I am building an oak cabinet, roughly 48 inches wide, 30 high, and 10 deep which will contain glassware. I want to wall mount this unit, and I was wondering if (normal) walls are up to the task, and what are the best means of anchoring it to the wall to have the best support. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Jean-François
Mannanan asks:
You need to screw it into the studs, not the wall. Locate the studs before mounting the cabinet, pick the spots for your screws, and drive them neatly into the studs.
If you like, place a decorative brace just under the cabinet, screwed into the same studs.
Studs will support a devil of a lot more weight than will expansion fasteners in drywall or plaster.
Depending on load, I'd use 2 or 3 screws per stud (on 24" centers, you'll hit
3, on 16" centers, you might hit 4). #10 or #12, 3" length. Do NOT use drywall screws.Charlie Self "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson
As Charlie said you want the screws secured in the wall studs. If the studs placement doesn't work for the cabinet a "French cleat" might help. See:
Charlie's got ya covered.
dave
Mannanan MacLir wrote:
Why is that?
-- Mark
I don't know what that "French cleat" flummy Jack was talking about is. It may be what I'm about to describe.
I had to hang an obscenely heavy mirror in my dining room. It's a huge, thick piece of glass fastened to an ornate wooden backing with mirror clips.
It needed to be in the center of the wall, needed to span as many studs as possible, and had to be screwed behind the glass. The way I tackled that was to lag screw two 2x3 strips so that they spanned three or four studs. I did chin-ups on the strips a couple of times to prove to myself that they could take the weight (the mirror weighs a lot, but I weigh more :) and then I lag screwed the wooden backing to the strips in convenient places. Put the glass on, and it's held up for years.
You could do the same kind of thing for a cabinet easily. If you have any doubts about the weight, add it up and talk to your local building inspector.
Mark Jerde asks:
They're brittle, so their shear strength is poor.
Charlie Self "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson
I think it's also the case that they have a relatively narrow shank, which obviously doesn't improve their strength.
todd
Hang 1000 lb on two wall studs in a standard 8 foot high wall with the cg 6 inches out from the wall. That results in a 95 psi compressive load on the studs which is approximately insignificant. It also results in a force of about 35 lbs at the top of each stud pulling each stud out from the wall. All he needs to be concerned about is adequately securing the cabinets to the studs. The wall itself is no sweat.
Rico
I have used deck screws for things like that. Are they brittle also? I figure they are pretty much the same as drywall screws except for length. A few have broken going in, but I have never had a problem afterwards.
On 16 Nov 2003 02:03:15 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnotforme (Charlie Self) brought forth from the murky depths:
Yeah, if you accidentally drop 4 bowling balls on one shelf of your glassware hutch at once it might cause the whole thing to fall. ;)
I've had failures in drywall screws, but it was from a racking/bending force, not shear force. Have you had a failure from shear?
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Nope...Deck Screws are NOT hardened to the extent that drywall screws are...so they are a lot "tougher" - resistant to breaking when drilling in. As for hanging the cabinet...I would recommend (as others have) the French cleat method. Although it does space the cabinet out half an inch or so, it is going to be THE strongest and most flexible way to hang them. I have been using the technique some years now, and was interested to note that one of the woodworking magazines has JUST published a lengthy and very positive article about the technique. Shoot one or two screws though the wall cleat into the studs (making sure to get an inch into the stud itself) and you just about will be able to hang an elephant on the cleat before it fails. Regards Dave Mundt
Wade Lippman asks:
Deck screws should be less brittle, but a lot depends on the particular deck screw. Given a choice, which we usually are, I'd kick back on-line and pop over to
Charlie Self "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson
Larry Jaques questions:
I've had heads twist off with very low force--hand driven, in fact. So there's no chance at all I'll ever have a shear failure in a real project with one. I simply do not use them except to install wallboard.
Charlie Self "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson
You should specify what "normal" walls are. Wooden walls as in the U.S. are quite different from the normal brick or concrete walls in Europe, where they are certainly up to the task, IF you are able to anchor the screws well. So first tell what kind of a wll you have.
Thank you very much!! It is very appreciated. I will follow your advice.
If the stud spacing doesn't match the best places to put screws in the cabinets, he could install blocking as follows.
Thickness some 4" wide hardwood to the same thickness as the existing wall board. Remove 4x? horizontal strips of drywall. Install horizontal 2x4 spanners between studs, flush with the fronts of the exposed studs. Glue and screw the one-piece hardwood runners to the exposed studs and newly installed blocks. Screw the cabinets to the hardwood blocking. This will allow the cabinetry to be installed with the screws in the best places.
As Charlie says, use "real" wood screws, not brittle drywall screws. Simply hitting the studs as Charlie described will be plenty strong, but sometimes you need the blocking to do the job right.
Barry
Overtightening a drywall screw, which is common with power-driven screws into wood/wood interfaces, will twist the head right off.
Barry
In my home office I have 3 sets of 3 eight foot bookshelves attached to the wall studs with 2" drywall screws. The shelves are chocked full of mainly computer programming books, dunno, maybe 1000 lbs on each set of the 3 shelves. They've been up for several years. Any reason I should be worried? (I don't recall for sure, but I probably drilled a hole for most of the length before putting in the screws.)
-- Mark
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