French Cleat Tool Cabinet

It may sound fancy but a french cleat is simply a sturdy beveled support board a secret that builders and craftsmen rely on to hang heavy items such as large mirrors artworks and cabinets.

French cleat tool cabinet. Then you put the wall cleat in place based on the location of the cabinet cleat. How to build a frenchcleat wall in this video i show how i built a french cleat wall for tool st. We tested this french cleat connection and shelf using a 10 lb. I used a hidden french cleat to hang a dovetailed wine rack that i created.

The cabinet portion of the french cleat is glued and screwed to the top and sides of the cabinet. The cleat is made by cutting a 5 wide piece of 3 4 plywood to fit between the two box sides. Using a hand plane or similar tool remove approximately 1 16 to 1 8 from the sharp point on both pieces. So what is a french cleat.

Installing the french cleat. Rip the french cleat strips for the wall to 4 in. This seems to make hanging the cabinet a little easier and insures the faces of each cleat half engage cleanly. Then reset the saw to 45 degrees and adjust the fence to leave about a 1 8 in.

For the tool cabinet it was easy to screw the spacer cleat to the osb wall. Repeat the process for the accessory cleats but rip them to 2 1 2 in. Cut the 45 degree bevels on the strips. Then simply set your table saw blade to a 45 angle and rip the piece in half lengthwise.

The other half of the board that s been cut is then attached to something be it a bracket for tool storage or the back of a cabinet for mounting on the wall. It s simply a board that has been cut with an angle i used 45 on it s long side and attached to a surface with the angle sloping in. Accessories box filled with screws. Flat area at the point of the bevels.

On this cabinet i also screwed the top french cleat the one that s part of the cabinet to the wall also through the pegboard holes for even more strength. Just pick some holes in the pegboard and let er rip. If you are building a mantel you could certainly build it with a french cleat recessed.