This morning I was asking my nephew if he wanted to help me finish the hammer rack I was building. The conversation went something like this:
Nephew: “Do you really need that many hammers?”
Me: “Yes, yes I do!”
Nephew: “This is my Wednesday hammer, this is my….”
He is a funny kid. Might have a point though.
It seems I spend more time on this project waiting for glue to dry than on anything else.
Here you can see the tool well before I add the holders for the different pliers and wire cutters.
Despite a frustrating number of measurements and test fits I somehow still had the tools protruding higher than I would like. To drop all the tool heights by another 1/8 th of an inch I ended up cutting a hole through the support base and then gluing in side supports. Grrr.
I guess I went heavy on the glue here. Once it dries I am scraping the excess and adding more support pieces – so this first round of gluing was fairly fast and dirty.
So the test fit is a big load off. Everything seems to fit exactly as expected. Not looking forward to making all the little dividers and boxes for the left side of the tool chest.
Contents of the box as things stand now only have 22 things. I decided to not pack so much into the toolbox. It contains fewer tools but I can carry it farther. Right now the box contains:
1. Folding wood ruler
2. Zippo lighter
3. Razor knife
4. Back saw – crosscut
5. 12oz hammer
6. Impact hammer
7. Small lineman’s dike
8. Wire cutters
9. Needle nose pliers
10. Locking pliers
11. Two 1 inch chisels
12. 1/4 inch chisel
13. 6 inch pry bar
14. Try square
15. Speed square
16. Adjustable square
17. Coping saw
18. Hack saw
19. Panel saw – rip
20. Panel saw – crosscut
21. Metal tape measurer
22. Wrecking bar
There are a whole pile of other tools I still need to make holders for – but that is what is in the box so far. Now that I have the tool wells glued up I can check clearance and make the mounts for the lid mounted level.
So one of the projects that has gotten starved for time lately is working on my grandfathers tool box. My father was, among other things, a carpenter. He worked pretty much right up until he went into the hospital and unfortunately the tools he had at his last job site were “lost”. So when my father recently gave me all of my grandfathers tools that he had it was an interesting collection. The centerpiece of which was two of my grandfathers old toolboxes – including his large carpenters tool box.
Largely empty of tools – the toolbox still had the original wooden dividers my grandfather had made and was filled with an odd assortment of tools (e.g. braces, bits, a crow bar). Now that my dad is retired he also gave me some of his tools and I decided to make new dividers combined with the tools I had gotten from my father re-stock the toolbox.
After taking the dividers in and out of the tool box a dozen times to confirm fit after each modification I decided to make a scale cardboard version of the sides of the toolbox so I could work on the toolbox like one of the sides was removed. Below you can see the tools lid out for test fitting.
In case you are wondering why it is so much work to just stuff a tool box – maybe it would help to understand the requirements. The toolbox is 32 inches by 9 inches and eleven inches tall at its peak. The top is angled so it is not quite as large as that would make it sound. My goal is to be able to pick the toolbox up and comfortably carry it with one hand. So I am putting an absolute limit of 50lbs on its weight when full of tools. I would also like to be able to get at commonly used items without having to move another tool, or at worst having only to move one other tool.
Here is what I have in the toolbox so far…
That sounds like a lot but the crowbar and cats paws go in the small saw till at the back of the box, and the right front half of the box forms an open tool well that got filled with specialty holders. So things can get packed fairly tight and yet be easy to get out without tools banging together.
I still need to finish holders but I know where the following tools will go in the box
Even with all that there is still some room to work with. My problem is that I still need to pack in the rest of these tools / items.
My main problem, I think, will be figuring out how to get the screwdrivers in the right side tool well – and easily accessible – without making it hard to access they other tools.
Below you can see me laying out my planes. They will sit in a small wooden pull out drawer. The pulls out portions are going to be made from cherry – while inside the box I am using mostly poplar and a decent grade of plywood.
The planes above are a Lie-Nielsen sckew block plane, low angled jack plane, and rabbet plane. The jack is amazing in that it can be set for rough or finishing work. I have a spare blade for it and also got a 90 degree scraper blade to be able to use it for finishing. The skew block plane is useful for both a block plane or for use in dadoes. I have a set of side rabbet planes and a place reserved for them – but I am still on the fence about adding them.
Here you can see the left side of the box. There is a small well area on the bottom of the box. That is where the oil-stone and plumb bob will live. This is where I am thinking the chalk snap line will go. Along the side of the space is a pocket for the scrapers and a bin for pencils and pens. The reason there is about a quarter inch of dead space along the side of the toolbox is that is where one leg of the large framing square sits when in the box. It is a bit of a hack but I plan on sewing an envelope to hold an assortment of pieces of sand paper. That envelope will sit on top of the carpenters square in this dead space.
The drawer with the plane box sits atop the left side storage well. I should also be able to have another box atop that and then room for a smaller pull out tool drawer at the top of the box. The layout was bugging me so I went and made a cardboard mockup of that top drawer. That way I can build it and the plane drawer and then make the center box to fit. Not quite optimal but I am fairly sure I will be able to fit the chisels I want – as well as the sewing kid and some other tools in those center boxes.
Here is what the right side tool well looks like – if the back of the toolbox were removed. This has proved the most useful attribute of the cardboard mockups of the box’s sides – being able to visualize the insides as if I had x-ray vision. It is kind of like making simple test cases when developing software.
So I am currently laying out a small set of holders to go next to the chisels, but on the other side of the coping saw. Should look something like the picture below. I am still trying to figure out if I want to have dividers between the tools. On the one hand it would keep the tools from rattling around but it would mean I would have to have *those* tools and could not swap tools in and out as needed. Still on the fence about how to do this.
