homefixated.com: If you caught our wooden bookshelf project, you may remember my saying it would be hung on the wall. But how exactly would you mount that sort of thing? The answer – in many cases – is a pair of wooden wedges known as the French cleat. We’ll show you how to use this easy technique to handle some of your trickiest wall hanging challenges. From kitchen cabinets to large pieces of art, French cleats are the simple, reliable solution you’ve been looking for.
5 comments:
French Cleats are an extremely versatile way of securing almost anything to a wall or other surfaces. From placing a few inch section on a photo to putting a 4 foot section onto a cabinet, it will hold whatever you want it to hold. One of the neatest things I have seen done, and pretty clever too, with French cleats was only briefly shown in the article. I'm talking about the French cleat tool organization system. While this has been done many times, I am still always amazed by them. I think a huge reason for this is because of how customizable they are. Unlike a peg board, which can be very weak and not very customizable, a French cleat system is exactly opposite. The best video I have seen on a French cleat tool wall was made by a YouTuber named April Wilkerson. In her shop, she mounts a whole section of French cleats then proceeds to build custom holders for all of her tools. This is a project that can be done with a lot of scrap material. By making custom holders for your tools, not just generic hooks, bin and shelves like a peg board, it ensures that that is the only tool that can go there, keeping things clean, organized and consistent.
"If you're looking for some mildly sexy joinery to easily mount things on your wall, this article is for you. If you're really sick of writing newspage comments and you really just want some comedy, this article is also for you.
In all seriousness though, this seems like a really good and relatively easy way to do this. You need a table saw, and you probably don't want to get quite as fancy as this guy with the pocket screws and dadoes unless you're committed, but for a reltively simple diy mounting tool for all sorts of things, the French cleat seems like a good way to go. It seems like it could be useful for scenery as well. If a piece needs to be quickly mounted or removed during a scene shift, this could be a good way to do it, as long as you can either hide the cleat or make it okay to look at. This would certainly be a much easier way to hang wall art in the dark than trying to find the stupid little tiny screw and it never being level. Especially if one mounted object is being changed out for another, this could work perfectly. The old one could be removed and the new one added in seconds without the use of tools, and it will always be level. "
Good, simple; we love to see it. I am trying to read more articles about technical skills and woodworking this semester, so this seemed like an entertaining and useful one to sample. Just last week I read an article about the impossible dovetail mallet, so we're doing well so far. The French cleat seems like a really clean and simple way to go about mounting things. There are a number of things I like about them. 1) You don't need a lot of fancy tools to make it happen, just an angled blade and something to stick it to the wall. 2) It's such a large target area that you aren't fumbling around trying to fit the tiny hanging screw into the equally tiny hole on the back of whatever you're trying to mount. 3) If it's level, it's level, and it's level forever. We love it!
I have only seen a french cleat in the context of theatre once, but it was very helpful nonetheless. It was on a small flat that hung on the back of another flat that was in the air. The piece needed to be able to be taken on and off easily because the show was in rep and cables had to be run and struck through that wall during every changeover. Overall a french cleat seems like a neat tool to have in your back pocket but it doesn't seem like a tool you would use every day. Most of the time if you have a french cleat then it is also appropriate to just put pieces of wood uncut and screw the whole project to a surface at once. I can see a french cleat must be helpful when hanging heavy things on a wall, but one issue the article points out is that these must be hung over 2 studs to be supported correctly and not all walls in scenery are built against stud walls. Putting a french cleat for something heavy on a Hollywood flat would not go well without extra support in place.
While I did not know the name of it at the time, I have actually used french cleats in a theatrical setting before. This particular situation involved the crew for a show having to swap out props and set pieces during intermission and french cleats were the easiest way to remove and replace items that appeared to be fastened to the wall. I remember at the moment making a mental note of this method because I thought it was a fairly good idea. As far as construction goes, a french cleat is something that is really quite simple to execute, especially if you have a decent table saw at your disposal. Additionally, the french cleat is also a fairly strong connection. The article talks about how all you need is a piece of lumber with a 45-degree bevel cut into the long side then screwed to the wall. Personally, a french cleat is a brilliant solution to temporary wall hangs on theatrical scenery.
Post a Comment