Floating Shelf Sloping down

Bigphil1474

Looking for a bit of advice. I've installed a floating shelf in my living room. It's a hefty bit of solid wood, 1.8m x 0.22mm. The shelf came with 4 supporting rod type brackets and the shelf is predrilled to accept the rods. I've drilled into a solid brick wall that has been boarded and skimmed. The rods have a screw end which screws into the wall plug I fitted, and then the shelf slides onto the rods. These are roughly 160mm rod length. There are no fixing screws or holes under the shelf to hold the rods in.

When I fitted the rods, they were all dead level. However, when I slide the shelf on, the shelf slopes forward. It's level across. There's a bit of give, so it can be lifted slightly so it's level, but naturally sits about 6 or 7mm lower at the front. Presumably because of the weight. The rods and the holes are quite tight so there's no danger of it sliding off. I have tried shims, but when I put the shims in underneath, they just push the shelf away from the wall rather than lifting it.

In my mind, I've 3 options. I can either live with it as it is, take it all off and this time drill the holes at a slight downward angle so that when it droops, it droops level, or third option might be to glue the rods into the shelf as is, prop it so it's level, and then try shims when the glue is dry. Any suggestions anyone?

Pictures - sloping isn't quite as bad as my dodgy photo shows.

Eldi_Dos

Do not know if this will work, but could you flip the shelf and see if slope is switched?

Failing that stuff holes with blu tack or similar and prop up so it is level and leave for awhile to see if it 'sets' enough to keep level.

ButterCheese

Yes as above, flip the shelf and see if the same thing happens.  I have made a few of these myself and it's incredibly difficult to drill the holes in straight if you don't have a pillar drill.  And you still get some sag due to the weight.  I did try shims on some smaller ones which worked, but you can see the shims from underneath now.  I guess the only thing to do is to try and calculate the sag and account for that when re-drilling your holes at a slight angle, it will be hard to do

rob7475

It sounds like your holes may be too big which is allowing the screws/bolts to move when you apply weight to them. 

What plugs did you use? For something like this, you want good plugs if going into masonry - I always use Fischer duopower plugs. It might also be worth using thicker screws / bolts. I'd probably be looking at at least 8mm x 70mm bolts for something like this. Adding a washer under the bolt head would help too but you may need to modify the back of the shelf to accept the bolt heads.