French cleat tool wall
Lay out a French cleat wall — size, cleat rows, spacing and bevel, screws into the studs or a plywood backer — and a library of holders (screwdriver rack, drill holder, shelf, bin, clamp rack, saw till), each with its own cut list, drawn in elevation, section and isometric, with a shopping list and build steps.
Added
How to use it
A French cleat is a strip with a bevelled edge screwed to the wall, bevel up and toward the wall; every holder carries a matching strip, bevel down, and simply drops onto it. Rows of cleats let you hang and rearrange anything.
How to use it
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Wall — width and height, where the first cleat starts (above a bench, or near the floor), and how much to keep clear at the top.
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Cleats — row spacing (6–8" is common), cleat height (3–4"), stock thickness, and the bevel: 45° is usual; a 60° hook resists lifting off better. Each strip twice the cleat height plus a kerf, bevel-ripped down the middle, gives two cleats.
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Studs — spacing and where the first one is. The elevation draws the studs and two screws at every crossing, and warns if a cleat piece reaches fewer than two studs. Tick plywood backer to screw a sheet to the studs first; then cleats can go anywhere.
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Holders — add holders, set the width, the row (1 = lowest) and the distance from the left. The tool checks they stay on the wall, above the floor, and out of each other’s way, and lists every part: screwdriver rack (back, drilled shelf at 1-1/4" centres, brackets), drill holder (slotted shelf at 5"), shelf, bin, clamp rack (a rail held 2" off the back), and saw till (slotted rail and base at 1").
The Drawings tab shows the wall elevation, a section of the cleats hooked together, and an isometric
(⛶ Full screen or f; Escape leaves). Cut list packs cleats and holders onto plywood sheets;
Shopping counts screws; Steps covers finding studs, ripping, hanging the first row with a level and
the rest with a spacer block, and building each holder. Print view prints it all.
Cleat sizes, spacing and bevels are workshop rules of thumb, and so are the holder designs.
Limits
What a cleat wall holds depends on the fasteners reaching the studs (or the backer being fixed to them) and on the wall itself; the tool does not rate loads. Masonry walls need anchors chosen for the masonry.
Related: cut list optimiser, closet organiser, shelf sag, angles.
Linking to an example
Share link copies a URL with every setting (the holder list is packed into ?s=). Lengths in links
are millimetres; units is in or mm.
| Parameter | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
A preset (below) |
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Wall size, first cleat height, clear space at the top, cleat end margin (mm) |
|
Row spacing, cleat height, stock thickness (mm); bevel |
|
|
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Stud spacing and first stud centre (mm) |
|
Saw kerf (mm) |
Presets: 8′ shop wall · 4′ panel on a backer · 3 m wall, metric.
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