Floating shelves

[Chud]

Hi My Daughter has broken one of the floating shelves in her kitchen. The fixing is the type where a rod is screwed into the wall and the shelf is pushed onto the rods.

This is the type of fixing

One of the rods has snapped and she had to break the other one to remove the shelf from the wall. The rods have been glued into the shelf and the broken screw bits are in the wall.

The obvious solution is to drill the shelf holes in a different position and refit the shelf. The rods are about 6inches into the shelf and so the holes have to be very accurately drilled.

What is the best way to accurately drill 6inch deep holes?

Are there any other ways of repairing the shelf?

Thanks

[stuart noble]

Good luck with the drilling. Those holes have to be perfectly aligned for the thing to fit. The one I did could only be hammered to within 5mm of the wall (I claimed that was deliberate to allow cables etc down the back :-)). If I were doing it again I would drill oversize holes in the wall, fill with 2 part filler, and push the shelf home before it set

[The Natural Philosopher]

Vertical drilling machine and a jig.

Use the same jig to drill the walls with

[The Medway Handyman]

Chances of getting the holes accurate enough are slim, even fitting that type of shelf from new is a problem.

Getting two holes at exactly the right distance apart, exactly level on a crumbly wall is damn near impossible.

Replace the shelf with a new one where the rods are attached to a back plate. Or fit brackets.