Determining capacity for homemade wooden shelving.

[Safetyranger]

We have some wooden shelving at a satallite facility that was hand made, not purchased. I am needing to determine maximum capacity of each level for labelling and compliance purposes. Is there a simple formula for figuring this?

 

[tygerdawg]

Too complicated to answer simply.

I suggest you get a source like Machinery's Handbook, look for section on "Stresses and Deflections in Beams" for formulas. Formulas will be specific to your loading condition (point load or distributed load or...), which you do not mention here. Then you can also use MachHanbk for material properties for different types of woods to make the formula work. Then apply a suitable safety factor, then do the arithmetic to give you max allowed weight per unit linear distance on the shelf.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com