French Cleats

[mikebanks]

This Board

This what I love about this place.....

Some people have way too much time on their hands and others offer a boat load of useful information.

I really started cracking up laughing about that technical drawing on the previous page.

Great way to start a raining friday....

[RayintheUK]

Ray,
Is 3/4 Poplar good enough for an upper kitchen cabinet full of dishes or should I use 1 1/2" stock?

I have hung dozens and dozens (literally!) of 3/4" MDF carcass kitchen cabinets on a double row of 3/4" French cleats. They're all still up there and they're all well loaded. The double row needs to be precisely located (see previous response - 10 replies up - regarding a simple jig to achieve this) in order to spread the load.

The advantage of the second row, aside from the load-bearing, is that it prevents the bottom of the cabinet from being pulled outward in the event someone grabs it as they fall.

I'm a bit of an over-engineerer (if that's a proper word!), as I suspect you know by now, but I've never had to go back to fix anything that failed!

However, if you'd prefer to use 1.5" and are prepared to create a larger inset at the back, that would be about as bomb-proof as you could get. I've just never seen the need to use that large a cleat on kitchen cabinets.

Ray.

[sacherjj]

Ray, I assume you use two countersunk screws per stud on each cleat rail?

[Ken Massingale]

Thanks Ray.
ken

[RayintheUK]

Ray, I assume you use two countersunk screws per stud on each cleat rail?

If I were fixing to studs, I probably would, Joe - but so far all my fixing has been to plastered brick or block walls, which are still the most common over here. In that situation, I tend to screw every 6" or so with a Rawlplug type fixing in the wall.

My acid test is - if I can hang off the cleat, I'll put the cabinets on it! No problems so far and I weigh nearly 13 stone (180 pounds).