Thread: An under-bench Tool cupboard - longish WIP

The glue was probably dry enough to continue 5 minutes later, but I left it in the clamps overnight, to be safe. Next morning was cleanup time: Cleanup.jpg



I once advised someone to use radiata as a cheap medium for practising dovetailing. Not good advice, I now realise! Some is ok, but it depends on the growing conditions and where it was in the tree. This particular stuff (from my back yard) has huge growth rings, with very marked contrast in hardness between early & late wood. This made it very difficult to saw straight & even more difficult to chisel. Even with the sharpest of sharp edges, it had a tendency to crumble away: Growth rings.jpg I have to confess to a couple of less-than-perfect dovetails : DTs average.jpg A year or two & a bit of dirt & no-one will notice.

Drawer blades & partition all went in nicely: Carcase done.jpg

I got a bit slack with the pics for the next bit, but after doors were added I did a test-fit to make sure everything was according to plan (I hope you like the book-matched blue-stained door panels ): Fits nicely.jpg And the doors even open without fouling the legs: Doors ok.jpg

The back is a frame holding two flush-set panels. It sits in a rebate, to add some shear-bracing, & is 5mm proud of the carcase to give it a bit of visual lift :Back.jpg

Now for the fit-out. This is going to take some time, but here's a preview of the beginnings of the drawer fitting & how the doors will look: Doors & drawers.jpg

Fitting the saws in the door was a squeeze. I made the door surrounds just deep enough for the saws: Door rt.jpg so I couldn't use a simple turnbuckle to hold them. After some thought, I made a deep groove in the blocks that the saw handle fits over: saw hangers.jpg

It works better than I expected. The saws can't fall off when the door is closed because they are almost flush with the drawer fronts, and the groove is sufficient to prevent the saws sliding off, even when the door is opened sharply.

I'll have some updates in a week or two (or three! ), as that part makes some progress.

Cheers,

Far prettier than my rustic efforts!

Made a bit more progress than expected in the last few days.
First job after I left off above, was to sort out the drawers. I used little knobs on the drawers of my main tool cupboard, but there is no wriggle-room in this little box, so the only alternative was to use flush-mounted pulls. (I've been wanting to try some of these for yonks, so that was all good. ).

These things need a substantial recess to fit in, and it isn't just a simple square hole. You have to cut it out carefully, so that the top screws have enough wood to bite into. It was further complicated by the fact that the pulls I had are hand-finished castings, and no two are quite the same, so individual fitting was required. I thought it would be easier to make the recesses before the drawers are glued up, and after some thought & much measuring & checking, I worked out a series of steps to get there. Step one was to carefully mark out the outline of the sort-of-square front, and the centre of the bulge behind the ring (evident in the pic), then drill two stepped holes.Pull recess 1.jpg

With a spoon gouge and chisels, the hole was then formed into a negatve image of the pull back:Pull recess 2.jpg Pull recess done.jpg

On all but one, I got a very neat, close fit: Pull set.jpg
The one that has a small gap on one side was the second one I fitted, which made me realise they were all different!

Now skip forward a few steps, and the drawers are all glued up, polished & pulls fitted: Drawers done.jpg

With the interior sorted, I gave the outside of the box a dose of BLO thinned 50/50 with turps, which it slurped up with great gusto. (I also straightened the right door, which you all kindly refrained from pointing out was crooked in the initial pics. Darned cheap hinges!. ) Box finished.jpg

Being called for dinner - some fit-out pics in another post later...
Cheers,

Lovely work, Ian. I was so inspired by your tool cupboards with their neat storage compartments that I made a tool box a year or two ago out of some wide hoop pine boards. I can't come close on the fit and finish but it is a fun job working out how to fit everything neatly into a defined space. I have to say though, that a wee cupboard would probably be more convenient than a chest – I find the thing I'm looking for or have forgotten to replace is always at the bottom.

Over the years of fiddling about with tool boxes, I've decided that lots of shallow drawers are the way to go. With careful arrangement, you can squeeze a lot of hardware into the available space, and keep it easily accessible. My early attempts at sorting out drawers involved making complicated dividers, at first glued to a thin ply base, then simply pressed in (allows easy disassembly for subsequent modifications, etc.). But that's a fiddly business, so some years ago, I started making drawer-inserts from scraps of solid wood, cutting out the shapes for the tools so each can nestle neatly in its spot. I have lots of scraps that aren't usable for furniture projects, but still too nice to chuck away, & these can often be put to use to jazz up a tool drawer.

For a drawer for setting-out tools, for e.g., I started with a sheet 15mm thick, cut to a firm fit in the drawer. I then laid out the tools to go in that drawer on the sheet, trying various combinations to maximise the use of space:Setting out tools1.jpg
Once I arrive at the best arrangement, the shapes are cut out/carved/chiselled, whatever: Setting out tools2.jpg
The 'molds' are given a few coats of shellac and paste-wax to ensure there will be no rust-promotion, and voila: Setting out tools3.jpg
As you can see, there is still some room for additional tools to be added in this drawer should I decide to do that down the track, or I could scrap the whole thing & start over if the situation warrants. It's a very 'flexible' system..

