How to hang 1/4" Plywood

Question

I have a 12" x 24" piece of plywood that is 1/4" thick and I'd like to hang it on the wall. I don't want to frame the piece or put any nails in it. Here are a couple of ideas I had:

• I was hoping there would be some mounting/hanging brackets similar to what picture frames use but haven't had any luck for 1/4". Also, I know plywood isn't very resilient and I'm not sure if screwing in to it will crack the wood.
• Another option is attaching string to the piece and then hanging it from a nail in the wall but not sure what the best way to permanently attach the string to the plywood is.
• I would be fine drilling small holes in to the wood for string/wore to go through but I don't have an automatic drill with me and, again, I worry about cracking.

Any ideas out there on ways to best hang a 1/4" piece of plywood?? I'm open to any suggestions.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

One way to hang your thin plywood would be to acquire a strip of wood trim material that was say 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick by say 20" long. (The 20" length presumes you want to hang the piece with its 24" dimension horizontal). You would then glue this strip on the back side of the plywood with yellow carpenters glue. Clamp it into place or place heavy weights on it till the glue dries. This strip would be centered side to side and down 3 to 4 inches from the top of the plywood.

This strip gives you a place to install two picture hanger strew eyes similar to what is shown below. With the strip you have plenty of depth to accommodate a screw eye that has thread length of 1/4" to 3/16" length without having to be concerned with it popping through to the front side of the plywood.

Once the screw eyes are installed you can string a piece of picture hanging wire between them that is then hooked over a conventional hanger hook on the wall.

Answer 2

Glue a strip (or two strips, to keep it parallel to the wall surface) of thicker wood to the back.

Properly shaped (see ASCII art below for one version), that can BE your hanging hardware, or you can attach your hanging hardware to it.

X
X||   X is the plywood. This angle-cut bit of ||
X\|     wood is attached to the plywood.      \|
X\\                                            \
X|\
X||   X is the plywood. This angle-cut bit of \
X       wood is attached to the wall.         |\
X                                             ||     

"Swiss Clips" would another approach, with no glue or nails, but some hardware showing on the front side.