How I build floating shelves | NO PLYWOOD MITER FOLDS

This is the best way I have found to build floating shelves. This method was born from my dislike for miter folded shelf fronts. It's my belief that a plywood miter fold creates a low integrity corner with only about a millimeter of wood veneer (that's not much). The shelves I build in this video have a full quarter inch (1/4") of solid hardwood at the corners and across the entire shelf front. Durability is important to me.

Just to clarify, I don't dislike ALL miter folds, just plywood miter folds.

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[pemtax]

Impressed with the concept, design and the execution. Your attention to detail and skill set made for an excellent video that I greatly benefited from. Thanks much for taking the time to share with the rest of us. Cheers!!

[robertgonzalez]

Speaking with 30 years of building experience this his hands down the best technique to building your shelf boxes, as far as mounting bracket I can see using this method perhaps other methods as well but by using your method you would save money for sure great job God bless

[MrWaterbugdesign]

For your brackets, if you want more strength....instead of just gluing and screwing the protruding arms you can cut them thinner then glue and screw as shown. But now glue a sheet of 1/16 to 1/8 panel on top. That will greatly resist the arms from pulling away at their top connection.

[cartmanrlsusall]

You have my attention, respect, and subscription because you show the finished project before the build video

[crustycurmudgeon]

Very clever, VERY sturdy and very cool! But also very labor-intensive. Final installation was easy and quick (a plus for the customer-- you're not there very long). I'm not a pro woodworker, and I have never sold any of my "work" (if you can call my occasional wood-torture doo-dads that), but I do often wonder about customer perception of things. Scenario: when you walk in to install, customer sees you carrying two box-looking shelf thingies and two sticks with some notches and some weird-looking assemblies attached to them. They hear or watch you drilling. You quietly attach the sticks-with-weird-assemblies to the wall. You slide the boxy shelves onto those sticks-and-stuff. You leave and invoice the customer for $750.00 (or whatever-- what do I know? I'm not a pro). Customer wonders, "He was here for 15 minutes taking measurements over a week ago, then he comes in with sticks and boxes for 20 minutes... now he wants $750.00?" I really don't know how all this works!

[csimet]

Nice technique for building custom shelves thicker than 1". I use solid 5/4" myself and rods screwed in the wall at stud locations to hold mine up, but this gives me options for thicker shelving down the road where thick solid boards get crazy expensive. More complicated build of course, but they look great.

[yogeshruwali]

Love the concept and design. I plan to try this out on a small shelf for my son's room to keep his Xbox. If it works, I will build 4 large ones for my fireplace built-ins.

[cobaltwoodcraft]

Great video, Jordan! Those shelves came out beautiful. I love the elegant simplicity and it looks great in your client's space.Some very handy tips regarding the different back bevels. I will certainly keep them in mind! Thanks. - Joe

[bobbg]

Thanks, i was going to make 4 of these using lock miter joints and make them all look like one solid chunk. These look great and you didnt invest a lot on unnecessary hardware as the shilfs only need to suport 10 lbs each that i was going to do with french cleats
Mine are to put speakers on, might even do one for my projector.

This set you did look good and will work just fine for a few disply items.
Provided no one stacks 50 plates on them they will hold just fine.
If your going to load them down you'll need metal brackets that are welded using 1018 structural steel.

[emiliangeczi]

Very interesting technique, I learned something new today. My one concern would be the color difference between the veneered plywood and the hardwood front. In your case, you seem to have matched the two colors pretty well. But I'm concerned that over time the colors would age differently. Thanks for sharing this, though, it's an intriguing approach.

[mikepurnell]

Interesting technique. I might have made the rabbit shallower to prevent wood movement. Also, you were using a climb cut on your palm router which probably caused your unstable feeling.

[ugklnxs]

It so much easier when you have all the right tools and proper work space!

[jefffuhr]

Design 🟢Materials 🟢Implementation 🟢Presentation & Editing... *FLAWLESS!*

[iamchrisjans]

I've always used steel as rails if there's heavy loading, quick and dirty you could use some longer structural screws or threaded rod, as long as there's not much weight. 3/4 isn't gonna hold much with just a couple screws

[charleslebeau]

Really nice option! Also love the « how much do they need to hold » quote😂 people don’t seem to understand that you would need a shit ton of books to reach 20 pounds.

[soteriamediaproductions]

Ok, I’m drooling over your table saw. Con you post some info on it? Thanks! Of course you got mad skills to go along with it!

[johnrains]

How much they can hold also depends on where the center of mass is acting. The shelf, when loaded, is experiencing a torsion that tends to push the front of the shelf down, rotating around the bottom of the shelf at the wall contact point. Torsion multiplies the tensile stresses in the side of the structural member opposite the direction of rotation, which is also opposite the direction of the force causing the torque. Any shelf will hold a higher loading if tha load is distributed towards the wall rather than to the front lip of the shelf. I think this is intuitive for most people involved in any kind of mechanical endeavor for any length of time.
Anyway, this is for those out there who like to know the why of things like I do.

[richardlug]

Nice build and execution, but I will keep building them with just plywood and miter folds. This way has a lot more cuts which means more time. Is more expensive with the hardwood being used. I like the seamless look when using just plywood. As far as bumping the vernier edges it takes a hard hit to make noticable damage and how often is someone taking something on and off a shelf.

[IsaacC]

@7:52 Good job testing it but note that there are two types of loading: static and dynamic. A shelf may hold up a stationary load but if you drop the same weight, it could impart a greater force than the shelf can otherwise handle.

[fingersnospig]

I use the Bosch Hex-9 bits for tile, seem really good.