Tool Chest - "Prototype"

Bill Satko

Member
Messages
3,207
Location
Methow Valley
I promised Rob Keeble that I would send him an email with photos of the tool chest that I am trying to complete. You know, life keeps getting in the way, yada yada. Instead I decided to post what I have here, as it is easier.

Actual this whole tool chest was a reaction to the realization a week before I was to attend a Garrett Hack class in July that my current travelling toolbox was too small. Not true, but that has nothing to do with my perception at the time. I think I just like to panic and see if I can move mountains in the shortest time possible. I tend to work better under stress. In the week before the class, I went though several plans of actions as my thinking (or lack of) evolved. Long story short it was like this: smaller travelling chest made of big leaf maple >> to large chest made of big leaf maple (I know this does not make sense!) >> to small chest made out of plywood >> to large chest made out of plywood (notice a trend here) >> to old tool chest will work just fine.

What I accomplished in that weeks was: buy 8 each 5/4 x 8(+)" x 12' big leaf quartered sawn maple; cut & glue the box (plywood); cut out all the tray components (plywood); cut out and glue the tray supports (plywood); and finally, work every hour available to me until I threw in the towel and realized my old box was making the trip with me.

The forced decision to make this out of plywood was hard for me, but when I got back from the class, I decided that I needed to finish it. So in my mind, it is a prototype until I decide I like working out of a tool chest vs a tool cabinet and perform experiments as to the best layout. If I decide to build another out of "real" wood, I will probable still replace the plywood trays and tray supports in this one. I dislike the look of them. The only truly enjoyable part of this build so far, was making the moldings which were scribed and dovetailed to the box. I aged the hardware by torching off the clear finish and dunking them in gun bluing. I think they turned out nice. I still have to finish the partitions (plane & saw till), a sliding shelf, add chisel rack and probably mounts for attaching items to the lid.

I used the plans out of Bernard Jones' "The Practical Woodworker".

Here is the wood I bought but did not use....yet. I got for a steal from a local source. 6 sticks out of 8 were quarter sawn. Very strange to see and I should have bought more.

2012-11-11_12-37-00_645.jpg2012-11-11_12-37-09_326.jpg

The bottom molding, but the same was done for the lid and the dust cover. All made out of poplar.
2012-08-04_16-10-08_344.jpg2012-08-04_17-26-18_460.jpg


The box. Actually pretty nice once it is painted. The clamps are because I have not attached the tray supports yet, as I have to add a partition and a sliding shelf that sit under it.
2012-11-11_18-05-00_483.jpg2012-11-11_18-05-12_663.jpg2012-11-11_18-05-25_787.jpg2012-11-11_18-04-47_986.jpg2012-11-11_18-05-46_502.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think you'll find the time invested in the prototype to be well worth it.

There's only so much planning you can do and until you actually use it, it's hard to know how you'd use it, if you know what I mean.

You'll probably find a few things you'd what to change.

If you'd made the first one out of fancy wood, you'd probably just make do, but once you learn what changes you might make, you'll have no problem with a 'do over'.
 
I think you'll find the time invested in the prototype to be well worth it.

There's only so much planning you can do and until you actually use it, it's hard to know how you'd use it, if you know what I mean.

You'll probably find a few things you'd what to change.

If you'd made the first one out of fancy wood, you'd probably just make do, but once you learn what changes you might make, you'll have no problem with a 'do over'.

I agree with you Brent. When I was incorporating the design out of Bernard Jones' book, which was written over a hundred years ago, I kept challenging details of the plan, comparing it to Chris Schwarz's recent work on toolboxes. I then realized that there may be reasons the old guys designed it this way and it would be best for me to build it and let the experience of using it allow me to confirm what will work for me. I suspect I will be moving and replacing some of the internal components around over time, or maybe not. Whatever happens, I feel better about building it out of cheaper wood; working out the details and then when I am satisfied, build it out of better quality wood.
 
Thanks for showing us Bill. I dunno i dont agree with the word Prototype. I would say just use modify and move on to build furniture rather.

Your work looks excellent.

As to working out of a tool chest.....well i think we should consider that the guys that would have done that in the old days were doing so such that their tools could fit on a cart and be lugged all over the place and locked up while they overnight somewhere. They would have been fitter than we generally are today with most of us spending so much of our time around a computer.

What i think the use of a tool chest of this nature fails to take into account is the aspect none of us can defy and that is aging. Bending over and on top of it bending and moving sliding trays with hand tools (which aint generally very light ) around is gonna be hard on the back as we age.

