Ultimate French Cleat Tool Wall

the workshop is nearly done there's only a few things left to do in relation to the building permit but it's finally at a point where I can start moving tools into the workshop I am so excited to be doing this we're moving in I'm not just gonna throw tools in and call it a day I'm gonna make it the most organized workshop it can possibly be I spent way too much time searching for tools and I'm gonna do my darndest to make sure that doesn't happen here I have a bunch of unique ideas on how to efficiently organize in here some of which will have to wait until after the final inspection but for now I can start on what I think will be the most important part of organizing the space and that's what this wall is right here this is where all the most frequently used tools will go it's a French cleat system but I've customized it in a way where everything is grab and go whatever I need is within reach at all times a French cleat is a way to hold something on the wall using two strips of wood in this case both strips are cut at a 45 degree angle one strip is secured to the wall creating a good lip for the other strip to hook onto because the angles it does a great job of holding the tool in place the second strip of wood can be attached to anything you want so it's really great for customizing your own folders which is what I did here this is super easy to make and I think it looks really clean so let me show you how I made this French cleat ball I pulled out a full sheet of 3/4 inch plywood I haven't made a workbench yet so I'm working on the ground I propped the sheet up on some two by fours and started measuring dude who's got a double check my work I'm first cutting this into four inch strips I measured three inches from the side mark the ends in the middle and brought out a straight edge guide I lined up the guide with the lines and clamped it down my circular saw cuts one inch from the side so that's why I marked it at three inches I repeated this process several times making sure that the cut piece was supported so the end of the cut didn't get my stuff next step was to cut these strips in half with a 45 degree angle I made a diagonal line at the center of the board then lined up my table saw as best I could next I cut just a tiny bit into the first piece and measured to see if both sides were equal after making the slight adjustment that was needed I started ripping all the strip's in half I ended up with 16 8-foot long strips these are the ones attaching directly to the wall [Applause] now I had to decide where to put the French please I had a general idea but now is the time to get specific I know where the studs are based on the screws and the plywood walls I'm aiming for the ends these strips to be pretty close or right on a stud I can attach these just to the plywood walls but since they'll be holding a bit of weight it's best to drive the screw all the way to the stud once I figured out the left and right location I drove one screw into the center of the strip directly into a stud my plywood sheets are level so I already had a good idea of level but I use an actual level to make sure the strip was level level level level I attached a handful of screws to finish connecting the strip I use spacers which were cut-offs of a test cleat I had made to hold up the next row to be attached when in boat out from the wall so I had to make a temporary shelf out of one of the spacers this strip should be able to hold quite a bit of weight since it's attached to the studs this is the best way I know to test its holding capabilities no tool is gonna weigh as much as me so yeah this is gonna work just fine okay onward I place a strip every four inches after installing a few I got the hang of it and they just started flying up on the wall these continued to pass the whole test almost like a rock climbing wall just with splinters I obviously can't place trips over the outlet so I cut them up to have a clearance it was a lot easier working upwards so I marked and installed the lowest strip it was a bit tricky getting it in the right spot but I got it figured out and then continue to work upwards [Music] okay the wall portion is done so now I can move on to the holders I already had a box meant to hold caulk and sealers so I popped a cleat on the back of it and threw it up on the wall oh I should mention that I also used 3/4 inch pieces for all the cleats on the holders what I really like is that I can move a holder anywhere I want with ease it can slide down a row or move up and down without much effort looks like this system is gonna work so now I could start to get creative I'm gonna make my own holders for tools I have a bunch of leftover pieces of half-inch plywood from the walls as well as some 3/4 inch wood from the two-player pinball machine so I'm first gonna utilize that wood I started lining up tools and making plans for everything I have in most of the holders I left a bit of extra space for new or additional tools so I don't have to remake an entire holder when I acquire something new I don't think anything I made is revolutionary it's mostly all just boxes that are nailed and glued together with a cleat on the back there's a few little tricks I did making it custom to what will help me be as efficient as possible after this first one for the drills I realized that I needed to have the back piece be a bit longer to overlap the next row below so I replaced the quarter inch sheet on the back with a 1/2 inch piece that hung down a bit more this made it much more stable I continued on making holders for everything I need or use on a regular basis or that I would like to be within reach and not tucked away again this is supposed to be a grab-and-go wall so the tool should pretty much be ready to use or quickly set up for use if the holder was for one tool I tried to make its footprint as small as I could if it was for a handful of different items I made sure everything was easily accessible and fit well together there's a few small details that I added to some of the holders to really make it as functional as possible for the pencil pen and marker holder I added a pencil sharpener so I'd always have a way to sharpen a pencil before dropping it back in the bucket I won't ever put a dull pencil back so whenever I grab a pencil it'll be ready to go I made a double-decker tape holder the top holds the bigger rolls like duct tape and painters tape the bottom holds the smaller rolls like different colored masking tapes and electrical tape and such I also added a holder on the side for a packing tape dispenser and on the front I added a serrated blade to assist in cutting any of these rolls that don't just rip there's a few different ways I could have made a screwdriver holder to hold a bunch of them but I always end up using the same three or four flathead and Phillips riders over and over again so I opted for a horizontal magnet holder where I can see the size of the driver instead of it blindly hanging down I had to think back to past projects to see what hand tools and materials I use most often one of the holders I made that I think will be used quite frequently is this box to hold small medium and large hand tools it just has a bunch of dividers in it to hold tools of different sizes is kind of a catch-all for a multitude of different stuff all things that I may need to easily grab such as pliers vise grips scissors cutters wrenches etc etc and because things don't have a specific home it's easily interchangeable based on what I find gets more use and what doesn't get used at all once I finished a tool holder I put it up on the wall one by one the wall started filling up and before I knew it pretty much everything I would want on that wall had a home the beauty of this French Klee system is that the holders can easily be moved from one spot to another so if I'm using a tool more often for a project I can move it down to be a quicker reach I'm also going to add French cleats to other spots in the workshop so it's all oh cohesive system this is just so cool to see I'm gonna have the most efficient space possible and this is just the beginning of how I'm organizing this space there's so many things that planning on doing to organize those small parts model making pieces paint and more it's gonna be good okay that's it for now see ya [Music] the slice my found on the corner in here you see they're so sharp [Applause] yeah doopy doopy doopy doopy holy man [Music]

Channel: Ben Tardif

Views: 1,893,307

Keywords: Tool Storage, Tool Organization

Id: 4fKBZ-H9StM

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 29 2020