Filling advice

[Dauph]

Greetings all!

I am trying to repair some floating shelves for a client.
They are poorly designed and hang by leaving two screws protruding from the wall onto which the shelf slots .
The supplied screws were barely long enough to hit brick and the plaster is old and crumbly.
No surprise that the shelves failed!
I tried to use much longer screws but after drilling the holes and getting the screws in, I discovered the screw heads are to big to fit in the slot holes on the back of the shelf.
Now I have great big holes that I need to fill with something that I can drill and fix screws closer to the original sized ones that will support the weight (and more) of the shelves.
I was thinking of drilling out the holes with a 10 mm bit and filling with epoxy putty, but that stuff is quite pricey.
Anyone have any recommendations?

Many thanks

 

[lostinthelight]

cant you reduce the diameter of the screw heads on a grinder?
litl

 

[big-all]

or if its a few mm assuming softwood it may just "give" enough to slide it on
or chisel out the bottom off the rebate to give more room
have you got pictures

 

[Doggit]

Body fillers cheaper than epoxy putty, and will do the same job. But it almost sounds as though you need to glue a stud into the shelf, pack the hole with the body filler, and then push the studs into the filler, then support it whilst it goes off. Okay, permanent job which will need to be hammered off, but it'll be solid.

 

[DaveHerns]

Aren't these floating shelves a very bad design in terms of leverage on the fixings?

 

[foxhole]

A. drill the plate to accept the larger head.
B. Grind down head ,as suggested.
C. Tell client he has bought crappy shelving.

 

[big-all]

Aren't these floating shelves a very bad design in terms of leverage on the fixings?

i had assumed invisible fixings with slots each end to slide on to

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Greetings all!

I am trying to repair some floating shelves for a client.
They are poorly designed and hang by leaving two screws protruding from the wall onto which the shelf slots .
The supplied screws were barely long enough to hit brick and the plaster is old and crumbly.
No surprise that the shelves failed!
I tried to use much longer screws but after drilling the holes and getting the screws in, I discovered the screw heads are to big to fit in the slot holes on the back of the shelf.
Now I have great big holes that I need to fill with something that I can drill and fix screws closer to the original sized ones that will support the weight (and more) of the shelves.
I was thinking of drilling out the holes with a 10 mm bit and filling with epoxy putty, but that stuff is quite pricey.
Anyone have any recommendations?

Many thanks

Are you a professional doing this?

 

[Dauph]

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies.
I'm going to work with the existing holes, use epoxy to make them as secure as possible and grind down the screw heads so they fit the shelf slots.

freddiemercurystwin Professional as in "do I get paid?" yes. Professional as in "do I know what I'm doing?" ermm.... sometimes

 

[Doggit]

Daft thought, but can you move the shelf a couple of inches up, down or sideways.

 

[Nozzle]

You could try some of that two part polyester resing fixing stuff, made especially for the job. You could fit some threaded rod and bolt to that somehow. Be careful to get the fittings perfectly horizontal. You'll need to over-size the hole to do this, and blow all the dust away before injecting. The resin sets very hard indeed.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p47918

Nozzle