Not another French cleat question...

[Hunter Locke]

I've done the requisite searches and can't seem to get my answer. So I'll ask!

My job moves me every few years whether I like it or not, and thus so does my shop. As a result, I'm renting my housing and shop is in the garage. I'd like to hang tool's and cabinets on my walls with a french cleat system, which I'm aware gets it's strength from quality screws in studs.

My vision is to have a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood with rows of cleats firmly affixed to it. That sheet is then affixed to my wall utilizing the studs. When it comes time to move, I take down the sheet(s) and put them back up in the new garage.

This is approach would allow me some consistency from one place to the next, and (perhaps more importantly) I wouldn't be putting as many holes in my rental walls.

The he bottom lune question is: Is the described solution strong enough or am I asking for trouble here? Thanks.

-Hunter

[glenn bradley]

Depends what you are going to hang. I am in the "if in doubt, make it stout" camp and would feel questionable about 1-1/4" screws doing the holding for things like clamp racks or larger drawer units. The idea of attaching the cleats to a backer for positioning sounds interesting but, I find most walls are not flat and the cleats require shimming during installation to mate well with the fixtures. Mounting to a thick substrate might minimize this . . . I would keep percolating on it as the concept definitely sounds like it has possibilities. Bolts with counter-bored fender washers to hold the cleats maybe? Hmmmm.

[Rod Sheridan]

I've done the requisite searches and can't seem to get my answer. So I'll ask!

My job moves me every few years whether I like it or not, and thus so does my shop. As a result, I'm renting my housing and shop is in the garage. I'd like to hang tool's and cabinets on my walls with a french cleat system, which I'm aware gets it's strength from quality screws in studs.

My vision is to have a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood with rows of cleats firmly affixed to it. That sheet is then affixed to my wall utilizing the studs. When it comes time to move, I take down the sheet(s) and put them back up in the new garage.

This is approach would allow me some consistency from one place to the next, and (perhaps more importantly) I wouldn't be putting as many holes in my rental walls.

The he bottom lune question is: Is the described solution strong enough or am I asking for trouble here? Thanks.

-Hunter

It would be far easier to just screw the cleats to the studs and then take them with you rather than having to move a sheet of plywood every time.......Rod.

[Lee Ludden]

Use a few of these to hold the plywood on the wall, and it will work fine. My clamp rack holds almost 200 bar, pipe, and C clamps, and is held to the wall with 4 of these 4" lags
lag-tstar-yellow2.jpg
These are available at Home Depot.

[Jim Matthews]

I like the metal version.

Plenty strong, smaller offset.
http://www.amazon.com/Rockler-Steel-.../dp/B001DT3UHW

[Jay Yoder]

Hunter, I did the exact thing you are pondering. It works great other than it is a pain to hang on the wall without a helper. I currently have mine mounted to the concrete block in my basement. I used (6) 1/4" x 3 lags into concrete lag anchors. Holds like a charm and I imagine that I have 300#+ of clamps etc hanging on it. I have attached a snapshot of the cad file I used to design the rack for ref...it is a great set up and has made it through 2 moves to date. clamp wall Model (1).pdf

[glenn bradley]

Use a few of these to hold the plywood on the wall, and it will work fine. My clamp rack holds almost 200 bar, pipe, and C clamps, and is held to the wall with 4 of these 4" lags
lag-tstar-yellow2.jpg
These are available at Home Depot.

It is not the holding to the wall that is the concern. It is the holding of the cleats to the plywood. He expresses the desire for only a few screw holes so he won't be screwing through the cleats into the studs . . . or maybe I misunderstood

[John Huds0n]

Try to find ShopNotes issue 132. It has their 'Slat-Wall storage system' which is exactly what you are talking about

[Hunter Locke]

It is not the holding to the wall that is the concern. It is the holding of the cleats to the plywood. He expresses the desire for only a few screw holes so he won't be screwing through the cleats into the studs . . . or maybe I misunderstood

You're right on point. I'm more concerned with cleats to plywood.

Thanks!

[John Sanford]

Well, first off you'd have to be sure to use a decent quality plywood, 3/4" or even thicker. Second, make thicker cleats. Yes, whatever you hang on the wall will be 1.5" from the "wall" (i.e. plywood) rather than 3/4", but it will be worth it. Third, screw through the plywood into the cleat. Fourth, take advantage of the situation and use more screws into the cleats than you would be able to use if you were screwing the cleats directly into the studs.

[Hunter Locke]

Well, first off you'd have to be sure to use a decent quality plywood, 3/4" or even thicker. Second, make thicker cleats. Yes, whatever you hang on the wall will be 1.5" from the "wall" (i.e. plywood) rather than 3/4", but it will be worth it. Third, screw through the plywood into the cleat. Fourth, take advantage of the situation and use more screws into the cleats than you would be able to use if you were screwing the cleats directly into the studs.

So you're saying screw the cleats in from the backside?

[John Sanford]

So you're saying screw the cleats in from the backside?

Yup, doing so will allow you to get maximum penetration and support through the plywood, and put the bearing face of the washer head cabinet screws against the plywood. You could, if you wanted to get fancy, alternate them, going from ply side, then from cleat side, then from ply side, etc.

[Benjamin Miller]

You guys are way overthinking this...

I mounted 4x8 sheets of 3/4" CDX plywood to my concrete block walls. On one of these sheets, I used 6 or 8 Tapcons, which will EACH support over 500 lbs of shear force. I screwed the cleats every 16" to the plywood with wood screws, and they won't pull out, even with hundreds of pounds of clamps hanging from them.

Those Spax screws mentioned above are great if you're fastening the plywood to a wooden wall. A 1/4" Spax screw will support over 2000 lbs in shear, so four of them are more than sufficient.

[Benjamin Miller]

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a picture of my clamp rack board with many hundreds of pounds of clamps on it. It is secured to the wall with 6 1/4" toggle bolts.

Clamp Rack.jpg