don't need much convincing to believe they stretch. Suspension bridge cables would be snapping wildly like the snakes on Medusa's head if they didn't. Also, I was fortunate to have a materials science course many decades ago. Big ass hydraulic machine. Put rods & bars in it and it pulled it laterally until it snapped and recorded snap level. Some rods and bars would thin as they were pulled, aka stretch.

[DanG]

I agree with Andy. This is an all thread job. You can disguise the all thread with plastic sleeves if desired.