pot rack question

[Bill Carey]

Every house we have lived in I have installed a pot rack over the kitchen sink. I've always used these brackets:
2023-03-20_08h40_32.jpg

Our new house has the wall cabinets installed within 1" of the windows, 20230318_195633.jpg thus no room to mount the brackets to the window crips (or jacks).

So I'm thinking along the lines of something like this 2023-03-21_19h11_27.jpg (no snickering at my sketchup skills) that can be fastened to the header. I'm not comfortable mounting the rack right to the sides of the cabinets for 2 reasons: they are middlin cabinets, and I didn't install them. Perhaps bracket is made from aluminum? Or painted steel? Can't imagine making them from wood and having them hold up, but maybe I'm mistaken. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I would use steel for a bracket like your sketch. I would design it to be made out of bar stock rather than cutting the shape out of plate. If your budget allows, a CNC plasma cutter would be handy. I will look through my Hafele book. I think they may have something similar that is ready made.

Hafele's backsplash rail system is not heavy duty. Google Images brought this rustic rack up.

Screen Shot 2023-03-22 at 7.43.00 AM.png

[Bill Carey]

Thanks Maurice - I think I need to find someone to make the brackets for me. The one you found won't work because I want to keep the pans away from the windows when the are hung sideways.

[Ted Calver]

I have a similar (30 year old) system using Taylor and Ng components sitting in a box in the attic because we are using a different set up now. If you don't need the shelf you can hang the rack from the ceiling and build a custom track to fit the space between cabinets. My track was 6.5' long and made from 3/4" x 1-3/8" maple? with 1/2" bloodwood spacers. Still straight as an arrow and never sagged.
IMG_8577.jpg, IMG_8578.jpg, IMG_8581.jpg, IMG_8580.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

You can't make the bracket you drew from wood, but you can certainly make supports from wood which will hold up your pots. You said you don't want to hang the rack from the cabinets because you don't trust them. But you could certainly build a wood thing which sits just inboard from the cabinets, and bolts securely to the header. And you can make it strong enough to support the rack. There's no need to find and pay a custom welder.

[Steve Jenkins]

I’m not a fan of hanging pot racks where you can hit them. I put mine under the cooktop. It is just a cabinet with two doors so I put a bar across up near the bottom of the cooktop and hang the pots from there behind the doors.

[Bill Carey]

You can't make the bracket you drew from wood, but you can certainly make supports from wood which will hold up your pots. You said you don't want to hang the rack from the cabinets because you don't trust them. But you could certainly build a wood thing which sits just inboard from the cabinets, and bolts securely to the header. And you can make it strong enough to support the rack. There's no need to find and pay a custom welder.

Interesting idea - had not thought along those lines. - Thx.

[Tom Bender]

We're not talking much weight here. There is certain to be a stud between the windows. A bracket there will take half the weight. Strengthen your cabinets with a few extra screws and maybe an angle bracket on top then attach the pot rack to the cabinets.