hi guys, I've had some wardrobes made out of 18mm and 25mm mdf. There are 2 sections with a span of 1200mm each. I need to fit some hanging rails but am wondering how I'm going to screw them in with only 25mm to play with (the centre is doubled up but the ends are made out of 25mm boards). What is the best way to screw them in so they stay strong? Use short screws or add wooden fillets, screw to mdf and then screw rails into the fillets? Any advice most welcome! Thanks Ryan
A standard hanging rail will be fine. It fixes both ends and has extra supports. Which can all be fitted with 25 mm screws. I would use 2 supports for the rail with that span. clothes can soon add up to quite a weight.
Hy Rystar. 25mm MDF is pretty darned thick - phew, that must weigh a bit Choose screws that'll go virtually the full depth and you should have no issues at all - you'll never pull them out. Use 'chipboard' screws which have parallel thread sides - unlike traditional 'wood' screws which tend to taper. You might need to pilot drill first - choose a pilot drill that's a tad smaller than the screw thread shank (is that what it's called? - the solid metal centre bit the thread 'wraps' around). If you are at all concerned, then you can always use a hole saw to cut some neat MDF discs at least - ooh - 80mm dia and then glue and screw them to the sides first to double-up the wall thickness. (Rough up the mating surfaces before gluing). But in this case make sure the screws go solidly into the main panel behind. Actually, I think you'll find that screwing into nearly 50mm of MDF will be a tough task...) Tbh, I think I would only bother doing that if the MDF sides were 18mm thick or much less. Really, 25mm is pretty thick on its own. Don't forget that most of the force on the rail brackets will be straight downwards - a sheering force. So very little force will be trying to actually pull the screws out. Absolutely use centre supports as DW says - unless your hanging rails happen to be mighty firm ones?
Use the oval hanging rails and of course, matching end brackets and supports Have found them to be much stronger and don't dip in the middle like the round ones can do (even 25mm diameter) Guess you have a fixed shelf above the rail, which is usually the case so add centre supports, as suggested The oval end brackets can be either side hung or top hung (ones from BQ anyway) so could always add an extra fixing into shelf to help you sleep at night