I am building two 44 inch wide 6 feet tall solid wood bookcases. Normally I don’t like to have a shelf longer than 30 inches. My original plan was to add in a dividing wall. What I was wondering is if I use 3/4 inch L shaped shelf supports(5 mm hole drilled into 1/2″ plywood back) would that be enough so that I could eliminate the center wall? I’m ok if I need to add it in, but just wondering if that could be avoided. Thanks for the help.
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Replies
When i have long shelves, I simply add a stiffener along the front edge and sometimes the back edge as well. For a 44" span, I might use a 1 1/2" stiffener. That might change some for different wood species. So. If you use 3/4" materisl for the shelf, the front edge (and maybe back) will appear to be 2 1/4" thick. This may require a bit more spacing between shelves but should provide adequate stiffness.
The Sagulator at https://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/ that provides a form for determining what loads can be applied over specific spans. You might check that out also.