# Tool Chest Build W.I.P.



## woodiedonald (27 Jun 2014)

Hi all,

I've started a new project and I thought I might as well take a few pics along the way and put them up here. I'm making a tool chest for storing hand tools only. It will stay in the workshop most of the time and may be taken with me if I'm working away from the workshop for whatever reason. I'm making it a bit bigger than what I need just to make sure there's room for all the bits and pieces and so its not cramped for space inside. 

I've only started this evening and have only got as far as the rough cuts and a bit of re-glueing (see below). I hope some of you may find this thread of interest and I hope it helps someone who is doing the same or something similar. 

Right, here we go.

First I cross cut the stock to a bit over the length I wanted. I am working with 6" x 1" planed white deal. I am going to have the finished chest approx 900 x 400 x 350 mm overall and I can get the height of it from 2 1/2 boards and have a thin strip left over. I will put the half board in the middle just to keep the joints looking even.







I had the misfortune of having a board that on one end was cracked most of the way through and when I was cross cutting the pieces I noticed that the crack went back together pretty well just with hand pressure so I decided to cut the length I needed from it and chance glueing it back together. Here are the two offending pieces. I think I'll have to keep them at the back even though they seemed to fit back together well. 






Here is a close up of the board clamped together, I think there was no glue in it at the time this photo was taken but I'm not sure, It did go back together pretty well though, honestly! 

The nib of the pencil is right on the crack, if you follow the grain to the left you can just about see the crack but its not that bad.






And my last picture of this evening, the two offending articles in the clamps. I forgot to wipe the glue off the one side on the one on the right, but I'm sure it'll be fine.






More to follow when I get around to It!

Cheers,
Donald.


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## Vic Perrin (28 Jun 2014)

=D> Keep this going Donald I look forward to seeing the finished chest =D> 

Vic


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## Harbo (28 Jun 2014)

Are you going to biscuit the boards or just glue them?

Looks like you are working in a very dusty environment? 

Rod


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## woodiedonald (28 Jun 2014)

Thanks Vic and Rod, I will probably just glue them, maybe a T&G. And the dust is all good dust, :wink: Most of its from greenwood turning and the last pic with the cracked boards against the wall is where me chopsaw normally is so hence the dust there. Chopsaws don't seem to do dust collection, at least not too much for me anyway. 

Today I planed the edges of the boards ready for joining. The first thing I wanted to do was make sure the grain on the face side was all going the same way to make it easier to surface the boards after glueing up.






The next thing to do was plane the edges flat. I find that when you fold the two boards over on themselves to plane the two edges at the same time, if you put the same side (i.e. put the convex faces together or the convex faces together) of the cupped boards together it will help it stay a little bit more flat overall and even though the surface will undulate a bit more it will be more flat overall but wont be smooth to the hand and curved round if that makes sense? 

A picture tells a thousand words, this would be how it is looking at the end grain of the boards. 






Heres my old record no7 planing the boards, this plane is actually a little bit different to a normal plane, it just goes by itself, give it a shout and tell it what to plane and it just does it for you, takes itself up off the bench and all.






I should add that a useful tip I've come across is to put the edges you want to plane down towards the bench, get the two pieces roughly aligned and then put two small clamps on them. This will help getting the two boards into the vice at the one time and hold the ends together which stick out over the end of the vice. 

If you want the edge joints to be accurate, i.e. no gaps it helps to lay the boards across two straight pieces of wood and this will keep the faces of the boards relatively flat and you can examine the edge joints and adjust as necessary with the plane. 

Here's the front and back planed up ready for glueing. I did the same for the sides.






All of the boards stacked up ready to be glued.


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## tobytools (29 Jun 2014)

I follow this wip with great interest.
Keep it comming
TT


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## rafezetter (29 Jun 2014)

Daft question maybe but what's "white planed deal"?


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## woodiedonald (30 Jun 2014)

rafezetter":19lspyge said:


> Daft question maybe but what's "white planed deal"?



White deal is a type of wood, Norway spruce I think would be another name for it. Planed just means it was already pre planed when I bought it leaving me with less work to do. 

Cheers,
Donald.


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## woodiedonald (4 Jul 2014)

Just a small update now, The sides have been glued up and are out of the clamps and the front and back panels are in the clamps now. The sides turned out well, just need to flatten them now.


