Thread: The final drawer of the underbench cabinet.

Tres elegant, Derek, a supreme labour of love!

A comment & a question - I expect you are well aware of the corrosive abilities of she-oak, and have made sure any surface in contact with steel is well-coated & waxed? It's far less of a consideration in your corner of the comntinent I presume, but something to keep front of mind over here in our more humid climate. I've had a couple of bad experiences choosing the 'wrong' woods for tool-drawer infills. These days I stick with the couple of woods I know to be safe. Camphor laurel is one, & fortunately I have lots of small scraps of the stuff but I still play safe & give it a good coat of shellac & wax.

My square blades are 1095 steel (I think), and terribly susceptible to corrosion. I have to make sure I dust them before putting away & wipe a light coat of camelia oil on them every now & then to keep them clean & shiny. I wish I'd used tempered brass for the blades in retrospect!
a squares.jpg

It's always a conflict for me between making my drawer cutouts look attractive but not wasting too much time on them because I'll probably alter them drastically down the track. I have re-arranged several of my drawers multiple times over the last 20 years, to fit in some other tool I didn't know I had to have. The marking-gauge drawer has suffered the most, I've lost track of how many times I've rearranged it.

b gauges.jpg

I've wasted so much time trying to figure out how to squeeze in one more thing & still keep everything easy to remove/replace. So far I've been moderately successful, but several drawers are approaching, if not already at, their limit & in fact I've started stacking a couple of the less-often used tools!

At first glance, I was a bit equivocal about your sliding tray idea, but after some reflection, I changed my mind. It has potential not only for adding storage space, but I can see how I could extend its function to create a safe full-extension drawer into the bargain. Yet another idea I'll borrow from you & file for future use....


Cheers,

Hi Ian

Over three decades of serious woodworking, until now, I have only ever built quick-and-dirty cabinets for tools. I could not - and still cannot - bare to use good furniture-grade wood for the shop. The case here is built from cheap Merbau panels (from Bunnies) and stained to look like Jarrah. The drawer fronts are Jarrah, but were salvage. All the remainder of the wood is from offcuts.



I have tried to match timbers in the drawers with the tools. Here, the Sheoak goes well with brass. Will brass corrode against it? On the lower level, the chisels rest on magnets imbedded in Merbau.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

.... Here, the Sheoak goes well with brass. Will brass corrode against it?

...On the lower level, the chisels rest on magnets imbedded in Merbau.....

Derek, you'll find that the brass patinates very quickly where it contacts the she-oak, but you won't get the rusting & pitting that can happen with steel objects. I notice it very much on the brass spines of my saws where they sit inside she-oak handles. It's just cosmetic in the case of brass, but I had a couple of saw blades rust very severely inside their handles. I make doubly sure any handle wood is as dry as it can be now and coat the blade with paraffin wax before fixing the handle. So far, that seems to have fixed the problem.

I have no experience of using Merbau in contact with tool metal, my main experience with the stuff is for outdoor construction & I always use stainless fixings as recommended. I do know it's a pest for bleeding pigment like fury if it gets wet; it was used for the rails on our veranda extension & it rained heavily the night after they were installed, before I could get them painted. I had stain all over the shop, especially on the freshly-laid floor, which ended any ideas of using a clear finish on that!

Any wood rich in tannins is a potential problem when it comes to contact with ferrous metal. That includes most of our acacias, several of the casuarinsas I know, and most eucalypts (you've probably seen what they do to nails & bolts in eucalyptus wood where they are exposed to the weather). However, as I said, indoors in a dry climate like Perth's, it will be less of a problem and if you use some sort of coating & a dose of paste-wax on the woods, you are probably quite safe....

Cheers,

Derek's "shop" made set of drawers and even the bench look like they have just stepped out of a showroom from the swankiest furniture makers.

Just a little thing I knocked up, to keep the dust off the toys . . . the culmination of years of rumination, contemplation and squirreling away choice bits of "offcuts".

Yes, I have the green eye'd monster!

One millennia I'll replace the ply cabinets, that are not square, one day . . .

While I am posting, it appears that I omitted to post Drawer #1 when this was completed. Probably because it was not especially clever.







Mortice chisels. Two Fujikawa on the left in 6mm and 9mm; Four Veritas in 1/8", 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2". The Veritas were courtesy of pre-production testing, which began with comparing A2 and PM-V11 steels and different size handles. These are not production chisels, which is why some of the hoops are missing. I liked these chisel much better than the Ray Iles chisels (sold) and a set of vintage Ward English Bolstered chisels. The Fujikawa represent my love for Japanese chisels (Fujikawa have a history of specialising in mortice chisels). I prefer the shorter chisels when looking for more finesse.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek, one aspect of your magnificent jewel chest I note is that there is a lot of "waste" space in some of the drawers. It does emphasise the 'rare & precious' qualities of the jewels within, of course, which may have been the cunning plan...

Or are you expecting more gems will need to be housed in the years to come?

(Only speaking from experience.... )

Cheers,

Ian, I am not “planning” on further purchases

But one never can foretell what may drop out of the sky.

The 4” Starrett below is a case in point … she snuck in and made herself at home.



Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

......The 4” Starrett below is a case in point … she snuck in and made herself at home......

Ah, there's the rub, as the Bard said. When I made my last toolbox, I told everyone who'd listen that I neither needed nor wanted one more tool. I don't know if I managed to convince anyone else, but I did convince myself - for about a month.


But you have nothing to worry about, as I observed, there's room to squeeze in quite a few more tools that you didn't know were in your future...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Ian, I am not “planning” on further purchases

But one never can foretell what may drop out of the sky.

The 4” Starrett below is a case in point … she snuck in and made herself at home.

Ohh

Am I looking at the space already "reserved" to take a 75mm Chris Vesper double square ?

… Ian, I would never be without that dinky and oh so useful double square made by Chris … although I assume that his is a (better) version of the Starrett. Here they are both, in a centre drawer. Below them is my favourite double square, a 4" Moore & Wright, along with a 4" vintage Preston machinist square …





Below this panel are large and small Starrett dividers, a vintage Starrett compass and a range of rulers …





Regards from Perth

Derek

Hmmm, perhaps I should recant just a little, you do seem to have a rather convincing excess of setting-out tools!

But gazing into my wooden crystal ball, I can confidently predict there will be more tools purchased in the years to come. You still have 25-30 years of woodworking left in you & I cannot imagine you could hold out that long!

And just because you don't tell us about it does not mean it doesn't count.

I've tried that one......

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Hmmm, perhaps I should recant just a little, you do seem to have a rather convincing excess of setting-out tools!

But gazing into my wooden crystal ball, I can confidently predict there will be more tools purchased in the years to come. You still have 25-30 years of woodworking left in you & I cannot imagine you could hold out that long!

And just because you don't tell us about it does not mean it doesn't count.

I've tried that one......

Cheers,

Is that Pot calling the Kettle black.[emoji6][emoji6][emoji6][emoji6]

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Is that Pot calling the Kettle black.....

Me???

NEVER!

I'm stunned you could suggest such a thing.....

Originally Posted by IanW

Me???

NEVER!

I'm stunned you could suggest such a thing.....

I would happily retract my comment, your lord ship, except for the over whelming evidence on Social media platforms your honour.[emoji6][emoji6][emoji41]

No further comment.