Thread: Tool Chest Bragging

Wall mounted tool cabinets are quite popular, try the show off your chisels or show off your planes thread for pictures of what some have done. I started one quite a time ago and have just this week started to try and finish it off, see my shed link below. I am making it modular as you are thinking in that my chisels can be lifted off on their rack and mounted onto a bench caddy whilst they are in use. The bench caddy is not yet finished but is in the pipeine and I will post some pictures once it is done.

Good luck, I think building a cabinet to display the tools you use is an enjoyable and worthwhile experience and it encourages you to look after your tools better than if they are just piled on the bench.

G'day Boz,

Your first choice would be wall hung or free standing.

Here's your standard wall hung job:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworki...F.aspx?id=2764

I like the floor standing ones given the weight factor. You can get the idea through this link:
http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/r...=480&offset=25

Cheers.

Boz

I am in the process of rebuilding my workshop (first time in 12 years), and I have accumulated a lot of nice handtools over the years. One of the questions that you may need to ask yourself is whether you want to store all your handtools in one cabinet? That is a common practice, and one that I have done in the past. The trouble is that I have a good many tools that I need to keep as reference for articles, so it makes more sense that I maintain separate cabinets for similar types of tools. This only works if you have the wall space. My workshop is a double garage (which is also home to a vintage car).

Here is a recent cabinet I have built. To keep costs down, they will all be main from Radiata Pine, and I will dress them up with Jarrah face frames and/glass doors (it is nice to be able to see what is on a shelf).



Here is a cabinet I built for chisels a couple of years ago. I may keep it - I'd prefer a cabinet with chisels holders that I can lift out and use on the bench, then replace once done.



This was my idea for storing backsaws. I called it the "saw tree"



A few ideas to go on with.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Very nice derek.

Plenty of inspiration thre for all of us.

Boz - what about lots of drawers? That's about as 'modular' an arrangement as I could come up with.

There've been quite a few threads on this topic, as Burnsey suggested, but it's a popular theme so it keeps coming up. The big problem with toolboxes as Derek has demonstrated, is that a box is, by definition, a defined & fixed space, & tools WILL just keep coming along. For a long time I had the ugliest toolbox imaginable. Made of scrap construction ply (rough!), with internal compartments made of whatever was to hand at the time - some drawers had nice bits of scrap for fronts, while others were strictly utilitarian. It was a monster, but it did the job, & I had no hesitation in ripping bits out & rearranging, or screwing extensions on the sides until even Heath Robinson would have disowned it.

About 10 years ago I decided I had to present a better image to the world, so I made the box below, telling myself at the time that I had all the tools I needed: Toolbox 01_10 red.jpg

But needs & wants aren't always the same thing, so it has had at least three internal refits already to accommodate the still-growing collection. My original idea was similar to yours, I thought it would be handy to be able to take sets of tools to the bench. I also needed storage that could be well closed up - the Brisbane climate isn't kind to bare metal left hanging in the 'open' so saws had to fit in there as well as several sets of chisels. There wasn't enough room to hang saws & chisels unless I went to aircraft hangar proportions, so I decided drawers were the logical way to go - lots of them! : Gauges.jpg Setting out tools.jpg Drawer DT chisels red.jpg

As it turns out, I rarely take a drawerful of tools to the bench - it takes up too much space, and since the toolbox is right beside the bench, it's pretty easy to have only the tools I'm actually using out on the bench, which saves clutter & confusion. But still, lots of shallow drawers turns out to be the best way to store things, for me - easy to see what you want & easy to grab it. You can spend many happy hours devising neat little nests for tools & use up all those bits of scrap that are too 'good' to chuck on the kindling wood pile, & if you make the dividers as press-fits, it's easy to remodel as the need arises.

For example, the carving chisel drawer shown needs improving. I'm not much of a carver, & have a pretty basic kit, but the occasional tool gets added, & this messy drawer reflects this. Someday soon I'll rip it all out & try a better arrangement, but at least they're all together & I know where to find them for now........

(Edit to replace lost pics, Oct.2016: I don't have some of the original pics, so here's the 'improved' carving tools drawer): carving.jpg

Nice cabinets guys. Now I got to add one of these to my list of things to make. At present I store my chisels on a shelf. not good enough eh?

