How to Hang Pictures Using Wood Cleats

RON HAZELTON:
Now I want to hang this painting on the wall and I could do it by stretching a wire across the back. This is just a canvas over a frame though and whenever I've done that in the past, it tends to hang away from the wall at the top and I want to avoid this.  I want this to be completely flat.  So I'm going to put it up using something called a cleat.

Now I'm going to make my cleat out of a piece of one by 4 that I'm going to rip down the middle on a bevel.  Now one half of this I'm going to attach to the wall like that. And then the other half, I'm going to attach to the back of the painting.

And the top piece will slip over the bottom like that, get captured by the bottom. And that painting's not going to go anywhere. From a single piece of one by 4 I'll cut both cleats by setting my table saw blade at 45 degrees and ripping the board down the center.

Back inside, I locate the wall studs using an electronic stud sensor.  I screw the wall cleat into one stud.   Place a level on top, adjust, then put in a second screw to hold the cleat in position.  Next I apply hot belt glue to the edge of the second cleat and press it into place on the inside of the frame.

The adhesive bonds almost instantly. 

[MUSIC]

Now because the wall cleat is level, the picture will always be level.  And I can move it left or right to center it over a piece of furniture or a section of wall.