Plane Till - ver 1, Includes the Wings - Done

glenn bradley

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I have been percolating on a wall mounted tool cabinet for years. I thought I finally had it decided on. The wall space available, the location available, what I really want to put in it, etc. all come into play and morph and change over the years. During my last visit to dad's we talked about it and played with some more options; you pick up a lot of wisdom rattling around this planet for 90 years.

End result is that I realized that no matter how cool a doored cabinet with fold out panels looked, and no matter how much I wanted to make one; I would probably never close said doors. The purposes of the doors could be better met by making standalone . . . or rather, hang-alone doored wings (to be seen in a thread shortly following this one). the modular nature of the group will allow me to use them now (instead of waiting till everything's 'perfect') and arrange them much as a doored unit might be arranged in the future . . . or not :rolleyes:.

Long story short, I could vacillate forever or commit to a "version 1" which I have. Version one will be BB ply for the most part and sans doors.

Plane Till (0).jpg

The gallery area in the bottom kept changing so in the drawing shown it is in a state of flux. The rectangular block is just a representation of the space required for a certain plane.

I cut the parts out and finger-jointed them last night. Once dry fit I glued it up.

Plane Till (1).jpg . Plane Till (2).jpg . Plane Till (3).jpg

Today after work I cleaned it up a bit and routed a rabbet in the back for uh . . . the back. A previous version with doors used a 1/2" back. With the reduced carcass stress of a no-doored cabinet, I went with 1/4".

Plane Till (4).jpg . Plane Till (5).jpg

that's it for now.
 
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Looking forward to this build, Glenn. Can't wait until you start on the internals.

End result is that I realized that no matter how cool a doored cabinet with fold out panels looked, and no matter how much I wanted to make one; I would probably never close said doors...

It makes perfect sense to me and if my climate was different I would probably entertain doing the same. I keep my tools enclosed in my tool chest in order to keep dust off and so that I can climate control (Goldenrod Dehumidifier) them.
 
Looking good Glenn.

About 40 years ago I built a nice big tool storage cabnet with only one BIG door. Mistake in design! LOL.

I ended up re-fitting it with four doors, and learned a lesson in planning--lol.


Now I just use open tool storage on the wall, because if I can see them I can't forget where they are<--(LOL)

90 years ago it was 1914. A lot has happend since then. Mostly good :).
 
Glenn, I am so glad to know you actually got started on this project. Do you feel like a WWII parachutist shouting "Geranamo!!!!"?

For all concerned: Born Dec 31, 1925, minutes prior to midnight. That makes me 89 1/2 plus a few days; it only seems like 100 however.

Enjoy,
JimB

PS. I got three new really good shoe scrapers in the mail today. I had one and it was a help. However, much to Myrna's dismay, there is more than one way to get from a sawdusty shop floor into a house. Sorry dear, I should have done this years ago.
 
Now I just use open tool storage on the wall, because if I can see them I can't forget where they are<--(LOL)

Good to hear positive feedback on the open storage. When dad asked me about my planes and shaves getting dusty it led to my startling discovery that they have been setting out for years and the dust has never been an issue. I guess I only thought I needed doors so I could put those cool hinged panels inside them :)
 
Looking good Glenn.

About 40 years ago I built a nice big tool storage cabnet with only one BIG door. Mistake in design! LOL.

I ended up re-fitting it with four doors, and learned a lesson in planning--lol.


Now I just use open tool storage on the wall, because if I can see them I can't forget where they are<--(LOL)

90 years ago it was 1914. A lot has happend since then. Mostly good :).


Better do your math again my Dad died over a year ago & he was 91 years old.
 
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I have been percolating on a wall mounted tool cabinet for years. I thought I finally had it decided on. The wall space available, the location available, what I really want to put in it, etc. all come into play and morph and change over the years. During my last visit to dad's we talked about it and played with some more options; you pick up a lot of wisdom rattling around this planet for 90 years.

End result is that I realized that no matter how cool a doored cabinet with fold out panels looked, and no matter how much I wanted to make one; I would probably never close said doors. The purposes of the doors could be better met by making standalone . . . or rather, hang-alone doored wings (to be seen in a thread shortly following this one). the modular nature of the group will allow me to use them now (instead of waiting till everything's 'perfect') and arrange them much as a doored unit might be arranged in the future . . . or not :rolleyes:.

