Need advice on hanging wall tool cabinet ...

[Andrea Steward]

Hello everyone... 

I'm building storage efor my "little shop" and in need of some advice. First...

...so you understand why I'm asking for some insight here.. I'm fairly new to this kind of cabinetry. My husband and I had a small 'farmstyle' furniture business a few years back and I've designed and built many things along the way -- but this is my first tool cabinet. 

My question has to do with the way I'm planning to hang the largest cabinet -- and if my design ideas are good or... need a little tweaking!

My shop is a Rubbermaid shed. 7'x7'. Since Rubbermaid no longer makes shelving for this unit - and I would prefer wood cabinets to rails with pegboard- I decided to frame out the inside with 2x4's and hang my cabinets on this skelton. The 2x4's are situated with the 1 1/2" side facing outward from the wall like a stud. 

My plan is to attach my largest cabinet between two studs. The cabinet design is 42" high and 17" deep. I plan to place the cabinet between two studs -- and -- it will be sitting on top of one horizontal stud that runs from side-to-side half-way up the wall. This will give me 3 1/2" inches of surface to grab into along the back edges of the cabinet sides. 

At 17" deep on this cabinet ... will this work? The 2x4 framing on the back wall is braced by the 2x4's that run along the top of the wall and bottom of the wall to the opposite corners. I can literally hang on the frame and it doesn't budge. 

I'm using cabinet grade birch plywood for the cabinet carcase.... and the reason I need 17" of depth is because the cabinet has 2 internal doors and 2 outer doors. A 42"x17" cabinet provides nearly 30 square feet of store space inside with this design. I just want to be sure it's going to stay on the wall! :)

I'm open to hearing any advice.... thank you all... - Andrea

[michael evans]

Hi andrea if you can hang off the studs the cabinet will not go anywhere. If screwing the cabinet too the wall make sure you place a washer on the screw ,so the head of the screws will not pull through the ply hope this helps.

[Michael R. Turner]

I would advise adding gussets between the studs and the 2x4s that run across the ceiling.  15" x 15" triangular pieces of 1/2" plywood would greatly increase resistance to racking.

If there are no 2x4s running across the ceiling, you should have some legs under the cabinet so it doesn't pull the wall over.  If the legs don't land on concrete or floor joists, put a 2x4 flat on the floor under them to spread the load.