I want to be able to walk up to the cabinet open the double doors and have the whole lot hanging in front of me or in draws pretty high off the ground. Sure i wont be transporting tools to class this way if i ever get to a class that is, but as i age it will certainly make the access of a tool a whole lot easier.

I can see that on a job site a tool chest could have played several roles back in the day. Simply as somewhere to rest on when cutting a board if needed.

The other aspect that comes to mind is the aspect of weight. Looks to me like you got your chest on wheels only saying this because of the gap at the base.

My other offering re prototype is just for a moment consider that should this be the way in which you move your tools to class that in the event you take a class where some airline or other carrier of any sort is going to be moving your tools chest, then i think you will be delighted that you made it in the wood you did and not some fine wood with extra care finish. They will do a good job of giving it the workover and it will have a very abused look after a couple of carrier trips.

Thanks for sharing your ideas and work. :thumb:
 
Rob,

I think the current understanding is that tool chests of this size ( almost 2' x 2' x 3') were not moved much. They were transported to the shop where they worked and stayed there until they took employment with another. There were smaller traveling boxes that craftsman used for job sites, but not so much with cabinetmakers but carpenters, joiners and such. Of course, I was not around then, but I do know that once loaded, it would take more than me to move this from my shop. As for airlines, I only let them handle items I consider disposable or replaceable; neither category would I consider my hand tools to fit into.
 
Nice looking tool chest Bill. Making one is somewhere down on my to do list, but given the nature of my shop, with tools mostly on walls or in my bench, I'm not sure I really have a need for one. I made a small traveling tool box to hold my chairmaking tools, but that is pretty limited in what it can hold. No tills, just one open space. Followed Toshio Odate's design but shrunk it down.
 
Thanks Ryan.

Ken, I still think a wall cabinet is in my future, but considering that we might be selling our current house; then moving into a rental until we find or build our dream house, I think this might be my best solution for now. I needed to do something to consolidate all my hand tools together and my smaller traveling tool box was handy, just not big enough.

Talking about tool storage at the bench, I have decided to install a tool tray at the back of my bench. I am finding having my tools laying on the bench gets in the way of working on the bench. I know I am going against current wisdom, but I believe it all depends on how one works. I am not a messy guy so I don't think it will become a "hamster cage" filled with left out tools & debris. I believe that a tool tray will be asset for me, but am curious how it has worked for others.
 
I wonder how one of those boxes would hold up on a daily use in a construction site. Been looking at getting a gang box, but after seeing this great box I might have to build one. Keep up the good work.
 
After flying around the country this week it was nice to get back to the workbench and make the sliding ledge for my tool box.

The sliding ledge is a shelf that resides below the sliding trays and slides front to back, just like the trays. It's purpose is to provide a barrier between lowest part of the chest where the planes sit and the rest of the chest and to provide a place to set more tools. The problem is that those tools will then interfere with moving the trays, but my understanding is they stored those planes that were always placed on the bench when they opened up their tool chest each morning. This then freed up the access to the sliding trays throughout the day.

I find that I can not help myself as instead of just using a piece of plywood for this purpose, I decided to make a solid wood shelf with clamped ends as described in the book. I made the clamps as described in Bernard Jones' other book, "The Complete Woodworker". As you are probably catching on to now, a "clamp" is what we call a breadboard end; maybe because it clamps it flat. This style of clamp is a tongued clamp which is with the tongue set into long grain of the clamp and not the end grain of the shelf board. And I will glue it to the shelf board. Right now, everyone should be saying, "What is he doing? The board will split with seasonal movement restrained!". Well, that is how they did it according to Jones (if I am reading it right) and maybe they were wrong, but I am going to try it and not worry about it.

Ahh ... the pleasure of hand planing a board flat and then using your tongue and groove plane to make the necessary fits. All that stress of traveling just melts away, as you listen to the swish of the planes.

2012-11-16_10-47-16_110.jpg2012-11-16_10-49-39_334.jpg


Here it is before glued it up.

2012-11-16_11-40-44_430.jpg


After I glued it up, I finished flattening it. I then chamfered all the edges. It turned out really nice.

2012-11-16_16-29-05_816.jpg2012-11-16_16-29-22_436.jpg2012-11-16_16-29-37_600.jpg2012-11-16_16-30-20_600.jpg

My wife thought it was beautiful and then asked what it was for, thinking a bookcase or something like that for the house. When I told her it was for the tool chest, she gave me the look. I think I better hurry this up and then finish that Demilune Table.
 

