I wanted to clear up some much needed space on the soldering bench, so thing number 10 was adding a French cleat to the back of the combination wire holder and tool rack I built earlier this month. I loved having the large wire cutters right out where I could easily grab them, but it took up scares real estate on the soldering bench. The French cleat lets me store the holder on the wall when not in use, then easily to carry it to wherever I am working.
To make a French cleat you in essence and angled rip cut down the length of a board. Then you mount one board on the wall with the angle pointing “up”, such that when a tool with the mating half of the ripped board is mounted gravity will provide pressure statically driving the mounted tool back and into the wall. French cleats store tools securely, yet are easy to remove thing from them, since all that is involved is lifting the mounted tool up.
Now that I have the boards ripped for cleats, there are a few other tools I want to quickly put up. As much as I hate taking the time away from what I am working on for little stuff like this – it is starting to pa noticeable dividends in productivity.