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Help with Hanging a Beam on Wall as a Mantel

Started by rmallaire, March 04, 2017, 08:14:29 AM

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rmallaire

Hello everyone,

I am trying to hang a 6" X 8" X 84" redwood beam on a stick framed wall to serve the purpose of a mantel. This is another attempt to complete one of my wife's honey-do tasks. We do not have a fireplace with a mantel, however, she saw an idea on Pinetrest of a mantel floating on a wall. 

She does not want the bracket shown.. Does anyone have ideas of how to hang the beam on wall without the bracket being seen?

I am trying to make this as strong as possible and it not pull out of wall. The 6" face will be on wall. What I am planning to do is milling a slot down the middle of the 6" side of beam about 4" deep X 1/4" thick.  Then fabricating a T-shaped bracket, 1/4" steel: 4"x 6"X 84".  I would have to radius the milled slot to allow for the welding beads.

Any help would be appreciated. 



Ox

That sounds better than my first thought which was steel dowels, but how to keep it from sliding off in an earthquake or something without making it totally permanent?
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

WDH

I mounted mine using 3/4" threaded rod.  Put in a wood block in the framing flush with the finished wall.  Fastened the wooden block very well to the studs.  Drilled a 3/4" hole into the wooden block about 3" to 4" deep leaving the rod protruding from the wall about 3/4's of the wide of the mantle.  Marked the backside of the mantle and drilled holes into the mantle, then slid the mantle onto the protruding rods.  The fit will be tight, and the threads on the rod acts as friction points to hold the mantle tight to the wall.  You have be be sure and locate the wooden blocks in the right place and be able to drill your holes level in both the wooden blocks and the back of your mantle.   

Here is a pic on my mantle.  The corbels are simply glued to the bottom of the mantle and are not functional as supports.



 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Don P


warren46

In my experience the very best way to mount a mantel or shelf with no visible supports is to use a french cleat.  Just Google french cleat to see how to install one.
Warren E. Johnson
Timber Harvester 36HTE25, John Deere 300b backhoe/loader.

WDH

Attaching a french cleat is as hard as attaching the mantle itself on a stone or brick surface  :)
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

rmallaire

Thanks for all of the replies.  I like how you did your mantel WDH, it looks great; good idea with fastening them with 3/4" rods.  Warren46, thank you for recommending the french cleat, there are several methods.  Ox, I was thinking of having a couple of dowels ran vertically, on the top down into channel to prevent it from sliding off.

Thank you all,

Randy

WDH

Don,

In my younger days, I was an avid artifact hunter.  Being a Forester, I got to walk many different properties and I learned how to figure out where the most likely places would be for Native Americans to have set up camps or villages.  I would look for the right characteristics on the landscape, and go there if there was an ag field or if the property had the timber harvested and the area was site prepped for planting.  The Company that I worked for owned 350,000 acres in Georgia between Atlanta and Albany, so there was ample opportunity to find the right sites.  Plus, I knew which tracts had been harvested and were being site prepped for replanting.

In the 1980's, it was common Forestry practice to root rake the property and pile the debris into windrows.  The raking exposed the mineral soil, and the rain would wash the soil away from any artifacts that had been exposed by the raking.  Sadly, this is not common practice anymore given the advent of chemical site prep, so conditions for finding artifacts are not as favorable now. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Don P

That is where most of mine came from. I worked on hoedad crews during the winter for a few years from SC to tidewater VA and then up into the mountains and by the time we got home it was building season again. It was one way to be a snowbird I suppose  :D. One of my crew bosses said "Those bags of trees are your ticket to looking for points" At my planting speed I was the gleaner, the fast boys had already cleaned my row most of the time but I found a few. Yours look to be beauties.

Brad_bb

I like the french cleat idea on top, and you could toe screw in a few timber screws underneath.  I like the large headed Wurth screws.
Anything someone can design, I can sure figure out how to fix!
If I say it\\\\\\\'s going to take so long, multiply that by at least 3!

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