French cleats


Norty

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i have broken 3 cleats so far. im in the proccess of making a clamp support that goes out from the wall and not along the wall. so far 8 jorgenson parallel clamps are to heavy for the arms that i made. still working on a better design.

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i have broken 3 cleats so far. im in the proccess of making a clamp support that goes out from the wall and not along the wall. so far 8 jorgenson parallel clamps are to heavy for the arms that i made. still working on a better design.

Where did the cleats fail? Do you have any pictures of the breaks?

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No pictures. They failed right by the cleat but no glue and to short of screws will do that.

Working on a better design because the glue and longer screw ones are starting to fail too.

I have some ideas. I'll post them when I get it done.

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No pictures. They failed right by the cleat but no glue and to short of screws will do that.

Working on a better design because the glue and longer screw ones are starting to fail too.

I have some ideas. I'll post them when I get it done.

I've never used glue and never had a failure. I have about six parallel clamps per arm coming out. I do use pan head screws into studs.

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Every shop I've ever had has used the French cleat system. All I did is rip some construction grade 3/4" plywood into 6" wide strips with the table saw blade set at 45 degrees. I put two 3" drywall screws into each stud. I do this at 2 sometimes 3 different heights around the shop and ta-da!

I've hung several hundred pound cabinets made from 3/4" MDF and stuffed with tools on these. I even used to have a sliding compound miter saw station cantilevered off these cleats and never had a problem. My method is super-cheap and couldn’t be easier to execute. It has never failed even under extreme weights. Once I built a ridiculously heavy cabinet that spanned over two sets of cleats, but even that one would have probably been okay on one.

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Well the cleat on the wall is fine. The arm is what's failing. I have my clamps coming straight off the wall not along the wall. So I just have to put some gussets. right now I am just using a 2x4. Might have to go to A 2x6 or 2x8.

I'll try to remember to post a photo of my clamp storage tonight. Very simple with pocket screws.

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Anytime I have to take a support out from the wall and I'm using my french cleats I always mount the arm to the top of the cleat instead of screwing it in the side. You'll get more holding power out of your screws by screwing the arm from the top down into the cleat. Not a whole lot of holding power in a screw on pulling force like whats shown in the above picture. Also the male portion of the cleat in the above picture seems to be a little wide. I typically don't make my cleats any wider then about 2" and thats rare. A french cleats strength is in it's downward holding ability not it's ability to hold things from pulling out from the wall.

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Anytime I have to take a support out from the wall and I'm using my french cleats I always mount the arm to the top of the cleat instead of screwing it in the side. You'll get more holding power out of your screws by screwing the arm from the top down into the cleat. Not a whole lot of holding power in a screw on pulling force like whats shown in the above picture. Also the male portion of the cleat in the above picture seems to be a little wide. I typically don't make my cleats any wider then about 2" and thats rare. A french cleats strength is in it's downward holding ability not it's ability to hold things from pulling out from the wall.

I did it this way simply because it is easy to do and the width of everything is an even number into a 4x8 sheet of plywood. I can hang my body weight off these with no problem and have only used the pocket screw and a little glue. Sometimes no glue.

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I did it this way simply because it is easy to do and the width of everything is an even number into a 4x8 sheet of plywood. I can hang my body weight off these with no problem and have only used the pocket screw and a little glue. Sometimes no glue.

Vic I'm guessing you mean that by hanging your body off of the cleats you mean off the cleat that is attached to the wall. If not and your talking about the clamp racks you created then kudos sir.

I was simply stating for the poster that was having problems with breakage that in my experience with cleats the smaller the cleat that you slide into the wall mounted cleat the better(within reason. All for the reason I stated above. Your Idea for incorporating a gusset into your arm is right on. That takes the stress of the two screws on each arm and back on the cleat where it belongs.

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I have everything hung off the wall as much as possible, as I either want cabinet bottoms to be fully enclosed or not be on the ground at all. This is simply because I'm a bit OCD and hate a dirty shop, which at the moment is what I have. Now these I wouldn't put all my weight on, but I built them with the idea that I'm never going to stand on them. Also they are not only on a cleat, but also the top part that slides into the cleat is screwed to the wall.

post-8-0-17801600-1310703330_thumb.jpg

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If I were to do french cleats, I would use only hardwood like maple for both parts. Especially for kitchen cabinets

(but why use french cleats when you can have a stronger joint by using nailers/hitting studs with screws)

It's easier to level and install a strip of wood, and then hang the cabinets on it, than to level and install a heavy, bulky cabinet. I've used pine successfully for french cleats, and I wouldn't hesitate to use plywood.

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Like my earlier post, the strength of a cleat is it's resistance to gravity(downward force) not lateral force. Put in a lower brace to keep the cleat from rotating and you'll be good to take anything away from the wall. Might help the original poster with the screws coming loose.

After I bought a lot of those plastic foldable saw horses I wanted to get them out of the way. I had some room at the front of my garage between the garage door and wall..PERFECT. Obviously i needed to put in a lower brace so the cleat wouldn't pull off the wall.

This was made with some scraps. It works great and holds 6 of the saw horses.

post-1842-0-35814500-1311366023_thumb.jp

post-1842-0-23017100-1311366029_thumb.jp

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so what is better cleats or peg board. my school shop has tons of peg boards on the wall. should i see about replacing it all with cleats?

Actually, I would go with a bit of both. it is just not feasible to make the small holders to match a french cleat when peg board will do.

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