Help with wall hung book shelf

Hi all,

I have a general question about making a U shaped wall hung book shelf with keyhole plates.

The nephew plans to make this book shelf with two side walls and a bottom shelf (3 pieces) out of excess 22mm thick wood leftover from one of those bunnings bench tops (may be Karri). Length of bottom shelf is 690mm, width 250mm (not including two side walls which it will join onto (250mm length x 250mm width)). He doesn't want to see any screw holes, nail holes etc. Wants it to be seamless.

Question is, does this sound feasible with biscuit joints? Thinking could do parallel biscuit joins to increase overall glue area but still not sure if this will sustain a great deal of weight if fully loaded up with kiddies books. Thinking also would be safer to have a back piece to brace side walls together and stop flaring in/out.

Any suggestions or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all,

Ashley

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Originally Posted by Asharper

Hi all,

I have a general question about making a U shaped wall hung book shelf with keyhole plates.

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Good Morning Ashley

Relatively high point loading might be an issue with keyhole plates.

May I suggest that you look at French cleats as being a lot easier to do and also distributing loads more widely.


Fair Winds

Graeme

Hi Graeme,

Thank you for the tip. Certainly will look at that.

Cheers,

Ashley

The Shakers did hanging wall shelves and there are many copies around if you google them. With one shelf only it might be reasonably sound if built with dovetails to join to the sides to the base, but two shelves would probably be better to keep things square. Something like this.
Attachment 466863

Thanks Fuzzie,

Was thinking of dovetails. I have a Gifkins dovetail jig I've never used that he could borrow. Might have a bit of practice on some scrap first to make sure it's a go.

Cheers

Ashley