Thread: Toolbox build - in my fathers footsteps..

Hi All

First up I wanted to share the reason I decided to get into woodworking because it’s quite a personal thing for me. My Dad was a “pattern maker” in the ‘60’s/70’s a real genius with wood. Unfortunatley he died when a furnice blew up in a foundrey in South Africa, I was 16 and this toolbox with all his woodworking tools - lathe chiesels, vernier gauges and every possible pattern making tool that I am sure all of you would salivate over. The toolbox has sat in my garage since since his death in ’84. Its the reason I decided to give this woodworking thing a go and what better place to draw inspiration from than his toolbox that he hand made when he was an apprentice.
Only issue is I didn't get my late fathers skills, I only stated tinkering about two years ago. I have made a few nice small boxes for family members and picture frames too. My skills however are still in the novice category.
I set out to make a box to store my hand planes and “good” tools that I have started to collect. After buying and reading a thousand magazines it all seemed too daunting for me to make an heirloom toolbox. So I decided that I needed a practice project. The brief was to use cheap as possible wood, free if possible and because SWMBO locked the bank cards away there was no taking a trip down to Moxons et al to source something half decent. If I made the inevitable stuff up then I wouldn’t worry too much.....hey...... this is a practice piece.

The Design & Build
Since I am not going to put this on display in an art gallery a plywood carcass was decided on I had two sheets of Bunnings finest ¾ ply on hand –(not that straight I might add). A rough drawing on the back of a piece of scrap paper and I launched into it! I wanted a project I could learn to master Dado'd etc.
After that I glued everything up which turned out to be a disaster!!!! After a succesfull dry fit things went pair shaped and hardly any of my shelves were square – mental note don’t use Bunnings ply, its really wonky! Plus I really needed another set of hands......
So there sat this ugly ply wonky box and I was feeling a tad dejected, I sat on a milk crate sulking with my chocolate labradore telling me that it’s going to be ok Dad!.

My brother in-law gave me a heap of old kwila decking, I cleaned it up with my cheapy carbatec planner, trimmed some facing for the front of the toolbox, next I cut the cladding piece by piece and used the router table with a large chamfer bit to cut my mitres, this was a real challenge and my mitres were a bit off so I built a shooting board which worked beautifully with my new Veritas low angle plane. I then used some stain to give the ugly ply wood a better look...........After a dry fit I glued and screwed the cladding on from the inside, all of a sudden this ugly ply box was coming to life!

Draws:

I stumbled across an old boat builder who was clearing out all of his wood, I picked up a trailer load for $150 and after cleaning up most of the wide boards I found that I had enough to make the draws. Some much needed advice, guidance and help came from this forum, IanW is truly a gentleman and teacher he offered to machine and split some boards for me. With that job done I let them rest for a week or so and I started with the draws, my Leigh Super 18 came in to its own and I knocked out a few of the draws pretty quickly, the fact that they were square but didn’t fit the box was another matter but they looked awesome!! Also, the Router Basics DVD by Greg Regowski was a great help as I managed to rout out a stop dado to get the draw bottoms to fit perfectly and if there is any part of this project that I am most proud of is the draws/bottoms.
Disaster struck when the boards IanW machined for me warped beyond recognition and I was stuck with fronts but no wood for the sides and back on at least 3 draws. I had a stash of “Amora” that I purchased from Moxons 12 months ago so I was forced to machine some down and use the “good” wood for the back and sides....go figure!!
My new low angle Veritas Block plane with a freshly sharpened blade was a dream to get these draws to fit this wonky box but trust me this process tested me so badly that my neighbours can bare witness to the colourful language coming out of my garage.
At this stage I sat back on the milk crate and started to get a wee bit proud, maybe I didn’t suck that badly at this woodworking lark!
Handles and draw linings:
I decided to go with a slightly chunkier handles and after a lot of deliberation I cut some basic square handles,routed out a finger groove with a core box bit I found in my fathers toolbox and then 3 grip grooves, sanded, oiled and fitted them to the draws. Because the draws are so deep I may build some trays that I can pull out with some of my smaller tools, rulers, etc. I am going source some large brass handles from Rockler in the states, I went these guys for one reason.........weight!!!!! HOLY GWACKAMOLY!!! I didn’t really take in to consideration that all this ¾ ply and Kwila harwood adds up to a box that I reckon could stop a tank!! I can hardly pick it up without any tools in the thing let alone fully ladened!!!! (Mental Note for next time!)
I applied a first coat of Danish Oil and after it dried a quick sand with wet and dry it smoothed things out buetifully and another coat of organ oil and my first real wood work project is done.............
Sitting back on the milk crate, chocolate labby by my side I thought what would Dad make of it? He would probably laugh at me and call me the “Russel Coyte” of Toolbox making, it ain’t perfectly square, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it will hold my planes and tools for a few years until I build something a bit more lets say.......traditional. They say that sometimes its not the destination that’s important but the journey that we experience.....

In the end some of his tools are in my toolbox and a lot of my fine tools are in his, my heart swells every time I open both to grab a tool.

Thanks for reading!


Milo

P.S I threw in some pics of my Dads toolbox too, the hand saws are IanW specials...I love em.