I am currently working on a French cleat system to hold lumber. the system consist of several strips of French cleat at 18" apart  from the ceiling and I cam up with that design.


This work great for board under 12".

I decided to extend the use of the bottom row by adding an additional support for my guide rails.


Those are in progress and will have g-code files available for those that would like to make them.

Good question;

I built my shop last year and been working with BB ply till now. that said I have a lot of small boards I can use to do the Cleat supports, so for now I have made them of baltic birch ply 18mm.

To make the supports you need a 13" x 9" boards so using hardwood is possible but it will not be much stronger then BB IMO.

P.S. the cleat I made are @ 45deg

I was asking about the material because of the strength issue for holding the weight needed. I’m no engineer but as I look at your drawing the potential weak point is directly above that angled cut that ultimately sits on the cleat point. From there straight up to the top of the bracket. Because of that I think that B.B. plywood is a better choice otherwise grain direction of hardwood might come into play big time. You could always weight test one bracket with a weighed sack of bricks and if you don’t like the results you can always double up the brackets by gluing and screwing multiples together. I love the concept! I hope that you will post more feedback as your concept becomes reality. Just be careful! I’ve had a lumber shelf come loose before and it’s not pretty.

Thanks for the concerns, the intend to use such a support is for very short boards. Like 2' to 4' of exotic woods. I got commusionned for desk name plates like these



So the weight will be minimal, I will get some pictures on the weekend so Willy can approve

First stress test

Locating a good spot, with a 20' x 20' shop it's not always easy 



First cleat installed



Brackets ready to get on the wall



and the result



I am happy with it for now 

The beauty of a French cleat system is that you can move/remove them as you wish without doing much damage to your wall. Thanks to the FOGers and especially @Sparktrician for explaining how he did it.

This looks great! The cross section that I voiced concern about is much thicker than I perceived from the drawing. The whole thing looks very solid.  How do they feel? Did they pass the “grab them and pull down” test, that I’m sure you performed?

I didn't but it's on my to do list first thing tomorrow morning. Right after my first coffee. 

Thanks for the concerns, the intend to use such a support is for very short boards. Like 2' to 4' of exotic woods. I got commusionned for desk name plates like these

So the weight will be minimal, I will get some pictures on the weekend so Willy can approve

 

Ah!  Now I understand your concept.  Well done, Mario!   

@Alanbach

This looks great! The cross section that I voiced concern about is much thicker than I perceived from the drawing. The whole thing looks very solid.  How do they feel? Did they pass the “grab them and pull down” test, that I’m sure you performed?

I put about 200lbs from two brackets. I was a bit shy to put up all my weight since the cleat on the wall was starting to move. At 200lbs I am very confident with the wood I will put on them.

@IndyMike

Looks good. I thought you were going to be making them way thinner. They’re more substantial than they looked. I would still probably put an angled support though. :-)

They only 12" long and see stress test above  I agree if it was to  hold a lot of lumber it would need reinforcement but at 12" I'm ok with it.

@Mario Turcot nice design.  Seems to be great for the intended use.