Backless shelving-engineering feat

Installing shelving without a back presents many challenges. Squareness, for one needs to be paid much attention to.
Structural integrity is the hardest challenge though. How does one engineer a sturdy backless shelf? By having a sound design and then P creating precisely machined parts and attention to precision upon install...thats how.
This shelf spanned 11' 7" and was 36" high.

We first set the bottom piece- it need to be scribed to some existing cabinetry on one side and the wall on the other.

The top and bottom pieces had a groove milled to accept the 1 1/2" leg of a piece of angle aluminum that was attached to the wall very securely (perhaps more on that later as it was a key element of the engineering).
Everything was fit and attached together, then we took it apart, glued all the joints, filled the grooves with epoxy (Proset), and let it sit overnight to cure.

The whole thing was supported from below by some simple telescoping support devices we devised on an earlier project. They allow sturdy support but the ability to shorten and remove them when the time comes.
The small pieces you see place on the top run are off cuts from the actual top shelf and allowed us to place our aluminum angle in the right place. We had used the same technique on the bottom run.