Think that engineering is just for
major structures? Not necessarily.
Kitchen cabinets are often subjected
to some serious loading. This usually
leads not to disaster and lawsuits, but
occasionally to a lot of embarrassment
on the part of the builder if a cabinet
sags or slips off the wall.
Gravity vs. Wood Screws
Take a basic wall cabinet: It's
36 inches wide and 12 inches deep,
with three shelves and an accessible
top surface. Now let's fill it up and
see what it weighs (see illustration,
next page).
Weights and measures. A can of soup
measures 4 inches high, 21/2 inches in
diameter, and weighs 13 ounces. Some
quick arithmetic shows that you can
pack about 14 of these