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## rafezetter (5 Jul 2014)

woodiedonald":1iixwlnq said:


> White deal is a type of wood (yeah, got that bit), Norway spruce I think would be another name for it. Planed just means it was already pre planed when I bought it leaving me with less work to do (heh, got that bit too  ).
> 
> Cheers,
> Donald.



*chuckle*


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## woodiedonald (6 Jul 2014)

rafezetter":scx5j7fo said:


> *chuckle*


:-s

Anyway, I have all the panels flattened now,






crosscut to length






Chest finished :!: I wish, only getting an idea of the size of it, looks ok.






Dovetails started 8-[






Pins first






A somewhat decent fit.






Enough for one day! 

ccasion5:,
Donald


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## tobytools (6 Jul 2014)

Excellent progress 

TT


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## DTR (7 Jul 2014)

Watching with interest, I do admire a good tool chest, especially when it's hand built


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## Mike.S (7 Jul 2014)

woodiedonald":umr9qqaj said:


> rafezetter":umr9qqaj said:
> 
> 
> > Daft question maybe but what's "white planed deal"?
> ...



A chippie once told me my window frames were made from Deal and I subsequently learned from my local timber yard that it's usually a reference to European Redwood, also known as Scots Pine.

Spruce is also known as 'whitewood' to differentiate it from 'redwood'. Which wood you have I wouldn't know from the pic. #-o


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## woodiedonald (7 Jul 2014)

All the dovetails are done now,






making the groove for the bottom panel,






Its a stopped groove on the fornt and back panels, I did most of the stopped groove with the plough and fonished off the ends with a chisel. Here's a view from inside.






I glued up a bottom panel in the same way as the sides and flattened it. Then I made some rebates to make it fit into the sides.






Thats it for today.

Cheers, 
Donald


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## Woodmonkey (7 Jul 2014)

Looking good, nice to see the hand tools used. One question, using a solid bottom rebated on all edges isn't there a risk of it pushing the joints apart if it expands?


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## woodiedonald (7 Jul 2014)

Woodmonkey":2fd051c0 said:


> Looking good, nice to see the hand tools used. One question, using a solid bottom rebated on all edges isn't there a risk of it pushing the joints apart if it expands?



Thanks, good question, I'll leave it a bit short on the long grain edge by maybe 1/8" to allow for expansion. I don't think there'd really be enough force to push it apart or do too much damage though. 

Cheers
Donald


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## woodiedonald (9 Jul 2014)

Bottom fitted and chest in clamps,






4 pieces cut out for frame of top






Making the groove for the top panel and what the tenon haunches will sit into.






Haunch and mortice space laid out






Mortice cut






Measuring shoulder distance for tenons.






Tenon cut, pending trimming.


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## dm65 (9 Jul 2014)

Looking good Donald - I'll show you mine when I get past resawing and planning :-(


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## morfa (10 Jul 2014)

Looks really nice. Are you planning on having trays/dividers in there?


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## woodiedonald (10 Jul 2014)

morfa":3sj6z4b7 said:


> Looks really nice. Are you planning on having trays/dividers in there?



Thanks, It will have two full width trays and probably dividers at the bottom to hold planes in place. (Well I think so, will see when I get that far!)

edit; Sorry Den, missed your comment. Thanks and I had a lot of "thinking time" (a.k.a. procrastination) as I call it before this project started.

Cheers,
Donald


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## owenmcc (10 Jul 2014)

Very nice hand tool work, nice to follow the WIP.


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## woodiedonald (11 Jul 2014)

owenmcc":3dsgn51l said:


> Very nice hand tool work, nice to follow the WIP.



Thanks Owen, I was admiring your joinery work in your projects thread also. 

I thought it might be of benefit to take some pictures of cutting the tenon and paring it to size.

I cut the shoulders first,







Then I cut the cheeks,






Then I pare the cheeks,






Then I pare the shoulders,






Then I cut the haunch, I didn't cut along the grain afterwards, I just snapped the piece off with my fingers. It will never be seen so it doesn't matter.






Now for some unforeseen repairs, I should have paid more attention to where I was cross cutting my stock as I have a dead knot right where the mortice was. It was a bit of a pain to mortice through it and it came straight out on one side when I was cutting the mortice. I drilled out the hole first with a brace. I wouldn't normally use a brace but I did seeing as I had only used hand tools so far. Making the dowel to fit into it was where the hand tools ended as I turned it on the lathe. I was going to say I turned the motor over by hand and didn't plug it in at all but I doubt anyone would believe me. Please forgive me.






















