Keyhole slots

[Raymond Fries]

I am building a hanging cabinet. I am guessing here at the weight. I think 30 to 40 pounds max. I want to use 2 keyhole slots. The board for the top of the cabinet will be 3/4" poplar. I plan to position the slots on 16" centers in the middle of the board.

Do you think that this would be stable and never break?

[glenn bradley]

I built a cabinet of similar weight (when loaded) and went this route:

394078 . 394077

394080 . 394079

[Doug Hepler]

I am building a hanging cabinet. I am guessing here at the weight. I think 30 to 40 pounds max. I want to use 2 keyhole slots. The board for the top of the cabinet will be 3/4" poplar. I plan to position the slots on 16" centers in the middle of the board.

Do you think that this would be stable and never break?


Raymond,

Yes I think this will be stable and never break, but this deserves a serious answer based on detailed engineering calculations that take into account the load, the composition and diameter of the screws, the composition of the studs that you will mount it to. (I am not an engineer) I realize that sounds overly technical, but a good answer would depend in part on what the gross weight would be and what the consequences of failure would be. If you will fill it with heavy objects, you might worry more about the shear strength of the mounting screws, the depth of penetration into the studs, and the soundness of the studs. If you mount it with #10 screws to a depth of 2" into sound SYP studs, I would guess that it would hold at least 200 pounds gross weight and maybe as much as 1000 lb. My kitchen cabinets are mounted with four #10 x 3" screws, which I believe is code in my town. If you are concerned, you couls add two additional screws near the bottom, after you have hung the cabinet with the keyhole hangers. By the way, drill proper pilot holes and lubricate the mounting screws so that you don't weaken the screws when driving them into the studs.

Doug

[Doug Garson]

Or use a french cleat.

[Michael Costa]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe a 1/4" screw will hold about 225 lbs shear weight for every inch threaded into the wood commonly used for studs. You can look up these specs online. I just don't remember where.