French Cleats

[Greatscott]

Anyone running a French cleat storage system? I am in the middle of building one for my RC storage, and would be interested in seeing what you did.

Also, wanting to see if I am on the right track, or completely fornicating the whole mess up...

[nightcrawler48]

My French Cleat storage system. I am limited in available space so have the RCs front to back instead of sideways. All the materials I used were scraps I had on hand or got donated from friends, except the 3D printed brackets to secure the skid plates to keep the RCs from falling off. Pleased with how it turned out.

[pk_crawling]

I haven't made a french cleat system for RC specifically, but I have made plenty within my woodworking. I am happy to share anything I know with you.

[Greatscott]

Thanks for the posts!!!

Awesome storage Nightcrawler, with the peg board, it took me a moment to really see the French cleats. That is more or less what I am after! Your stands are very close to what I had in mind, and I might steal elements from yours for mine.

Originally Posted by pk_crawling

I haven't made a french cleat system for RC specifically, but I have made plenty within my woodworking. I am happy to share anything I know with you.

I am using 3/4" hardwood for my actual cleats. The wall the cleat system is going on is drywall, so I have put up 4x8 (3/4") plywood as a base. Right now I have everything laid out for the cleat face to be 2" (3.5" hardwood ripped at a 45 degree angle), but I am wondering if I shouldn't go with a little large chuck of wood, like a 3" face vs 2". I am spacing the cleats about every 3", giving 18 cleat runs from top to bottom.

[nightcrawler48]

Originally Posted by Greatscott

I am using 3/4" hardwood for my actual cleats. The wall the cleat system is going on is drywall, so I have put up 4x8 (3/4") plywood as a base. Right now I have everything laid out for the cleat face to be 2" (3.5" hardwood ripped at a 45 degree angle), but I am wondering if I shouldn't go with a little large chuck of wood, like a 3" face vs 2". I am spacing the cleats about every 3", giving 18 cleat runs from top to bottom.

My cleats are 3/4" thick and 3" on the "high" side, 2-1/4" on the "low" side. Angle cut is 45 degrees. Sounds like you will have a much stronger mounting base than I do (the 3/4" plywood) so the 2" face may work for you. I could only screw my cleat in to the wall studs as there is nothing behind the pegboard so the cleat is only fixed every 16". Haven't had any catastrophes yet but you can see in the picture they do "lean" a bit towards the front.

[Greatscott]

I think I’ll increase to 3” cleats with 4” spacing.


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[Greatscott]

After finishing my TRX6 mobile crane build, I decided to get a bit introspective with my RC hobbying, and organized some things in my shop, starting with my RC storage.

The 1st photo shows what my RC storage was. It kind of worked, but it showed its flaws quickly. I built it to be flexible, but when I added or got rid of an RC, I could easily reconfigure it, but that didn't really work out that well. Tootling around on YouTube, I stubble across someone's French cleat build and decided it would better suit my needs. I have been looking at doing this for a while, but lumber prices are just starting to come down to the point to where I don't have to sell my first born to by a 2x4.

After removing the old shelving, I cut and put up a 3/4" chunk of plywood. If I didn't have drywall in my shop, I could have just attached the cleats directly to the wall. But, with drywall, the old options are to go with 6" cleats, or plywood.

After the plywood was up I put a strip of masking tape down the length of it, and marked out the cleat spacing, to make sure it is what I wanted. After doing a good deal of research, I decided on 3" cleats, to balance strength with space. After a couple of iterations, I decided on a 4" spacing between the cleats, that gave me 13 cleats on the 8 foot plywood. The plywood

Third picture... Starting on the bottom, I leveled the the bottom cleat, carefully, then build up from there using a 4" piece of wood as a guide, and leveling each cleat as I went. This part actually didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Forth Picture... Making the brackets for the RCs really too the longest. I likely spent three to four hours trying to come up with a design I liked. It took me four evenings to put all of the cleats together, after a bit, it was a little like making cheese sandwiches, but taking particular care to make sure they were square. After that, it took me two days to get them populated with the RCs, making each one unique for the RC that sits on it. But, if I get rid of that particular RC, it is easy enough to take it back to basic stand, then reconfigure it for the next RC.

The shelves only took me about two hours each to make.

The real beauty of this system is being able to easily rearrange everything as needed. Already I see a few things I want to rearrange, which can be done very easily.

Untitled by Scott O, on Flickr

Untitled by Scott O, on Flickr

Untitled by Scott O, on Flickr

Untitled by Scott O, on Flickr

[nightcrawler48]

Thanks for posting pictures of your completed cleat system Scott. Very Nice!

[indybama]

Well done scott! I need to do some rearranging myself. U got a wall full of good lookin rigs brother

[Greatscott]

Originally Posted by nightcrawler48

Thanks for posting pictures of your completed cleat system Scott. Very Nice!

Many thanks. To be honest, I took a really hard look at your brackets, and too some of there design elements for mine.

Originally Posted by indybama

Well done scott! I need to do some rearranging myself. U got a wall full of good lookin rigs brother

Thank you. Doing this is a reminder that I need to purge some. Two of these rigs are just for comps, and I don't really do that anymore, so thinking hard about freeing up some space.

[B-MOW71]

Great looking french cleat system Greatscott!!

It really cleans up the area nicely. I like how each cleat holder can be made to hold different sized and shaped objects.

I'm going to look into adding this to my hobbyroom this winter. Thanks sharing!