Garage storage / IKEA rail hack

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sploo

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Having moved home some months ago I'm starting from scratch re garage organisation. One extra curveball is the fact that some of the walls are underground and were leaking water.

A large quantity of specialist sealing paint later, I'm now needing to fix things to the walls, but not wanting to put any fixings through the seal coat lower down the walls (I've not had any problems near the ceilings).

So, I fitted a set of IKEA METOD suspension rails all round the garage, then set about modifying some spare pieces. In the image below, the bottom section is the standard rail, the top section has been ripped down its length to remove some of the metal:

20170705_222152.jpg



Once that's done, the modified section will slip (upside down) into the rails on the walls, and can be lifted out relatively easily. So, we can now drill the upside down section and fix it to something we need to hang:

20170705_221307.jpg


20170705_221319.jpg



The bolts are joint connector/cross dowel bolts, and 30mm long (http://www.screwfix.com/p/joint-connect ... pack/61843). The flat head is required, as anything with a dome would prevent the upside down section from fitting into the wall mounted rail. They're also useful as they provide a wide head against the metal rail, without needing a washer (which wouldn't fit).

At the front, the bolts are secured with nylock nuts, through penny washers.

I then added a threaded insert to the MDF sheet, which allows a third bolt to be screwed from the front. That provides a safety mechanism, as with it in place the upside down section of rail cannot lift up off the wall rail:

20170706_210939.jpg


20170706_211047.jpg



Some semblance of order beginning to emerge:

20170709_210402.jpg



Once one is done, the rest is much quicker. Remove the old French cleat from a cabinet, chuck on another bit of rail and away we go:

20170709_212157.jpg


20170709_212313.jpg



I did later add a threaded insert and third bolt as a safety mechanism, as before.
 
monkeybiter":3350b2pd said:
Very good, Swedish cleats! They look like they'd work without trimming.
Are they expensive?
Without trimming the upside down rail will hit the keyhole plates + screws that fix the main rail to the wall (basically the same problem of needing a slim fixing, but upside down).

IRC each 2m rail is £9, so not too bad.
 
Note: In my first post I mentioned 30mm joint connector/cross dowel bolts; they're actually 20mm. Unfortunately Screwfix don't do that particular length any more (25mm seems to be the shortest option available).
 
No worries.

I've got a full sheet of 1/2" ply cut into three sections (each 1.2m wide, and about 80cm tall) that are going to get more Swedish cleats*, and will be used to hang my hand tools on the walls. That'll be a while away though as I'm in the middle of building a cabinet/stand for my lathe.


* (C) monkeybiter 2017 ;)
 
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