Attachments

  • 2012-11-16_11-14-37_229.jpg
    2012-11-16_11-14-37_229.jpg
    40.1 KB · Views: 36
  • 2012-11-16_16-29-58_374.jpg
    2012-11-16_16-29-58_374.jpg
    33.6 KB · Views: 33
Beautiful Bill
:thumbup::thumbup:

Nothing like what u doing to melt away the travel blues.

Dont expect wife to understand at least thats my view.

I dont ask her why she does a practice bake of cookies before the batch she does for the cookie swap at work. :) both taste and look exactly the same. :)

But...i am envious of that workbench of yours. I had cause as you know to be using mine a few weeks ago and now i see that "what i think of as "english side" overhang witg dog holes I think i am gonna mod mine and revise the piece i have holding my sliding deadman in place. At very least i think i will put some holes in it for better supporting narrow long pieces.
Who says we gotta stick to proper form. :) Thats for the Victorian era. :)
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
I finished up preparing the two partitions that divide up the lower compartment of the tool box. One partition is 9" high and divides the plane area into two areas. The other partition is 14" high and divides the saw till from the planes. Both of these partition need to be 1/2" thick. I decided to also make these from solid wood. I bought some 3/4" poplar from Lowes. I hardly ever use my jointer anymore. I usually flatten one side with my hand planes and then run it through my planer. It saves time and beside the boards are generally wider than the capacity of my jointer anyway.

It does not take long with my jack plane set up to take a rank cut and then using my #7. You can see the tell tale shavings of the jack plane used as a scrub plane. It is your typical cross grain shaving, thick and short.

2012-11-18_14-52-53_951.jpg

I am always amazed as to how flat or straight a board is not, coming off a planer or table saw. I say that because it always takes a couple of passes from #7 to get it truly flat or straight. The planes in the background are my # 4 1/2 and my # 7. I really did not need the 4 1/2 because I have my #7 set up with very little camber, so it results in a very smooth finish. You notice the change in the shavings? They are now flat and very thin.

2012-11-19_19-03-00_524.jpg2012-11-19_19-03-17_261.jpg2012-11-19_19-03-31_608.jpg

You can see my little propane heater warming up the shop in the background. I don't need it on much, just enough to remove the chill.



I remember when I first starting using hand planes, how flattening a board or jointing an edge seemed so difficult. Now the planes just seem just an extension of the rest of my body. Now as I plane, I am attuned to the blade as it cuts or skips. It is almost as if the plane does not exist, only the blade. Of course that is on good days. Still there is an occasional bad day when I am attuned to nothing and everything is a struggle. But those days are a minority now.
 
Last edited:
Wonderful Bill.

But did you mean proprane or kerosene heater? I have a kero that looks just like it, heated my shop quite a few times with it.

Opps, right you are. I have had that kerosene heater for quite a while. It works great, but I only wish it had a lower setting, as it really pumps out the heat. Great for when I first fire it up and I am trying to heat myself up to do some work, but I usually need to turn it off if I will be doing any hand sawing or planing. I especially like the glow it puts out. It creates a nice atmosphere when I am working at night or on dark gloomy days. It makes me want a small wood stove with a chair next to it, for my dream shop. Someday!
 
I have been busy on a house project, but I was able to get a little done on the tool chest, while the boss was not watching.

Here is shot from the book to give you an idea of how the interior goes together.

2012-11-24_20-10-14_599.jpg

Here I installed the cleats for the plane compartment partition and also the cleat that the sliding shelf rides on. You can also see the supports for the sliding trays.


2012-11-22_19-08-37_956.jpg2012-11-23_12-25-59_418.jpg2012-11-23_12-27-05_859.jpg


Photos of the cleats for the saw till partition. I still need to build the supports for the saws, but I have to decide if I am going to store my hand saws in the chest or just my backsaws. I also need to build the chisel holder that is attached just above the saws, as shown in the book.

2012-11-24_20-07-08_774.jpg2012-11-24_20-07-25_785.jpg


Some shots of the trays moved and a shot of the back plane compartment.
2012-11-24_20-08-06_771.jpg2012-11-24_20-09-42_460.jpg

Lastly a shot of the chest with the lid down.

2012-11-24_20-05-52_770.jpg


The sliding trays and their supports are really ugly in plywood, plus too heavy. I am definitely going to replace them in the future, but they will do for now.
 
Top