Show off your french cleat setup or the things you have hanging from it!
Don’t know what a french cleat is? It’s a modular system for storing tools, cabinets, or anything to the wall. People have made very elaborate setups for this. I recently converted my shop storage to this system and have been on a tear making special holders for everything.
I’ll go first! Yes, it’s a mess. This is what active reorganization looks like. The peg boards are also mounted to the wall via french cleats so that I can move them around as needed.
Once you start, you’ll want to make a holder for EVERYTHING! It’s also a great way to use up all those little scraps that you can’t bring yourself to throw away.
Wish I had the wall space for this. Mine is taken up with shelving.
lol. Your shop is way cleaner and organized compared to mine.
Good looking mallet.
Are there rules of thumb for what you can safely hang on french cleats?
Nothing definitive that I have found. I’ve seen people hang full sized cabinets from them though.
The cleats shown here are well anchored to wall studs, so I’d feel comfortable loading up the cleat. But (!), I’m learning that the drop angle on the hanger matters. The mallet hanger, for example, isn’t quite low enough. If you are being careless, you can knock the hanger out of the cleat when removing the mallet. I’m finishing up a complex hanger for my jig saw and added a lock to prevent that. I’ll make sure to post it when I’m done.
That was exactly what I was wondering! Yeah, I knew about cabinets; they are also normally on two (or more) cleats and so stay flat to the wall without rotating off. I was wondering when I looked at the mallet whether it would be more robust if the center of gravity of the mallet was lower down, but figured that my intuition was just off.
Looking forward to seeing your solution!
I’ve noticed that the cleats work well when there is an even pressure down but can be wobbly or easily knocked out if the weight is more horizontal or is uneven side to side. For those situations a grub screw or two might be a good idea.
Lesson 1: The center of gravity of whatever is mounted to the french cleat should be 45deg or more from the mounting point. Here’s a video (on Mastodon) showing how my mallet holder fails this requirement, and therefore fails to mount securely: Dan: “It’s important to make sure…” - Maker Forums Social.
So, yes, now that I am properly understanding your question. Keep the center of mass of the hanging item 45deg or more from the mounting point. Not that many of us can know what that angle to the CoM is, but for a thumb rule, you’ll know when you are obviously breaking it (like I did and found out).
Lesson 2: Use a wedge to lock unstable items to the cleat. Here’s a video showing that in operation: Dan: “If your French cleat mounted i…” - Maker Forums Social