Long story short, I could vacillate forever or commit to a "version 1" which I have. Version one will be BB ply for the most part and sans doors.

View attachment 84582

The gallery area in the bottom kept changing so in the drawing shown it is in a state of flux. The rectangular block is just a representation of the space required for a certain plane.

I cut the parts out and finger-jointed them last night. Once dry fit I glued it up.

View attachment 84583 . View attachment 84584 . View attachment 84585

Today after work I cleaned it up a bit and routed a rabbet in the back for uh . . . the back. A previous version with doors used a 1/2" back. With the reduced carcass stress of a no-doored cabinet, I went with 1/4".

View attachment 84586 . View attachment 84587

that's it for now.



Glen you need to install one of these in your plane till/tool cabinet.
 

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Nice Glenn I am not far behind you as soon as i get the long list ahead of me done. I will have doors on mine, lets just say its that old SA thing of dealing with too many criminals, old habits die hard. :) I want to keep insides from prying eyes. ;) and i figure use of wall space depending on where one stands/hangs the cabinet. Like your finger joints, yours came out cleaner than mine but i see you used a better grade of ply than I did. Have vowed after that batch never to be tempted into buying "cheap" (expensive when you consider the time and quality wasted) ply again. This time i really have learnt my lesson on that one.

I do think you have solved a mystery for me. Part of my delay has an element of vacillating over how to layout tools inside my tool cabinet (WIP). Almost all images i could find had shelves and cubby holes, I kept thinking thats fine for the shorter planes but that means a whole shelf for the jointer and planes longer than the width of the unit. Making a plane till side or door solves the problem entirely. Good thinking Batman.

Just to throw a curved ball in here, my unit i plan to mount on a rolling set of draws. I hemmed and hawed over this issue and looked at many images. My thought was that most of what i plan to put into my unit will be hand tools. The idea being 90% of the hand tools will be within the overall unit and being able to roll it over to the part of the work bench i am working on and have them a handy reach away solves putting them back and prevents the "where did i put that effect". I am just tired of having a bench thats cluttered and tools hidden while i work. As for the draws my plan is no draw deep enough to have more than one layer of tools.


In my Dads shop which i got to use growing up, he had a layout something like in this quick sketch. The cab was mounted against the wall (brick and mortar) and the shelves either side above a workbench below. The doors opened outward over shelves and had tools hanging on either side. (note to an exact replica just the concept there was more detail to it). Tools also on the inside. This made good use of available wall space I thought, Funny no lock on it just a pivoting toggle. LOL But it was a pretty small shop.
dads tool cab.jpg
 
Wow, I may just make a "Weekend project" out of this weekend project; that'll be a first for me :D. I have had this piece of 1/4" red oak veneer plywood following me around for years. I know it looks too good and will be covered up but, at least I can get some use out of it. I didn't boether to square the corners of the rabbets, I just rounded the corners of the back instead.

Plane Till (6).jpg

The sled and stop block come into play to cut the gallery top/bottom. I just realized I didn't take any pictures of my cutting the dados but, most of us know how that goes.

Plane Till (7).jpg

I use the tools themselves to double check my final gallery layout.

Plane Till (8).jpg

The original plan for the dividers was for symmetrical parts so I could minimize waste (one cut yields two mirror image parts). I found enough scrap 1/4" BB ply to do the job so I just squared up three sides, ganged them with painter's tape and drew my curve. Again I used the actual tools to verify my curve. There's nothing to tick you off like building a fixture that is difficult to use.

Plane Till (9).jpg . Plane Till (10).jpg

For a cut with this precise of a requirement I employ my most modern, sophisticated and accurate curve-cutting device. Otherwise known as my $50, garage sale, 1970's Delta bandsaw.

Plane Till (11).jpg . Plane Till (12).jpg

I go ahead and lay some shellac on these so they can dry while I cut out the two end pieces of the gallery.

Plane Till (13).jpg

OK, so here's a dry fit. I am pretty happy with it so I will glue 'er up. The gallery, like the till, will be a separate fixture screwed into the carcass. That way I can change things down the road.

Plane Till (14).jpg

The empty slot on the extreme right is for the Lee Valley Large Shoulder Plane some loved one may buy me for Christmas (I can always hope).

Glen you need to install one of these in your plane till/tool cabinet.

If no one gives me a shoulder plane for Christmas I can use the Flux Capacitor to go back in time and have them try again :rofl:
 
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On the wall.

