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So I've finally finished my first woodwork project of building a work bench (which was hilariously tragic) so now its tool wall time.
I bought some sheets of plywood, at the time I thought they were thick enough to screw/nail hooks into. Now I'm not so sure. The ply is 12mm thick: what would STW do? Cover the wall in the 12mm ply, or double the boards up and have a smaller 24mm tool board?
Run batons along the back at intervals to screw into. You could go a long the French cleat route but personally I just cut random bits of wood to hold various tools. Line these up with the batons if it's for heave tools and you will be golden.
Any chance you can return the boards and replace with 18mm? Doubling up seems a bit overkill, 12mm does seem a bit thin. I’m sure it would hold most things indefinitely, it’s just the heavier tools that you use often that I’d be concerned about. I could see the clips and fixing working loose.
If that’s not an option, rather than doubling up the entire area it might be worth spacing the front sheet off with some strips of ply where you’re fixing it to the wall to bring it out to 24mm, then some strategic areas of doubling up where you know there will be heavier things hanging. That way you make the most of your 12mm ply.
(edit: I need to be faster with my replies)
Another option would be to fix the clips/hooks straight through the ply in to the wall behind for the heavier stuff if the wall is suitable.
I'd have thought 12mm would cover most eventualities - what kind of tools are you planning to hang on it? Trolley Jack? Anvil?
12mm ply will be fine. Only issue is that you'll want to go through it to get the screws properly biting. Space it off the wall a little or go into the wall as well if it's also ply.
What are you hanging on it? Spanners/screwdrivers etc should be fine on screws on 12mm. I went 18mm but I hang headset press, facing tools, reamers etc. Acutally 12mm would still be fine for that if you screwed on hooks/brackets for particularly heavy items.
Nothing massively heavy, all hand tools. I'll stick with 12mm, thanks.
Returning the boards is an option but probably not feasible, they're bigger than the car (I got them delivered).
Follow-up question. If you have two 1800x600 boards and want to make a 1400x1100 wall, obviously that's just a matter of cutting one board shorter and the other board shorter/narrower. Will running a frame of 1x2 or similar be enough to keep it solid? I was going to french cleat it to the wall so there'll also be a struct across the middle.
Not to be the harbinger of dropped tool doom, I will say I’ve seen heavier tools pull their fixings out of 18mm ply over the years. 4lb hammers and the like so nothing crazy. It’s not the weight of the tools as such, it’s the constant impact of them on the things holding them up; it just makes fixing go slack.
Adding more supports to any heavy items would solve this of course.
For what it sounds like you’re using it for that’ll be fine. I’ve been told I overengineer everything I make and I’d be perfectly happy with that.
Thought I'd report back. So I took my 1800x600 boards, cut them to 1400x600 and 1400x500. A frame of 1x2 around the edge of each to keep it sturdy and away from the wall. A 1000mm long piece of ~1x6 was cut at 45 degrees to make a french cleat, and screwed into the larger half. Both pieces were then joined with a few 100mm repair plates, and it's hanging in the garage now. The french cleat made getting it on the wall trivial, and if we move I can easily remove and split it in half.
Here it is in place so far. Glad I made it large so there's plenty of space for future tools...
Not enough anvils!
I am triggering. I AM TRIGGERING!
There is not enough organisation there! Pin hammer next to rubber mallet next to claw hammer with an upside down woodworker's mallet. Saws not arranged in size order. Spanners on left side, adjustable spanners on the right.
ARGGHHH!!!!!!
TheDTs - All the no's! Surely the perfect tool wall should be constructed by the cheapest means possible – stolen lengths of scaffold, old kitchen units, reclaimed butcher's blocks etc, not all F1 fancy-dan stuff!
...and as for the coping saw in opposite orientation to the other saws...
That Stanley knife is embarrassed and is trying to sneak away
Mwhahahaha I admit I posted a picture to trigger people. 🙂
Most things were just hung with no real plan, just to get them off the floor. Yes the stanley knife needs a nail to hang on. At least now when I saw/file/whatever something on the bench nothing falls off the wall, which is what happened with my old bench/wall combo (which was a waste of fifty quid).
<p>
</p><p></p><p>I'd say that's more a problem with the fixings than anything to do with the thickness of the ply.</p>
Whenever I've done this I have put a slight angle on the ply so the tools lie against it rather than hang.
Never had a fastener pull out - but then it's only casual use for the heavy tools, it's mainly the lighter hand tools that get used.