routersstorage
I have a series of cables and an internet router on the floor of my apartment, like this:
I would like to attach a box to the wall that will hide all of this, and tuck the wireless router inside it. I'm not allowed to drill into the wall because this is a rented apartment.The box will have to have a small rectangular cut-out to accommodate the incoming cable from above. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
April
Since you are contemplating shelving, I am going to assume that
I've got a shelving unit in a storage area that can fit at absolute maximum volume capacity about 24 of these 10 gallon storage bins:
With all 24 on the shelves, I physically cannot add any more weight to the shelves because all of the volume is already consumed.
I estimate the maximum weight that I put in each of those bins is about 50 pounds of stuff. From moving them around and comparing them to the dumbbells at the gym, it's way more that 20 pounds and definitely less than 100 pounds. As a reference, filling the tub with water would weigh 81 lbs, filling with lead is about 946 pounds.
So, based on my estimate, I will be storing up to about 1200 pounds (24 tubs x 50 pounds each) of stuff on that shelving unit. More than 1200 pounds is unlikely because the shelf will reach its volume capacity first.
In this case I dare not use a shelving unit that will collapse under less weight than 1200 pounds because there will be nothing preventing an unsuspecting family member from exceeding that weight by adding another item to the shelf.
The shelving unit in the example above is 4'x2'x8' (WxDxH) or 64 cubic feet. Given the 1200 pound capacity, the density of stuff I am storing works out to 18.75 pounds per cubic foot. When I design shelving for my home, I use the round number of 40 pounds per cubic foot for a 2x safety factor.
For your example of 1.5'x8' shelves, assuming they extend to an 8' ceiling, you should design for an astounding 3840 pounds of load (1.5'x8'x8'x40 pounds per cubic foot) to be safe. This is not an exaggeration. Good shelving allows you to store a remarkable amount of weight in an extremely small volume, that is its whole purpose after all.
The stuff you are storing on wall mounted shelving is an overhung load. The wall mount shelving supports this overhung load by applying a torque to the wall to which it is mounted. Walls in residential construction are not designed to support a significant amount of overhung load.
To make matters worse, the torque on the wall increases with the square of the depth of the shelving because you are increasing both the weight and the lever arm of the overhung load. So, the torque from an 18" deep shelf is nine times the torque from a 6" deep shelf. Because of the squared relationship with torque, I never use wall-mount shelves deeper than 10".
On top of all this, even if your wall is able to withstand the torques involved, there are two additional worrisome aspects to consider:
A real risk is this scenario: A child climbs a wall mount shelf loaded with hundreds of pounds of stuff. The weight and motion of a child causes the multiplied forces in the bracket to exceed the failure strength of the bracket. This causes a catastrophic failure of the shelf's ability to support the load, and the child and load falls to the floor, crushing the child.
All of the problems that results from multiplying forces, the squared relationship of torque with shelf depth, and a wall that can't support weight are alleviated by using free-standing shelving.
I recommend using a properly engineered system like EZ Rect Type 1. It looks like this:
As I understand it, the EZ Rect system's patent has long expired, and there are now many manufacturers of that system. I've been using a generic version of that system for all my high-density household storage for almost 10 years.
Here are the benefits of EZ Rect Type 1 shelving solution as I see it:
Whatever system you end up with, you should expect the above benefits to be standard -- if it's not, keep looking.
Here is a picture from my last moving day. Shown is 7 "bays" of dismantled shelving capable of safely storing about 24 tons (42,000 lbs) in about 600 cubic feet of space.
I've encountered an amount of skepticism about whether catastrophic failure of shelving is, in fact, something to be concerned about. Here are two examples of catastrophic failure.
A worker died in this workplace accident in 2012 when an overloaded shelving system collapsed.
This is an extreme case of what can happen. I think it is instructive of the dangers nonetheless.
The great Jon Skeet tweeted this photo of what seems to be catastrophic failure of a wall-mount Cookbook Shelf:
I'd make a template in the shape of a square donut out of 1/2" plywood by using a table saw to cut out the square hole in the 1/2" plywood. For example, if ...
i) the recess in the desktop needs to be 8"x12"
ii) the diameter of the base of the router is 6"
iii) the diameter of the router bit is 1/2"
... then I'd ...
1) start with a rectangular piece of plywood that measures 24"x28"
2) set the rip fence on the table saw to 5.25"
3) plunge cut on the table saw (advanced technique) along all four edges, but not all the way to the corners so as to leave the cutout solidly attached to the donut at all four corners.
4) make the final cuts in the corners with a jigsaw or handsaw or ...
At this point I ought to have a square donut template of the proper size. If the router is not high-end, then I'd mark a spot on the top of the router's base that I'd always keep rubbing against the template (this is important for precision work).
To route out the recess in the desktop, I'd secure the plywood template to the desktop. Then start excavating the recess at its center, progressing in an outward spiral until the final passes are done with the router's base bearing against plywood template.
Hope this helps.
Best Answer
You should have mounting holes in the back of the router. Simply just attach something like a command strip to the wall and hang the router. We use these for the exact purpose in our personal offices at work.