Folding Steel Shelf brackets

I have been trying to find a way to hang my Canoe up in my Sun room after I finished remodeling it. It used to hang from the ceiling, but one eye bolt pulled out of the ceiling when I was trying to take it down the last time so I knew I needed to find another way to put the Canoe back up.

After a bit of research, I didn't find much and what I did find was $200 for 1 shelf bracket so that was totally out of the question.

I decided to head to the Tractor Supply during my lunch break, poke around at what they had in stock and grabbed what I thought would work. "I still have to return a few pieced I never used"

Not yet sure how much the max weight these will support but I tested with 140lbs over the ends without a problem. I also tried to support my own weight but I ended up tilting up the other side of my workbench which is 5 feet of solid 2x4's.

After I finished it, I measured up all the pieces and below are the actual sizes, hole locations, and the list of materials you will need to make 2 shelf brackets.

The Upper Arm - Uses 1" Channel, 2" flat bar, and 1" flat bar

• 1" Channel is 29 3/4" long
• The remaining 6" of the off-cut is welded onto the bottom of the channel to provide additional room to drill the pivot hole
• The pivot hole is drilled 5/8" from the top and 5/8" from the back
• The front bracket that the lower tube hooks into is made from two 2" x 3" x 3/16" pieces with an angle cut leaving 1" on each end of the angle.
• There is also a 1" x 1" x 3/16" piece that is welded into as a spacer and the section the tube hooks onto.

The Lower Arm - Uses 3/4" Round tubing

• This is cut from a 3/4" x 48" 16 gauge steel tube. Mine is cut at 30-1/2"
• A 1/4" pivot hole is drilled in the center at 1/2" from the end
• There is also a 1/4" hook hole drilled in the center at 4" from the other end
• The waste is cut off leaving that 1/4" hole to catch the bracket on the Upper arm.

The Pivot Wall bracket - Uses the 1" flat bar, and the rest of the 2" flat bar

• Two pieces of 2" x 9" x 3/16"
• One piece of 1" x 9" x 3/16"
• These will be welded together to make a large U channel where the 1" will be the back and the 2" sections will be the sides.
• The Top 1/4" pivot hole will be centered, 1-1/2" from the top
• The Bottom 1/4" pivot hole will be centered, 7/8" from the bottom
• The back 3/8" mounting holes will be centered 1/2" from the top and bottom

The Materials list below is from Tractor Supply

Tools you will need

• Welder and the stuff that goes with it. I am using the 80amp Inverter Stick welder from Harbor Freight
• Angle Grinder, any will do. Wish I had one of those 9" grinders as I couldn't grind the inside welds on the Wall bracket with my 4"
• Drill with 1/4" and 3/8" drill bit. Drill Press is preferred.
• cutting fluid, I like Mistic Metal Mover since it works well and I like the smell. I have seen others use 3in1 oil or even WD-40
• Some way to cut steel. You can use a cutoff wheel on the Angle grinder like I used to do, or a Hack saw, but for this project I upgraded to a portaband from HarborFreight since I had a $99 coupon for it. OMG it's sooooo much nicer!