Power strips and other devices often use keyhole shaped slots for mounting, which can make it difficult to align multiple holes.
To mark the locations of multiple keyhole slots:
- Place the power strip or other device on a copy machine with the keyhole slots facing the glass.
- Make a paper copy of the device to act as a template.
- Position the paper copy where the device will go.
- Use a nail to mark through the paper in the center of the round part of each keyhole slot.
- Remove the paper template.
- Drill holes for the screws at each location.
- Screw in the screws to the proper depth.
- Slide the device on the screws.
If the keyhole slot locations aren’t symmetrical, punch holes through the template at each location first, and position the template with the image facing the wall when marking the holes.
Watch this video to find out more.
Further Information
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Joe Truini: If you’ve ever mounted a power strip, you know the frustration of using keyhole slots. On the back of almost every power strip are these slots that hold the screws. But if the holes aren’t exactly in the right place, the screws won’t hold the power strip to the wall.
So here’s the trick. Take the power strip over to a copying machine and make a photocopy of the back of the power strip. Now you have a precise layout that shows exactly where you need to mark the screw holes. Isn’t that cool?
So, now we’re just going to take the photocopy. We’re going to mount this strip to the back of this desk. We’re going to take the photocopy and hold it in place. To mark this screw holes, you can use an awl, or in this case I’m just using a nail set.
And what you want to do is mark around the center of the round part right there. That one, there are three of them in this case. Usually there’s only two keyhole slots, we have three in this power strip. There you go.
Remove it, and there are the holes, precisely where you need to drive in the screws.
Great, if the copier does not distort the copy from the original.
Bruce, the copier should have any kind of scaling or shrink to fit disabled for it to remain to scale. if you have a larger power strip, use an 8 1/2 x 14 paper to make sure the length is sufficient. 🙂
To the original poster, Thanks for the video. I cannot believe i did not think of this myself. though, one thing you could add to make it reusable if you do that alot, is take that template and add is to an acrylic glass sheet you have a permanent template.