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Marc:Well here we are in the new
temporary shop and I'm just about at the point
that I'm satisfied with where everything is.
And one of the biggest challenges that I had
to go through was deciding what could come
from the old shop and make it into the new shop.
And not really in terms of tools, but really storage.
Could I get all my clamp racks in there?
This is actually the storage unit that was
right behind the jointer.
And I had a ton of stuff stored on that thing.
It's a French cleat wall hanging system.
And it's one of the simplest things I've
ever made and I think you guys are going
to want to see how this is done.
Because it's so easy.
You could just knock it out in a couple hours
and it gives you an incredible amount
of wall storage.
And what I had to do was flip it, okay, because
this space wasn't going to accommodate the same
shape in the horizontal set up.
So I had to flip it vertically and I had to
pull all the strips off.
Now, fortunately, I only had them attached
with screws so I was able to take them off
and salvage them and cut them into
four foot strips now.
And the four foot strips are going to go
across, like so.
Okay, now if you're not familiar with
a French cleat system, it's really nothing more
than sort of like an interlocking hook.
Okay?
And it allows you to hang really heavy stuff.
And the cool thing is, you don't need
to glue anything down or screw it down.
The weight of the thing alone is enough
to hold it in place and you can move
everything around so it's modular.
Now, here's the concept.
This would be attached to the wall, okay?
And you can use this to hang cabinetry too.
In fact, I do it all the time.
Okay.
And on the thing that I'm hanging there is
an opposing 45 degree bevel.
So that when they meet like this, it just
hangs there.
Okay, and that can support quite a bit of weight.
So that's really the basis of this whole system.
So let's attach a few of these strips
and then I'll show you a couple of the little
kind of gadgety little things that I've
come up with that I like to hang from here
that allow me to store just about anything
I need on the wall.
All right, so what I'm going to do first
is just take a square.
And, you know, put these things wherever
you want them to be but I'm just going to give
myself a little reference line so that
when I attach this piece I'm going to know
that it's nice and square to the frame.
And, really, all it takes is a couple of screws.
Okay, you want to face it where the angle
is able to be hooked into.
If we put it this way it's not really
going to be very useful.
Everything would just slide right off.
So we put it this way and it creates
a little bit of a pocket.
Okay.
Lined up with my line here.
(drilling)
Now let's get one on the other side.
(drilling)
And that is it.
So you put as many of these strips up and down
this thing as you want to and, man, you could
really get some serious storage in a very
small amount of space.
Now, the bevel here is incredibly easy to cut.
It's just a quick rip on the table saw
at 45 degrees.
Cut your strips to about ...
Maybe 2 1/2, 3 inches at the most.
They don't need to be very wide to work for this.
And, you know, if all you have is a circular saw,
you can use that for this too.
Bottom line is, it's incredibly easy.
Put a little bit of material around
the outside to trim it out and this
actually looks really nice in the shop.
So I only have one up but we can look at
one of my shelves, here, and see how well it works.
Okay.
I'm going to probably put another screw
in the middle, here, just for a little
extra support, but that's pretty nice.
Now you can move it anywhere you need it to go.
Okay, and if you want to get a better look
at how this was made, it's just a couple
pieces of plywood together.
Got a little border on the top to stop things
from falling off.
I usually use this to hold pencils,
tape measurers, things like that.
The whole concept is, you can hang anything
on here as long as you attach the French
cleat strip on the back with the bevel angle here.
You could hang just about anything.
So let me show you a few of the other things
that I've made.
Now, the simplest things you can make
are these little guys right here.
It's nothing more than a piece of ...
You know, a strip with a 45 degree bevel in it
and an upward sort of aiming dowel placed into it.
And this is great as a peg to hang
just about anything.
All right.
Make them in all different sizes,
different widths.
You know, you could make them a little wider
if you think it needs to support more weight.
You could hang your headphones, you could hang
tools from these things.
Anything you need.
And that's pretty darn secure, considering that
you can move it anywhere you want it to go.
Pretty cool.
Now here's something that's very specific
to one of my tools and it may not be
useful for you, but it just goes to show you
what you can do.
My dado stack has this big orange crazy
looking case here.
But I wanted a way to hang that so it was
nice and secure.
I just took a piece of alder and cut it
to approximately the shape.
3/4 of an inch thick.
Fit right in there.
And made a little L bracket out of it
and put the French cleat on the back,
and check this out.
Holds it up there.
And you've probably seen this on the wall
in the other shop and never even knew
exactly what it was and how it was set up.
But this goes to show you, you could hang
just about anything if you used your imagination.
So, if you guys make these for your shop
at home, send me some pictures.
I want to see the ideas you come up with
because, at this point, I could use some
ideas for storage.
So thanks for watching and I hope you build
your own French cleat storage system.
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