I stuck it in with a bit of mitre adhesive. I wanted to keep the grain of the dowel running straight with the rest of the board but the mitre adhesive set solid as I was fluting around twirling the dowel in the hole. #-o . Doesn't seem to be too bad when flush though, the dowel is in the middle of a bit of flame grain and even if I had the grain going parallel with the rest it would probably still look a bit out of place.


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## woodiedonald (11 Jul 2014)

2nd post here as there is a 10 attachment maximum with the pictures, I didn't know that before! I must be doing a bit more than I thought on this blummin tool box! 

I got a start made on the top panel, I have the three pieces planed and glued up now, It looks to be starting to come together now with the top panel sitting there on the top.






Cheers,
Donald


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## Tierney (12 Jul 2014)

Looking good, admirable use of hand tools.

DT


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## woodiedonald (13 Jul 2014)

Here's what I got done yesterday, nothing done today, I'm having a day off! 

edit: sorry DT, missed your post, and thanks!

Some pictures of planing the top panel, jack plane first across the grain to get it nearly flat.






Then flattening it with the jointer plane






Then smoothing with an old no.4






I made the rebates for the top panel the same way as the bottom, this time I had an off cut from one of the rails to help me fit the tongue which the rebate made which helped greatly.






And here is the lid sitting on the box waiting to be hinged. Seems like I'm nearly done now, just hinges and trays and dividers for inside. Now that I've said that there will probably seem like hundreds of other small things to do that I haven't thought of. 






Cheers,
Donald.


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## woodiedonald (16 Jul 2014)

Right so I've since hinged the lid and got four castors mounted on the bottom, the two at the back are lockable and will stick out a bit to let me get at the pedal to lock them.










I have the skirt done now, only need to fit it a bit and its done. 4 parts and the back one is cut out to let the castor pedals stick out to lock them.










Cheers,
Donald


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## tobytools (20 Jul 2014)

Beautifully done
TT


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## woodiedonald (8 Aug 2014)

Thanks Toby.

After a short (or long) hiatus I'm back at it again. My thread was relegated to page 2 also, didn't think I would be that long gone!

I have some notched blocks put in to hold planes in the bottom and guides for the sliding trays. The guides are of oak for wear resistance. The bottom guide sits proud on a white deal baton to allow me to put the bottom drawer in place. The bottoms of the drawers will also have oak strips set in them for wear resistance.











Cheers,
Donald.


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## tobytools (8 Aug 2014)

Coming along nicely. 
One day I'll make a tool box, currently I have my great granddads tool box, lots of old paint splatter and worm holes 
I'm torn between a Japanese style tool box or a anarchists tool chest. With the latter I will need to improve my dovetailing.
Great progress and keep it coming, I for one am enjoying this thread 

Thanks
TT


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## terencedug (10 Aug 2014)

Nice job, I like a lot


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## woodiedonald (11 Aug 2014)

Thanks Terence & Toby. Toby, I never heard of a Japanese tool box, just after searching for it, I'd still go for the western style chest if it was me. Also, that's my great grandfather's jack plane in the bottom, handle and wedge made by me. 

I've the saw rack done now, just two kerfed blocks, I needed to screw another bit on to hold another saw as the block wasn't wide enough. I probably should have kept the screwed on bit to the back to hide it but I'm not changing it now its done.

Outside






Fixed in.






Cheers,
Donald


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## woodiedonald (21 Aug 2014)

Chest is now finished!!!! 

I made two trays and a rebate in the bottom to take the bottom panel which is nailed in.


























When I set out to make this I intended on only using hand tools as what I do at work is all machines and fancied a change. Its certainly a lot harder with hand tools and it gave me a lot of respect for the chaps who did it like this all those years ago not like me most days making much simpler things with machines. 

If I could do it again I probably would use better quality timber not this stuff which was more knots than good timber and grain that changed direction what seemed like every inch! I'd hope to be able to use a few more machines especially for planing boards and panels (sweating from planing it by hand I was!). Hopefully my dovetails would be properly up to scratch by the time I make another chest. Its the paring that really lets me down.

But anyway, CHEERS!!! Finally done!!!
Donald.


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## rileytoolworks (22 Aug 2014)

I like that a LOT.
Thanks for sharing.

Adam.


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## paul-c (24 Aug 2014)

rileytoolworks":3pwnqct4 said:


> I like that a LOT.
> Thanks for sharing.
> 
> Adam.




+1 
cheers paul-c


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