I made this myrtle cabinet when a neighbour forced me away because I was making too much noise.
I played with different ways of holding the different tools and used different timbers and joints on the box.

The ply cabinet was made out of leftover ply as somewhere to store tools. The internals have changed several times as tools change.

My plan was to make a good tool cabinet one day. The Burbinga cabinet was going to be it. My version of the Andy Rae tool cabinet. Then my grandson arrived and it became his Toy cabinet.

The biggest challenge seems to be having a Tool Chest/cabinet that grows and adapts as your tools change and grow.


Beautiful examples fellas.

Further thoughts

• The shed has a special place in the heart of a wood worker. The tool cabinet should have a special place in the heart of a shed... I should have been a poet.
• I'm in agreement with Scally "The biggest challenge seems to be having a Tool Chest/cabinet that grows and adapts as your tools change and grow." I'm happy with my core tools, but I need space for the new ones (esp. odd shaped ones like planes), but I don't want it too big... decisions decision.
• IW had a good point, drawers althogh not good for display are the most practical and are removable. Tricky. A combination will probably be the way to go.
• Style wise. I've been pondering trying my hand at a krenov style cabinet, might be my chance.
• Wood wise. I have a largish slab of Jarrah in the shop that might do the job. Hmmm.

I think this will turn into a fun project.

A few thoughts, largely inspired by IanW and derekcohen's cabinets... bear in mind I haven't tried any of these, just suggesting ideas.

* A set of...doors/slats?...stacked face to face, hinged on one edge. The kind of thing you see in music stores holding band posters - each slat thick enough to hold tools on both sides in racks like IanW's doors. Mount them using a pin in the top/bottom of one edge, with the pins resting in a rail. Could be done horizontally or vertically depending on space. Easily expandable by just making up another slat, as long as your rails are long enough.

* Sliding/rolling racks like libraries use for large archives - enough room for one rack to be accessible at any time by rolling the others against each other. Again, easily expandable by adding more rolling racks.

* I have a mental image of something similar to the first idea, but with each slat hinged to the next one along the closest edge...need to think about it more to work out how you'd actually construct it though.

Hope this inspires someone.

In regard to the comments that a cabinet needs to grow with a tool set, I agree whole heartedly and have found that in the time it has taken me to construct mine it has changed, see My Shed thread for its original layout.

To overcome this I am using the 45 degree mounting system for within the cabinet doors, this will allow me to easily move haning racks around or redesign them to fit a greater number of hanging tools very easily at any stage without having to rip out old racks creating a mess. I am working on the bench caddy today that will work alongside this cabinet so will post some pictures later to show what I have done.

I agree. There are some great ideas there.

Originally Posted by Juffy

A few thoughts, largely inspired by IanW and derekcohen's cabinets... bear in mind I haven't tried any of these, just suggesting ideas.

* A set of...doors/slats?...stacked face to face, hinged on one edge. The kind of thing you see in music stores holding band posters - each slat thick enough to hold tools on both sides in racks like IanW's doors. Mount them using a pin in the top/bottom of one edge, with the pins resting in a rail. Could be done horizontally or vertically depending on space. Easily expandable by just making up another slat, as long as your rails are long enough.

* Sliding/rolling racks like libraries use for large archives - enough room for one rack to be accessible at any time by rolling the others against each other. Again, easily expandable by adding more rolling racks.

* I have a mental image of something similar to the first idea, but with each slat hinged to the next one along the closest edge...need to think about it more to work out how you'd actually construct it though.

Juffy - the possibilities are endless - one almost needs to build 3 or 4 tool chests & choose the one that works best!

I started out with the idea of making something like the Studley chest, really compact, and everything tucked in. My plan was to keep it 'portable' as my future looked a bit 'shifty' at the time. But I realised very quickly, that could be a right PITA. I needed something I could close up & be away from for months on end, but when I did use it, I wanted maximum exposure & convenience, not having to do an anatomical dissection to get a hammer or a block plane.

After entertaining about a dozen different plans, laying out tools in the order they are most used & trying to find the most logical system, I gave up in frustration & settled on the design above, with a big area suitable for bulky tools like planes, and lots of drawers varying in depth from about 30mm for the smallest to 75mm for the largest two. I did spend a lot of time figuring out how a semi-decent set of bench & my modest number of specialty planes would pack, and got that bang-on, 'cept that I would do the mirror image if I had my time over! The final design was mainly influenced by a couple of other examples I've seen, plus my own perceived needs. Despite my claim that I had all the tools I needed, I did make extra space, and of course that was eaten up in the first year or two after it was made.

