Customizable Angled Slide-in Shelf Bracket

If you need a slide-in shelf bracket at an odd angle, this is your stop! This project supports any moderate thickness of sheet goods (like plywood, glass, melamine, foam core, acrylic), any angle of shelf, any number and size of hardware you have on hand, and any orientation of a shelf stop, with or without a shelf retaining screw!

There are many shelf brackets available, but few support angles other than horizontal shelves. Lots of projects need a shelf at a different angle - for example, this spray can rack I'm building - and most constructions use locating pins, angled dadoes on the table saw, or something even more difficult.

The included .scad file can make an angled bracket at any angle you choose between 0° and 45° - if you need an 80° shelf, use a 10° bracket and level it horizontally instead!

Included STLs

The included STLs cover every 5° increment from 0°-45°, and are labelled with the angle they support. The standard angled bracket has a complete passthrough slot, while the ‘left’ and ‘right’ labeled brackets have a built-in stop for the corner of the shelf to prevent it sliding in one direction.

The three thicknesses included are for common ‘project board’ sizes available at hardware stores. The ¼" nominal size is actually 0.18", the ½" nominal size is actually 0.47", and the ¾" nominal size is actually 0.709". Check your actual sheet thickness before printing!

For the ½" and ¾" thicknesses, the brackets include a hole for an M3 retaining screw. This can either press into the sheet good or be drilled through into it depending on your application.

Installation

For angled shelves 0°-45°, use a level in the vertical orientation to install the bracket, or mount it flush against the front of the vertical panel as shown. Mounting one (front or back) bracket first can help you accurately position the second bracket.

For 50°-90° shelves - just turn the bracket 90°! This can be used for mounting near-vertical panels, like a book display shelf at 80°. I recommend to use a bracket with an end-stop for panels in this orientation, as the weight of the shelf will make it slide over time.

Printing Advice

Print in mirrored pairs! These are directional. The mirroring will reverse the text, but you can still read it. ;)

I use PETG for mechanical parts, as PLA will warp under load in my hot garage. No supports are required in either suggested orientation - the screw holes are easy to bridge. For most light to medium use, the orientation of the STLs as-is should be fine. 

For more strength, adding perimeters and infill for your use case is probably the first option. But also, you can print in the alternate print orientation shown in the last photo - this allows the weight to be supported along the layer lines, which should be stronger under load.

Customization

This model should fit any angle and size of sheet good - including wood, glass, foamcore. acrylic, or anything else. Much longer brackets with more screw holes are possible as well.

To run the SCAD file, you will need the BOSL library installed.

Here are the parameters you can adjust easily using the OpenSCAD Customizer. Default values are for a ¼" nominal plywood size (0.18 actual) at 15° with 2 6mm screws and a 3mm retaining screw, and 2mm bracket thickness.

//Material thickness (mm)
actual_shelf_thickness = 0.18 * 25.4;

//Material interface tolerance (mm)
shelf_tolerance = 0.01;

//Shelf angle from horizontal (degrees), or "all"
shelf_angle = 15; //"all";

//Cap shelf slot?
shelf_cap = "None"; //["None", "Left", "Right"]

////Overall length of bracket (mm)
bracket_length = 50;

//Preferred bracket thickness (mm)
bracket_thickness = 2;

//Screw hole diameter (mm)
screw_hole_diameter = 6;

//Screw hole count (#)
screw_hole_count = 2;

//Diameter of hole for a centered shelf retaining screw, 0 for none (mm)
shelf_retaining_screw_hole_diameter = 3;

Further Automation

Need to generate a bunch of different brackets? Try this Powershell script to repeatedly invoke OpenSCAD to generate many STLs at once:

for ($i=0;$i -le 46;$i+=5) {
& "C:\Program Files\OpenSCAD\openscad.exe" .\angled_slide_shelf.scad -D shelf_angle=$i -o angled_slide_shelf_$i.stl
}