French Cleats For Workshop Storage

[Sideways]

There has been a recent thread enquiring about the loads that can be hung on french cleats and what thickness ply is needed.

Today I needed to do some maintenance on part of my own workshop storage and it created an opportunity to share a few photos.

The photos that follow all show a setup made from 12mm birch ply, 8x4' sheet simply battened off an un-insulated outside wall. The ply got a wipe over with wax as it's what I had at hand when I was making it and has lasted a few winters in what is a pretty cold and rather damp space. Stupidly, I pushed a benchtop up to the bottom of the airgap behind the boards and today I noticed that blocking the airflow has encouraged the damp with some rusting screws and a bit of mould in the bottom left corner.

So, I've just swapped out a whole bunch of the woodscrews with #4 stainless equivalents before the rust could become a problem.

I've rearranged this lot many times since I put it up and added a couple of moveable shelving units. even though the boxes now take up half the wall, I still think that the cleats suit me much better than fixed cupboards.

The box of mini Systainers weighs in the order of 50Kg loaded. and I put 4 cleats on the back to spread the load out.

The slim rack is for chisels and woodturning tools (and an errant vegetable knife !) - I can swap it over depending on what is flavour of the month . Most of those tools are boxed in the dry over winter when I'm not using them regularly, but the convenience is having a place to put them up off the bench when they're in use. It only takes a few minutes to swap over.

Hope this encourages anyone else that wanders by and is thinking of trying out the same kind of arrangement.

Cheers

 

[5th]

Can I ask what spacing you have between the cleats please and the size of the cleats please - I'm just in the process of panelling out my workshop ready to put up french cleats and as usual there seems to be so many variations on the theme!

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

This is really timely as I'm just considering the same way of putting shelving and 'cupboards' up in my new workshop. BTW does having four battens on the back really spread the load or does the 'lowest' one take the majority and the rest take varying amounts - unless of course your position accuracy is sub-millimetre.
Have fun
Martin

 

[Max Power]

One of those cleats would hold the weight you're loading them with. Kitchen wall cabinets only have a bracket at each top corner and will take a substantial load

 

[MarkAW]

It never occurred to me to put a finish on mine. Would stop it getting grubby so easily. I will try that when I get a chance.

One of those cleats would hold the weight you're loading them with. Kitchen wall cabinets only have a bracket at each top corner and will take a substantial load

That's true. I guess it's about the shear strength of the fixing. Probably best to use fatter screws than thinner ones.

 

[Stuart Moffat]

Re spreading the load with multiple cleats, it helps accuracy to ensure that the space between the rails is exactly the same everywhere (I use the same spacer every time I add any). For anything Carrying a heavy load, I fix the highest one to the new unit and hang it up. You can then slide the extra cleats behind the hanging box, and simply screw through back of the unit into the additional cleat. The whole thing can be lifted off and put elsewhere, and you can be certain that the load is spread.
Stuart

 

[Sideways]

I fix the highest one to the new unit and hang it up. You can then slide the extra cleats behind the hanging box, and simply screw through back of the unit into the additional cleat.

That's exactly how I approached it too. Pics 2 and 4 of the first post you can see that the fixing screws go through the back panel into the cleats. As the rack is full of boxes and it's functional workshop storage anyway, do it the easy / strong way.

@5th My cleats are probably 50mm strips, the space between is a little more, 70mm maybe, so that I'm not fighting to remove things when I lift them up to unhook.
It's not very important. I just made something up that's most likely overkill. The constraint is that everything is 12mm birch ply so not super thick, I used small screws (probably 4 or 4.5 to attach the cleats) but generously.

 

[sams93]

That's true. I guess it's about the shear strength of the fixing. Probably best to use fatter screws than thinner ones.

I was always of the understanding that the job of the fixings was to pull the two pieces of wood together, then the resultant friction between the two pieces of wood is what holds it in place.

 

[5th]

That's exactly how I approached it too. Pics 2 and 4 of the first post you can see that the fixing screws go through the back panel into the cleats. As the rack is full of boxes and it's functional workshop storage anyway, do it the easy / strong way.

@5th My cleats are probably 50mm strips, the space between is a little more, 70mm maybe, so that I'm not fighting to remove things when I lift them up to unhook.
It's not very important. I just made something up that's most likely overkill. The constraint is that everything is 12mm birch ply so not super thick, I used small screws (probably 4 or 4.5 to attach the cleats) but generously.

@Sideways Thanks for that - Birch ply is out of my league at the moment but I do have 12mm hardwood ply for the cleats, might also try some MDF as I have some spare. I think 70mm spacing sounds good and like you have done - allows mounting of heavier items over multiple cleats.