On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:27:57 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Question is, are you supposed to put the longest length of the
bracket onto the wall or doesn't it matter.

Longest bit on the wall is standard practice.

Yes, resulting in choosing a bigger bracket generally. But when the
shelf is bigger than the bracket either way round, the strength is the
same either way.

Can't see the logic in that. The load isn't straight down, its trying to
pull the bracket away from the wall, so the longest bit on the wall makes
sense surely?

Most of the load is on the 2 top screws in to the wall, with the bottom of
the bracket acting as the fulcrum and the screw there is just to stop the
end from being misaligned by a long lever.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.