Toolbox - Tray Inside a Tray

Bill Satko

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Methow Valley
Last July, a week before leaving for another class with Garrett Hack I realized I needed a traveling toolbox. I was tired of hauling my tools in an assortment of bags and cardboard boxes. I quickly dovetailed up a box and slapped some sides to it. That was all I was able to complete before having to take off. Did not even have a handle, so I just bear hugged it around.

I started last weekend, but finished yesterday, a sliding tray for the toolbox. I did not want to use any plywood in making this toolbox, so it was taking me a while to figure out how to do the bottom. I wanted to minimize using up the depth of the tray, so a solid panel fit into a groove was out. I then saw the sliding tray Christopher Schwarz was making and it seemed the perfect solution. A bottom comprised of two panels joined by an overlapped rabbet joint also was a good solution for the 6" limit in re-sawing that I had.

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2010/12/11/Keep+On+Working.aspx

I used machines for the initial wood prep and for re-sawing the material for the bottom, but used hand tools for all the secondary wood prep and joint construction.

Here is the tray before nailing the bottom.

Tray 1.jpg
Tray 3.jpg
Tray 5.jpg

Here is the completed tray.

Tray 6.jpg
Tray 7.jpg
Tray 9.jpg
Tray 8.jpg

Here is the tray in the tool box.
Tray 10.jpg
Tray 11.jpg
Tray 14.jpg

In completing the box, I realized that it would have been better to have installed the bottom the other way where the rabbets would be running the width instead of the length. It would have made the box stronger, stiffer. This will work though. If you look at the back of the tool box you will see that is how I built it. The rabbeted joints run the width of the box.
 
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Neat.
You just added about 50% more capacity to your toolbox Bill, and you can still retreive everything underneath!
Nice dovetail work. At this stage I have no concept of "quickly dovetailed up a box..."
Peter
 
nicely done bill:):thumb::thumb: now add some nicks and dings and some grime from sweat and yours will be like the old ones and made pretty much the same aswell. wished i lived where yu do.. would have had some of those classes that you mention..
 
That came out great. Looks like it will last for generations :thumb:

Thank you everyone.

This is only a prototype for my ultimate traveling toolbox, that is why I made it out of cheap pine. I have discovered several changes I will make, some of them having to do with dimensions and the other with how I will equip the interior. I still have several other things to make until the toolbox is complete, two more trays and fixtures that will secure backsaws to the lid.

I like this suitcase style of toolbox for traveling. The intent is not to be able to haul all my tools, but just what is needed when I take classes. Problem is that is still a lot of tools. It is not so much just hand planes, but all the little things you need. It all adds up.

Anyone got an opinion on which direction I should have run the bottom? I wonder if Chris Schwarz had second thoughts about his tray.

There is a hidden message for Larry Merlau in the background of a couple of my pictures. You are right, it is going to be sweet!
 
So, I'm assuming these classes are within ground travel distance?

I can't imagine that going through baggage claim, or being allowed in carry on :D
 
Very nice toolbox Bill.:thumb: I love pine:thumb: Man i gotta look at my lumber place for some stuff like that.

You know you had me thinking, when i saw your joint, Alex in Japan is building the guitar and when he made the top he butt jointed the pieces. I know he said it was like 3.5mm thick spruce but i was looking at your joint thinking would that not have made a better solution for him.

Just look at how much more glue surface area a lap joint like that provides there are three mating surfaces way better than one.:dunno:

Bill are you going to make fixed locations inside for each of your tools like holders so they aint bumping in to each other during transport. I guess so?

Jims got a point hows it work out for weight when you add a good few planes?
 
So, I'm assuming these classes are within ground travel distance?

By portable, I mean from the back of the car to the classroom bench and the closer you can get the car to the door the better.:thumb:

Very nice toolbox Bill.:thumb: I love pine:thumb: Man i gotta look at my lumber place for some stuff like that.

The pine for the tool box was from the local BORG, but within the last couple months I found a better supply for the pine I made the tray from. The BORG pine was a yellow or southern pine and the difference between the early and late wood was a bear for planing & chiseling. The other pine is almost a white pine, really nice stuff.
Bill are you going to make fixed locations inside for each of your tools like holders so they aint bumping in to each other during transport. I guess so?.

The trays will have fixed locations, I will be adding a board cutout for the tools to the bottom of the tray. The bottom where the planes sit will not have any fixed locations, but the next toolbox will have more compartments in this area

Jims got a point hows it work out for weight when you add a good few planes?

It is heavy, but I won't be carrying it far.

Great-looking work, Bill. :clap: Those dovetails are second to none.

Trust me they are not that good, as they have a few dings and a couple of over-cuts. I am not saying they are bad, but pine is a real pain to make anything out of because it is so soft. Your chisel or a loose chip can dent it easily. And of course if you drop a board, it always lands on the dovetail messing it up.

Really it is not that difficult to make acceptable dovetails by hand. Mostly it is sawing, actually it is all sawing. There will almost always some slight imperfection and you keep striving to make them perfect and sometimes you do and you celebrate. If you were to look at old furniture, you will see many imperfections. We just have elevated dovetails to some mystical level when it is just another joint that in most older furniture designs were covered up.
 
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will be some nice legs Bill:)

Actually, I took you for a ash man. I noticed you admiring mine when you were in my shop last spring.

It should be well acclimatized sitting in there for that long.

Don't you just love these almost subliminal messages that we intentionally hide in some of our photos. I noticed that plane of yours, with a few shavings in it, that just happened to be in the background (on your assembly table). I just want you to know that I did not miss it!
 
Built a smaller tray that will side from front to back inside the larger tray that I built earlier in this same thread. This tray will sit about 3/8" inside the larger tray and slide on ledger boards which I will mount at each end of the larger tray.

Tray2 1.jpg

Tray2 2.jpg

Tray2 3.jpg

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Below are some details of planing the tray bottom after resawing it from a larger board on the bandsaw.

Tray2 8.jpg

Tray2 9.jpg

Tray2 11.jpg

Tray2 13.jpg

Tray2 12.jpg
 
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