Anchor bolt load capacity

Marakith

Marakith

Marakith

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Joined
22 Nov 2004
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Location
London
Hello!

More anchor bolt fun in the Marakith household. This time I'm installing a rack to store olympic weightlifting plates onto a brick garage wall.

The rack weighs about 10kg and I intend it to hold about a 200kg load. It has six holes that will each only accept an M6 bolt.

My question is: can I trust six M6 bolts to take that weight?

Thanks in advance!
 
Can you not get a floor standing weight tree?

Im not sure about wether anchor bolts can hold that much but would also depend on how the weight is spread etc. Photo would help?

Is it actually brick or blockwork?

Id be a bit apprehensive for sure!
 
Thanks for the responses!

@chaparral
I could drill out the holes to be larger, I suppose. But the thing is steel and I don't think my poor drill will cope.

@the-craig
I was hoping to avoid anything on the floor - the squat rack I've installed is a folding rack - the bars are also stored off the floor. The idea is to be able to neatly fold everything away.
It is a single skin brick wall. The planned position for installing the plate holder is right next to a brick pillar, however.

Here's a picture of the thing:
s-l1600.jpg
 
Maccapacca said:
Sorry you said brick. If they aren't hollow engineering bricks then resin anchors should work okay
Click to expand...

Thanks - they're solid bricks. My worry isn't so much the anchor coming out - I'm using expansion bolts - it's the weight shearing off the head of the bolt.
 
Surely each bolt is only seeing around 35kg each? Fit an m6 fixing to a wall and see if it will take your weight, although as said above you could always go up-to 8mm, as ththat looks like hollow box section.
 
I would not be comfortable with any kind of fixing unless the base of the rack touches the floor.
 
You may get away with it but I’m not so sure. I guess most of the weight would be lower down instead of higher up.

M6 wall bolts aren’t that substantial, however speaking experience I have hung roughly 125kg from 6 M8 anchors and the its still on the wall with the external elements beating it.
If it was me then I would probably drill out for M8 wall bolts at least.
 
Every decent fixing will have a rating based on what you are fixing into. Go for Fischer or similar decent fixings and look up the spec.

Bear in mind you need to build in the fact that the unit will be put under additional load when you drop or put a weight on it and it's the sort of thing someone might lean on or fall against.

You also need to consider that the pull out force will be greatest on the top 2 fixings.

Also worth considering what the wall is. If it's a garage wall is it a single skin external wall? If so do you really want that sort of load cantilevered off the wall?

It's common practice to take the maximum load then at least double it, which gives 420kg across 6 fixings. Although to play it safe I'd want each fixing to have at least a 100kg rating.

Personally I'd never fit anything that heavy purely to a wall and would want it floor supported.
 
Abyss said:
Every decent fixing will have a rating based on what you are fixing into. Go for Fischer or similar decent fixings and look up the spec.

Bear in mind you need to build in the fact that the unit will be put under additional load when you drop or put a weight on it and it's the sort of thing someone might lean on or fall against.

You also need to consider that the pull out force will be greatest on the top 2 fixings.

Also worth considering what the wall is. If it's a garage wall is it a single skin external wall? If so do you really want that sort of load cantilevered off the wall?

It's common practice to take the maximum load then at least double it, which gives 420kg across 6 fixings. Although to play it safe I'd want each fixing to have at least a 100kg rating.

Personally I'd never fit anything that heavy purely to a wall and would want it floor supported.
Click to expand...

Also bear in mind that a weight becomes heavier with the cantilever effect.

So make sure all the 20KG plates are mounted first and as close to the wall as possible ;)
 
With even the lowest graded steel fixing material (3.6), you should be good for over 300kg per bolt in shear before the material yields, that is excepting all other factors.
 
Thank you everyone for your thoughts!

danza said:
With even the lowest graded steel fixing material (3.6), you should be good for over 300kg per bolt in shear before the material yields, that is excepting all other factors.
Click to expand...

This was my main worry - I had visions of the head of the bolts popping off. Thanks!
 
danza said:
With even the lowest graded steel fixing material (3.6), you should be good for over 300kg per bolt in shear before the material yields, that is excepting all other factors.
Click to expand...
That sounds a bit much. I bought some M10 threaded rods (300mm) for mounting an oak mantle. To test their strength, I stood on one. It bent a little, and I'm only about 75-80kg.

Now that's bending rather than shearing, but it was 10mm vs the 6mm we're talking here.
 
cheesyboy said:
That sounds a bit much. I bought some M10 threaded rods (300mm) for mounting an oak mantle. To test their strength, I stood on one. It bent a little, and I'm only about 75-80kg.

Now that's bending rather than shearing, but it was 10mm vs the 6mm we're talking here.
Click to expand...
Was that you stood at the end of a 300mm bar thats only support at the other end?
 
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