I did think about a couple of inner hinged doors to hold chisel racks & the like, but apart from hinging one extra door inside the main doors, I couldn't figure out how to mount extra internal doors so they don't get in the way of drawers.

Another thought I had, somewhat like your library-rack idea (and I very nearly went that way), was to make a series of full-height slide-out racks about 70mm or so wide, mounted on full-extension metal slides top & bottom, which would each hold a double-sided hanging rack, but I still wanted quite a few conventional drawers, so in the end, the all-conventional drawer system won out for ease of construction, convenience & perceived versatility. Each drawer has replaceable runners screwed in place, so easy to replace. There is some wear on the most-used ones, & general settling has made the fit not quite as perfect as it was, whan first finished, but all drawers still work smoothly & can be opened more than 3/4, which gives adequate access to contents. I don't think I will have to replace any runners in my lifetime, but the system allows for modification, and I did recently replace one of the deeper drawers on the left with two shallower drawers - a very easy exercise, as it turned out.

I reckon my current hand tool collection is about at the practical limit for keeping in one chest, with easy access to everything. I didn't get it perfect, but by & large it is a good compromise, and much better than anything preceding it. There are a few tools that don't have a home in the main chest because they are too bulky - indispensible things like draw-knives & my trusty hatchet. If I had anything like the number of planes & some other hand tools as Derek, I would be building several chests, just as he is doing. The main chest sits on a cupboard containing all the 'lectron-burning crap, which is a dog's breakfast, so it's overdue to be replaced by a cupboard with two large full-extension drawers nicely compartmented for routers, jigsaws etc., plus all their bitey bits.

Of course I will NEVER end up with as many tools as Dr. C. - I'm perfectly satisfied with 4 different sets of chisels and one or two (or occasionally 3) of sundry plane types.

Well, at least until I stumble across the next tool I didn't know I can't live without. But I'm not really looking, I tell you......

I'm not!

Hi Ian

I like your tool cabinet very much, the drawers especially. That is what I plan to do for all my layout tools (squares, knives, protractors, etc).

Everyone is still into one-cabinet-fits-all. This is what I was saying I am moving away from. It tends to get overcrowded (let's face it, we are pack rats!) and then it is both a clutter and unattractive.

This is what I mean. Here is a existing cabinet (although empty at present as I rebuild) that houses handplanes and layout tools. I like the layout and method for the handplanes, so will likely keep this section.



Imagine that with all the layout tool and existing doors gone and replaced by simple Jarrah-framed glass doors (as in a previous cabinet).

Now .... Shut your eyes in horror at this higgle-piggle mess (soon to be under major revamping) ...



I want simple.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Everyone is still into one-cabinet-fits-all. This is what I was saying I am moving away from. It tends to get overcrowded (let's face it, we are pack rats!) and then it is both a clutter and unattractive.

Derek,

I think the problem isn't one-cabinet-fits-all, it's that people build their cabinets, often to a beautiful design like IanW's, but without a graceful expansion path. So you cobble bits on the edges and end up with...well....your existing wall. Lots of good design ideas, it's just sprawled a bit.

It sounds like it's not simplicity you want as much as consistency. If you can build a repeatable cabinet design like your first pic above then I think you'll get what you need...but as you say, it takes a lot of wall space.

Originally Posted by IanW

Another thought I had, somewhat like your library-rack idea (and I very nearly went that way), was to make a series of full-height slide-out racks about 70mm or so wide, mounted on full-extension metal slides top & bottom, which would each hold a double-sided hanging rack,

Hmm...I like it. I'm tempted to try that underneath my bench. I've got a 4500x900 workbench, but very limited wall space above it. 2m of the bench has cupboards under it, which could later become drawers, leaving ~2.5m of open under-bench space that would be perfect for such a racking system.

I guess one concern would be the strength of the rails...chuck a few solid tools on one rack and you'd have a lot of weight hanging out on the end of a rail at full extension. Did you go as far as speccing out suitable rails?