Shelf building: mechanical coupling

[tiroth]

I'm going to build some shelves in a couple of days out of 1/2" acrylic, and I ran into a question about coupling. I plan to build a frame out of aluminum angles, which the acrylic will rest in. The frame will attach to the supports (aluminum channel rack rails) at all four corners.

Once I'd thought up this frame, I immediately wondered if the actual shelf should be loosely coupled (just resting in the frame) or tightly coupled (i.e. screws). The purist in me says loose coupling sounds great: isn't that the point of acrylic? Then the cynic says that acrylic is already so "dead" that it won't make much difference, and the tightly coupled design is more stable.

Any thoughts?

[faustian bargin]

seems you could have your cake and eat it if you used something like rubber washers or gaskets for attaching shelf to frame...

/andrew

[JOE DIRT®]

I would use foam tape on the angle and let the acrylic just sit on it....... it will isolate and also prevent the acrylic from sliding


DIRT®

[tiroth]

Thanks for the input guys. I have the materials at hand to do either. I may well try both and compare them.