French cleats - set away from wall

[Molynoox]

Why not put the LEDs straight onto the clear, just make the stuff hanger bigger than the cleats and that will hide the LEDs.

Like the below.

Good idea but I plan on having loads of different hangers, and want to be able to move them around individually to configure the space and evolve it with use.

 

[Molynoox]

I think if the wall cleats are fixed properly and not spaced too far apart then small stuff hangers will be fine on one cleat but larger stuff hangers can be made big enough to hang on one and rest on the wall cleat below with it just acting as a spacer.
Perhaps only every other cleat might have leds if that would be too much led?
or you could scrap the spacers altogether and just put leds on the bottom of every wall cleat where there is no bearing surface (maybe in a rebate)

I actually thought about doing the rebate idea on the bottom edge.... the downside is that the light ends up very close to the wall and doesn't distribute as well, but it's still one of the options I'm thinking about.

I'm slightly concerned over the small area of the spacer... It's only 30mm... But having said that, I think if I use a batten on the bottom of each hanger then it balances the forces and it should be ok.

I'm not quite convinced though...

Martin

 

[Jester129]

How big are the items you're hanging? The issue will be that, the taller the item, the less light will be visible from the bottom row of lights. Your 'blue light' experiment was with nothing hanging of size from the cleat.

 

[Molynoox]

It will be your usual affair with chisels, rulers, pens etc maybe some tools and the battery charger etc.
Don't know yet.
You are right about the light issue, at first I thought it wouldn't matter but now I realise the batten will obstruct the path of the light. Depends how I do the batten though, it doesn't need to run all the way along the bottom.

 

[Jester129]

You could use blocks rather than a full batten along the bottom, or put the lights on the underside of the batten but locate this 30 - 50mm up from the bottom edge. Just another option....HTH

 

[pat from Marck]

u know the reason they call em French cleats.....
it's so they can take everything from the kitchen when they do a runner.....not a joke.....

Bit like the Brits and a hand cart removals.....

the younger members won't understand.....

Done right with thicker ply, French cleats will take a lot of weight......apart from the main sheet everything was made from off cuts.....stainless one side zinc the other.....
just need to make another for imp and unified now....
This rolling nut n bolt serving trolley is over 10 years old now and was transported fully loaded in a truck some 800miles here.....
View attachment 156902

That's an awesome trolly

 

[Molynoox]

Well the wall cleat is finished.
I used 120mm screws driven directly into the studs.
I made the spacer at the back 60mm instead of the 30mm used in the prototype because I wanted to get 2 screws into each stud.

Overall I'm happyish with it, the concept is good but the led strip doesn't throw off as much light as I wanted. It was probably a bad move putting it onto the grey wall.
I didn't have time to make any hangers, just the little test cleat in the last photo. It feels really solid once it's in place and I like being able to put it where I want it.
I'm going to put a cleat rail on one of my benches so I can move things off the wall onto the bench, and vice versa...that might be useful. Anybody done that?

Martin

 

[dephill]

Well the wall cleat is finished.
I used 120mm screws driven directly into the studs.
I made the spacer at the back 60mm instead of the 30mm used in the prototype because I wanted to get 2 screws into each stud.

View attachment 157016
View attachment 157017
View attachment 157018
Overall I'm happyish with it, the concept is good but the led strip doesn't throw off as much light as I wanted. It was probably a bad move putting it onto the grey wall.
I didn't have time to make any hangers, just the little test cleat in the last photo. It feels really solid once it's in place and I like being able to put it where I want it.
I'm going to put a cleat rail on one of my benches so I can move things off the wall onto the bench, and vice versa...that might be useful. Anybody done that?

Martin

That looks great, are you sticking with the one rail?

 

[Molynoox]

That looks great, are you sticking with the one rail?

I'm not sure. I might put a shelf above that rail and then put another rail on another wall, one of the white ones.

 

[throbscottle]

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but the first thing I thought of was to make spacers the full size of the cleat out of clear acrylic and hide the LEDs inside them. Or even just strips top and bottom - "windows" for your original scheme which offer support. Just be careful cutting it - can be brittle.

 

[Molynoox]

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but the first thing I thought of was to make spacers the full size of the cleat out of clear acrylic and hide the LEDs inside them. Or even just strips top and bottom - "windows" for your original scheme which offer support. Just be careful cutting it - can be brittle.

I never thought of that option, and I thought I had considered everything.
I probably have another to do so might give your idea a bit more thought.

Martin