Still here

I haven't posted much in a while because life has gotten in the way of both woodworking and blogging. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. In the mean time, here is some evidence that I'm still here, still alive, and still able to cut up bits of wood when necessary:

These wooden riser blocks were the key ingredient in an alternate storage spot for my motorcycle top box.

I might use this box for portable tools, since it mounts to a thing with wheels.

hanging bikes and reclaimed mahogany

This weekend I helped a friend make some hangers for french cleats we recently put up in his garage.

French cleats holding bikes and garden implements.

By the way, one big hook at the right height makes a pretty effective way to store a bike.

Sawing plywood on ikea sawhorses, as part of an effort to suss out any big gaps in my friend's small tool collection.

I also scored some mahogany (I think) from a shoddy hutch type thing sitting in his garage from the previous owner. Thanks Kevin!

...at least I think it's mahogany. Whatever it is, it's nice medium hardness with roey grain.

I stripped some of the ugly brown stain of the reclaimed boards, just enough to preview it's beauty. It will be fun to see what I can turn it into.

Quick tip: clamps help transport lumber

I discovered that if you have a roof-rack, you can affix boards to it very quickly using a [quick] clamp. This saves time fooling with straps & rope. Just make sure it's tight and won't wiggle.

Taking a couple of french cleats over to a friend's house for installation (on his car). We just saved 5 minutes we can use to decipher concrete anchors at the local home center.

You might still want to use one strap as a safety. Make your own decision on this. I'm not guaranteeing it's safe in every case and you must take responsibility for your own decisions--but this has worked well for me on a half dozen occasions.

French cleats are done!

I finally finished putting all the french cleats on the wall. Of course, the real challenge wasn't putting a few screws in the wall, it was all the cleaning/organizing I had to do to get to my walls. (Also moving outlets and waiting for paint to dry) I'm glad it's done so I can stay a lot more organized. It also should make it much easier to temporarily clear the floorspace so I can get the concrete flattened (I want to wheel things around).

You see clutter. I see less clutter than before.

While I'm feeling good about having this done, I thought I would share pictures of a few more hangers that may not have appeared on the blog yet. Most of it is crude but functional. I like to get it built quick:

Belt sander resting on a dowel while cord wraps around blocks.

RO sander & cord hanging in notches. This piece of plywood is glued into a groove that I made quickly with a plow plane.

I skipped the classic shelf/pin combo and just went for adjustable dowels to hold my [power] sandpaper. A set of dividers for spacing and a bit of paraffin on each dowel makes this easy.

A hook to hold my jigsaw. Holes for dowels were drilled after the main stack was already glued and dried, since that's the easy way to do this.

My friend Matt made this nice "cup" holder when he was visiting one day. (I was finishing up the cleats). Thanks, Matt!

These weird broom holders work well on pipe clamps because of their slightly rough surface. But I recommend throwing the plastic backer away and using 3 flathead screws for each hook.

I cut up an old shelf (that was on the pre-cleat wall)
 and put cleats on the back. Unlike the others, this one has hooks on it.

A pair of clamp racks doubles as a temporary lumber rack. Hands down the easiest thing I've made for the cleats.

I made this hanging panel with a strip of cleat on the back so I can cut off a piece any time I need another hook.

These are the two jigs that I made to install the cleats. The left one is a spacer, set to 1 foot. With the aid of a small clamp, it was also my third hand when hanging cleats. On the right is a nail in a chunk of cleat with a plumb line hanging on it--it saves a lot of time with the studfinder.

More things you can hang on french cleats

I have been having fun mounting all sorts of things on french cleats. Here are a few ideas for inspiration:

adjustable laptop desk. The angle can be adjusted for comfort with the chain links, while the height is adjusted with the cleats on the wall.

laptop desk, folded. This is made of scraps: thin
hardwood faced plywood, aromatic cedar, and hardware.

First aid kit. Because of french cleats, this can come off the wall in a hurry when it counts.

Some pegs I already had.

Just a shelf.

drills/drivers, and clamps. This is made of 2"x4"s, spaced to fit what I have.

Two worlds collide!

Pegboard. I have some stuff that still works well on pegboard.
With two screws and blocks, I have a place to put it.

circular saw. This hanger is made of glue and OSB

French cleats starting to show results

I'm currently teaming up with three friends to put French cleats in our garages, basements, and workshops.

Here's a simple hanger I made for my
spirit level. It's made with a dowel,
a scrap of plywood, and crucially,
a small block ripped at 40 degrees.

Here is the level hanger after setting
it on the cleat, which is has the same
40 degree angle on it..

For those of you don't know about French cleats, I've included a couple of pictures showing how they work (and I recommend a look around YouTube). It is essentially a strong, flexible storage system for your walls that you can easily make yourself to suit your task.

Aaron, Kevin, & Matt, If you are reading this, your cleats are
ready. Here they are shown sunbathing after I cut them to length.
I have also got 75' of extra ready for hangers.

 Over the weekend, I cross cut french cleat stock to length for all the places it going. I did the crosscutting outside with 2 sawbenches and a panel saw. This is very pleasant work for a sunny day, and great low-stakes practice for sawing to a line.

Here I have some cleats grouped by which wall they are going on.

Since then I moved a light switch plate and did some painting in my basement, then got a few cleats up and a few things on the cleats. So far I've only got 36 lineal feet of cleat up on the wall, out of a total of 190' that's ready for my basement.

But I'm already extremely excited at the possibilities. I've got four things hanging already and I really like how it works. Mounting things with a flat rear surface to the wall couldn't be easier. I just cut off a couple blocks of clean and screw them into the back. If I leave the screws a little loose at first and then put it on the wall, two separate corner blocks will easily fall into alignment  before tightening them. Anything that hooks into the wall locks in with a satisfying solidity.

A few things already on my wall. These are things I already had, but now can be positioned more effectively. On top of the box you can see my spacer jig for mounting the cleats.

Although I've been excited about the concept of French cleats for quite some time now, the geniune article is better than I expected. I think the coolest part is when you actually stand in front of them, lift something substantial, and easily set it down on your wall with the confidence that it is not going to move on its own. I am looking forward to years of improvised hooks, shelves, boxes, cabinets, and any other storage I think to put on my walls.

In another post to come soon, I will discuss the details of  materials and methods chosen for this miniature manufacturing run of french cleats.

500' or so of french cleats, cut this morning