Cantilevered end grain to face grain joint

[Dan Barber]

Hard to believe that so many "woodworkers" are recommending screws into end grain as a proper means of joinery.

This is not woodworking as in making furniture, it's akin to construction framing or trim work for decorative effect. The screws will work fine. It doesn't need fine joinery to last forever in this case. If the OP wanted to use joinery, I'm sure he already would have done so. He asked if he needed more than screws, which he does not in this case. Hard to believe so many "woodworkers" won't objectively look at the task at hand and be satisfied with the simple solution. This is a static joint that only has to support 5lbs, there is adequate material to engage the screws and it will never be subject to any stress. I'm equally as concerned about how the OP is connecting the horizontal board to the wall, but that doesn't seem to concern anyone.

[Austin Perera]

Thanks again guys, and apologies if I stirred up any debate. As Dan said this is more of a glorified trim project rather than furniture so I’m just trying to build it out in a way that won’t look shoddy as time goes by. As Kevin said I’ll have an inch of open dado left above each arm, and my plan is to to have several of those dados line up with the wall studs, so I can send GRK screws through the dados into the studs, and then make blanks to cover them. Also the ends of the back board will be hidden behind the cabinet valences on either side and give me more area to screw into studs.