Spray Paint Rack Improvements

I had built a spray paint rack a few weeks back to try and do some tidying up but I wasn't satisfied with the end result. So in this Instructable I'll show you how I fixed the two things I wasn't happy with.

1. The rack needs a back to prevent spray paint cans from beating the wall to death when they are taken in and out of the rack.

2.The rack isn't easily mountable to a wall. For this I'm going to show how I made and mounted French cleats.

Edit: Due to interest in the comments I have taken measurements for anyone wishing to build their own.

The overall dimensions are 50.5"x15"

Boards on all sides are 5.5" wide and the shelves on the rack are 3.5" wide

The shelves are spaced 4 3/4" apart on center

The shelves on the rack are 13.5" wide, which allows for 5 cans to fit side by side with about 1/2" to spare.

A standard spray paint can is slightly over 2.5"

This spray paint rack can hold 50 cans of spray paint

The angle of the shelves is roughly 35˚

The entire shelf was assembled with wood glue and a kreg jig to make pocket holes.

Step 1: Gather Tools & Materials

Pencil
Level
Tape measure
Stud finder (optional)
Table saw
Counter sink bit
Drill
Chisel
Hand saw

Poplar board (I used 3/4" x 2 1/2")
Stain
Screws
1/8" tempered hard board

Step 2: Measure & Cut Back Panel

For this I used some 1/8" hardboard that I bought as a 4'x8' sheet at Home Depot. The first step was to mark the sheet to size for a rough cut with the circular saw. I marked mine at 15" so that I ended up with a piece 14" long that could be cut down to 13.5" on the table saw.I did this for two reasons: 1. I wanted to cut it a little long to allow for a more precise cut on the table saw 2.You have to be aware of the distance between the guide on the circular saw and the blade. Once the hardboard was marked I clamped a board to the sheet to use as a guide when cutting. Then I proceeded to cut a 4'x14" piece with the circular saw.

When I had my 4'x14" piece I set my table saw to 13.5" and I cut the piece down to its exact width. Next I marked my board at the proper length which in my case was about 44" and got out my miter gauge. I cut the board down to length. This gave me a piece 44"x13.5" that was ready to be attached to my spray paint rack.

Step 3: Preparing French Cleats

I started off by setting my table saw to 45˚. Then I took a piece of scrap I had lying around that is about 1/2"x2"x28" and I ripped it down the middle. This gave me the two halves of my french cleat. Next I marked and cut the end that attaches to the spray paint rack to length. I test fitted the french cleat in the rack and then counter sunk and screwed it into place. Then I just used my hand plane to make it completely flush with the surrounding boards.

In order to have the spray paint rack hang flush against the wall I needed to inset the french cleat and in order to have a working french cleat I needed to remove some material on the sides. To do this I used a combination of a dovetail saw, coping saw and a chisel(I recommend the coping saw for a rough cut and the chisel to only be used to clean up the cuts). I began by marking out where I would need to clear out material. Next I made two straight cuts, one following the 45˚ angle of the french cleat and the other one straight down where I had marked. After that I connected the two straight cuts with a coping saw. I unfortunately tried to use only the chisel at first to speed things along but I ended up splitting the end of my wood. Because of this you will also see that I countersunk and screwed the french cleat in from the top to be sure it was sturdily attached.

Step 4: Attaching the Hardboard

This was the simplest of steps. I just used #6 3/4" wood screws to attach the hardboard to the back of my spray paint rack. I used 9 screws equally spaced around the back I you can see in the picture above. For this step I didn't bother to counter sink the screws because the screws would be on the back where they wouldn't show and the hardboard is soft enough that the screws drive almost flush with the surface anyways.

I noticed in this step though that my rack was slightly bowed and so my hardboard stuck out in one spot on the back. To fix this I simply used my hand plane to bring the hardboard flush with the sides.

Step 5: Mounting the Rack With French Cleats

First I took my other french cleat and found the studs in my wall and cut it down to length. I found the studs in my wall by taking a small nail and driving it into the wall where I thought the studs should be. Both my guesses hit solid wood once they made it through the dry wall so I put my screws there. After that I used the scrap piece from that cut to figure out the height at which I needed to mount the receiving cleat. I simply held the rack at the height I wanted it, slid the scrap cleat underneath it and marked a line underneath that.

I took the receiving cleat and I predrilled and counter sunk two holes at the exact spots they needed to be mounted to the wall. Then I drilled one screw in the wall to hold it in place at the correct height. Next I used a torpedo level to level the receiving cleat and finally I drilled the right screw into place.

Lastly I hung the new and improved spray paint rack proudly on the wall.