Plane Till (15).jpg

I added some items that will not stay but, I need them out of the way while I build the 'wings' that will hold them. The end-game here is a till/gallery for planes and the immediate paraphernalia that goes with their every day use. The planes hang from cords with a variation on the Chris Gouchnour method. In my version the top row of pegboard holes are used for the cords. The whole board comes out with a few screws for easy rearranging since I can get a lot more in this thing if I restrict it to planes.

Plane Till (16).jpg

The gallery spots are pretty well fixed. I will stick some pieces of carpet or some-such in the slots on the surfaces the planes rest on to keep them from getting chewed.

Plane Till (17).jpg

This should keep things nice and handy. Now for those wing units . . .
 
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Nice collection and nice till.

Paint me green - again! You do such great work but how you approach and then execute a project is what I admire the most.
 
Looking good Glenn.

About 40 years ago I built a nice big tool storage cabnet with only one BIG door. Mistake in design! LOL.

I ended up re-fitting it with four doors, and learned a lesson in planning--lol.


Now I just use open tool storage on the wall, because if I can see them I can't forget where they are<--(LOL)

90 years ago it was 1914. A lot has happend since then. Mostly good :).


Hey now, I was shaving 10 years off the top end, not the bottom end--lol. Happy 2004 :)
 
The Wings

I thought about making this a separate thread but, since I am using the same setups I may as well use the same thread, right? Theses are built as a box and then sawn open to create the door as in other builds you may have seen. So, lotsa fingers:

Plane Till (18).jpg

These will use pegboard for the tool hanging surfaces. Pegboard does not have the stigma for me that it does for some but, I threw away all my crummy pegboard pegs years ago ;). Folks have a habit of blaming the pegboard when the hangers are at fault. I was going to set the panels in dados but then my "what if" engine kicked in . . . what if the pegboard cracks, what if I want to change to solid panels, what if . . . what if . . . you know the routine.

Anyway I will frame the panels in on cleats that will not show or hinder the holes. For now these two frames set at the ready:

Plane Till (19).jpg

I need to mill some cleat stock and cut the pegboard panels to size before I move onto glue up. Sometimes these decisions are made by time-of-day more than phase of project. That is; I am already running the machines and making a mess so I may as well do all that type of work before I start gluing things up and setting them in my way :D.
 
Glenn i needed this thread badly. ;)

If you mean it has inspired you to hit the shop, great! I can relate. I will have something that I want to do that just keeps getting pushed to the back of my mind. Then I will see you, or Allen, or Rennie doing something and wonder "what am I waiting for?".

Some of you may remember my "up in the rafters" thin/long stock stash doo-funny. I rifled through it for the stock I need to make frame strips to mount the pegboard to.

Plane Till (20).jpg

Here's my findings.

Plane Till (21).jpg

While the glue set up on this wing I made up the 5/8" x 5/8" stock for the frames.

Plane Till (22).jpg

I have an early morning tomorrow where I not only have to be present but, actually have to be able to think so, I'm off to bed.
 
This one will be ready to saw in two tomorrow. I couldn't resist sticking some things on what will be the front panel. These are not the actual tools or fixtures that will go on the front. That process may take a bit of percolating.

Plane Till (23).jpg
 
I cut the short ends first. Then double-stick tape some scrap to them to hold the gap open while I cut the long sides. And you get this:

Plane Till (24).jpgPlane Till (25).jpg

I cut a piece of continuous hinge to size and position it. It doesn't show in the pic but, I have a couple heavy-stock business cards clamped between the two sections at the hinge area. This assures a slight gap so that the "door" closes completely without binding. I tape the hinge in position till I get a few screws in. As designed the doors will never swing a full 180* but, I make sure the screws seat well since later I may move them forward and attach then to the plane till. In this event the doors could open fully.

Plane Till (26).jpg

This is a possibly interesting feature to anyone building such a thing. There are cleats on the top and bottom. This allows me to mount the fixture in either orientation (depending on which way I want the door to swing).

Plane Till (27).jpg

And here she is on the wall with her buddy. I will finish up the other wing but, it will be hanging on the other wall for now. One of the benefits of a cleat system; things move easily as your life changes.

Plane Till (28).jpg . Plane Till (29).jpg

I'll spend some time making up tool holders while I am watching glue or finish dry on other projects. and populating my 24+ square feet of storage area (between the two wings).
 
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