French Cleat Half-Cup Pencil Caddy

What you’ll get

You’ll get the following,
Files
DXF file(s) (.dxf) for 6mm plywood
LightBurn File(s) (.lbrn2) for 6mm plywood
SVG file(s) for 6mm plywood
Notes
Assembly notes/instructions if required

What you’ll need

A laser that can cut 6mm OR 1/4″ ply
Some 6mm plywood OR 1/4″ plywood
6mm or 1/4″ dowels for aligning parts
A drill for drilling 6mm or 1/4″ holes
Spray varnish (optional but recommended)
Wood glue or CA glue

Terms of use

• • Sales are non-refundable and non-returnable.
• • Downloaded orders are non-refundable and non-returnable.
• • These files are for personal use only.
• . No commercial use of these files in permitted. No purchasing these files to make and sell a finished product.
• • These files are not to be shared or distributed via any physical or digital methods.

About the designer

Hi, my name is Alan Egan and I’m a trained mechanical engineer. I used to design jigs, fixtures, progression tools, and manufacturing robots. These days, I spend a lot of time in my workshop and I love making stuff and I love French cleats as they keep my space organized.

But, like everyone else, when I needed a cleat I grabbed a few pieces of scrap wood and made a cleat, ad-hock with no thought about spacings, or size, or the cleats that I’d made before. Then I came up with the idea for a French cleat system and the Neat French Cleat System was born. I then started prototyping, and what you see here is the result of a ton of tried and tested ideas.

My workshop

I built the workshop during the first lockdown in 2020. Before that, it was just a brick-walled outbuilding that used to house pigs. The workshop isn’t that big. It’s about the size of a double garage, but it has a chimney in the middle of it which restricts the layout. I thought about removing the chimney but it serves the wood burner which is the only form of heating.

The tools I use

I have 2 lasers, a Sculpfun S9 with a 10W laser (diode), and a Gweike Cloud 50w laser (CO2). I use the Gwike machine to make my French cleats but I started making them with the Sculpfun (they just take longer to make with that machine).

I also have a Festool CMS table saw, a Bosch GCM mitre saw, and a very old pillar drill. I also have a Creality Ender 3, 3D printer.

I use Shapr3D on an iPad Pro to create the plans and models, and I use Lightburn to control the lasers.

If you have any questions, requests, or ideas, please feel free to drop me a line in the comments below.