One drawer was ear-marked for marking-gauges. The mold for these is pretty simple (one gauge removed to show how it fits): Setting out tools4.jpg
All that wood would start to get a bit weighty, so I turn the molds over and remove as much unnecessary wood as I safely can: lightening mould1.jpg

So that's if for now, I'll potter along with the remaining drawers as time allows.

Fitting tools into a given space is a fun challenge, but there's no way I could fit what I'd consider a 'basic' kit in the space I have here. When I did my main tool cupboard, I started out with a set of tools it had to contain, and that dictated certain dimensions, particularly depth. After I built it, I (several times!) modified the internal layout to squeeze in later acquisitions, and it is now pretty much at full capacity, but at least it holds most of the tools I consider "essential". Working to a set of dimensions dictated by the space available is a lot more challenging. I'm going to have to be creative to fit the few planes I want in the space to the left of the small drawers. I want to be able to fit at least a #5 in there, plus a #4 and a block plane, & a small shoulder plane (I hope!). Does anyone do telescopic planes??

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Berlin

...I have to say though, that a wee cupboard would probably be more convenient than a chest – I find the thing I'm looking for or have forgotten to replace is always at the bottom.

Yep, my sentiments exactly, Matt. Long ago, I planned to make myself a 'traditional' style chest, but rejected it in favour of a cupboard. Among my reasons were, I had no need to cart tools around from job to job, and most importantly, a cupboard with full doors would allow far easier access to the contents. Easy access to the tools was my overriding goal at all times when making my main tool cupboard & this one....

Cheers,

Forgot to mention: Every bit of wood in this tool cupboard (bar the ply for the drawer bottoms), is wood I've harvested myself. The pine for the box came from our yard, the Camphor is from multiple trees I've scrounged, the Silky Oak drawer-fronts from a tree that had to come out of a friend's front yard, and the strips of gorgeous quilted Silver Maple came from the stump of a tree back in Canada (the rest of the tree got burnt, to make way for home-units! ). There's some satisfaction in that...

Cheers,

noice

The only drawback I can see with removing waste to make things lighter is that the reverse side is no longer a possible new insert

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

noice

The only drawback I can see with removing waste to make things lighter is that the reverse side is no longer a possible new insert

A good point, Nick, and I was a little hesitant to do it at first - always reluctant to make a piece of wood totally unusable in the future! However, you'd have to be extremely creative to get any use out of the reverse side of most of the bits I use for tool drawers, due to splits, bark inclusions, etc., even before I carve them up. I didn't show you, but most of these inserts are glue-ups of multiple smaller pieces (as much as possible, with the glue-lines disguised by cut-outs). Rest assured, I have a lot of Scottish blood, & I study every precious scrap of wood carefully, before deciding on what best to do with it.....

Cheers,

No dust mould?

Originally Posted by rustynail

No dust mould?

Do you mean above the doors?

Yeah, the exposed doors would be a problem if it were used as a free-standing cupboard. I would have extended the top over the doors, as I did with my main tool cupboard, if it had been intended to be used that way. However, the door height was barely enough to fit what I wanted to squeeze in them, & I didn't want to reduce them even by the small amount it would take to tuck under the top board. I intended to cover the top with a strip after it's set in place, which would both lock the box very firmly in place, & cover the door tops. But looking at it now it's set in, there is very little space above the doors, so I may not bother adding that bit. It will collect more dust when I open the doors than will filter down from above, I think.

If it is ever used as a free-standing cupboard, it would definitely need a false top or some sort of cover, though.....

Cheers,

Looks awesome, Ian. I expected nothing less!

I love the doors. What causes that bluing? Is it some kind of insect attack? Fungal?

We have a beetle which kills the softwoods in the Mountain West states in the U.S., namely Wyoming. It causes a very similar bluing effect to the (eventually) dead wood which is valued by woodworkers.

Cheers,
Luke

Originally Posted by Luke Maddux

... What causes that bluing? Is it some kind of insect attack? Fungal?

In this case, Luke, just fungus. There are several species of fungi that produce this effect - the one you are talking about is carried from tree to tree by a beetle, but you don't need beetles for some of them, the spores get around quite well on their own, it would seem. If you leave a log sitting with open ends for a while, as I did, the fungus gets in & away it goes. Creates some interesting effects, which in this case I don't mind at all, but in many situations it's unwelcome.

The good news is that these fungi don't cause any structural damage, whereas the ones that cause spalting eventually do degrade the lignin and 'rot' the wood they attack. Bluestain fungi live on the sugars in the 'sap' and can only operate if the MC is above around 20%. So if you want your pale woods to stay 'natural', get 'em cut up & stickered in a dry place asap....

Cheers,

I managed to fit more in my plane storage section than I thought I would. A #5 is just 25mm too long to sit flat, so I had to sit it on a ramp. Two #4 size smoothers fit nicely to the right: Plane storage 1.jpg

So as not to waste the space, the ramp is hinged, and there's room for a small smoother in there: Plane storage 2.jpg

Above the two smoothers, there's room for a couple of spokeshaves and a block plane in a slide-out box: Plane storage 3.jpg

So that's pretty-well it. It was an interesting exercise, starting out with a defined space, & seeing how much I could squeeze into it. I've managed a good proportion of my main tools, but there are quite a few essentials, like the #7, that just could not find a spot....

Cheers,