Advice on making a Tool Chest ala Anarchist Tool Chest - which wood?

[Nic_the_Urchin]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice on which wood to use for a Toolchest build. I know Chis Schwartz recommends Eastern white Pine (QYP) but the places where i can source it here in the UK works out at about £10.70 per linear ft. So about £500 total....Which is more than i can really justify. I was hoping for some other ideas... what other woods would people recommend? (rough prices too would be a great help) Ideally id like something thats fairly stable.

is this price just the ballpark cost of this project or will picking a different wood (maybe local) help? I don't want to compromise the build but tbh i lack experience with this type of thing so know i have a lot to learn - the opaque pricing on websites (if available at all) doesn't help with researching - plus its harder being a private individual/hobbyist.

I'm waiting for a quote back on some douglas fir - hopefully tomorrow - but would appreciate any and all advice. at this rate i might have to go plywood *rolls eyes*
Id much prefer to build with dovetails and practice my hand tool skills.

(I can use rough sawn timber as i can size and dimension stock)

thanks

Nic

 

[thetyreman]

I used redwood pine for mine and it turned out great, it should be much cheaper and is perfect for tool chests, the eastern white pine is going to be very expensive in the UK because of import costs, bear in mind it will be pained with chalk paint so there's no point using expensive wood.

 

[TRITON]

Shouldn't you be using London Plane ?.

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

I used redwood pine for mine and it turned out great, it should be much cheaper and is perfect for tool chests, the eastern white pine is going to be very expensive in the UK because of import costs, bear in mind it will be pained with chalk paint so there's no point using expensive wood.

thanks for the reply. thats good to know - unsorted/joinery grade redwood?
have you had any problems with movement?
you must've gone to a timber merchant i guess as most of the redwood I've seen b&q/wickes is pretty junk.

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

Shouldn't you be using London Plane ?.

it would be locally grown i guess... haha. would it actually be suitable?

 

[Adam W.]

No.

I used reclaimed mahogany and walnut tables for mine and veneered the till fronts with madrone...it's still not finished, but it's full of tools so I know it works OK.

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

No.

I used reclaimed mahogany and walnut tables for mine and veneered the till fronts with madrone...it's still not finished, but it's full of tools so I know it works OK.


View attachment 140321View attachment 140322

i thought not!

interestingly the pics didn't show until i hit reply - looks beautiful

 

[seanf]

For those interested, Mike of the 10 Square Metre Workshop on YouTube has just finished a series where he makes a tool chest/box including making all hardware from scratch. His videos are all fairly short and normally worth a watch as he comes up with a lot of creative solutions

Sean

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

For those interested, Mike of the 10 Square Metre Workshop on YouTube has just finished a series where he makes a tool chest/box including making all hardware from scratch. His videos are all fairly short and normally worth a watch as he comes up with a lot of creative solutions

Sean

ill check it out - thanks sean.

 

[recipio]

I reckon Poplar is as cheap as you will get in a hardwood. It takes a paint finish well but also looks surprisingly good if varnished.

 

[Droogs]

Lacewood is fine to use as is any wood really, as long you you allow for its characteristics and movement. i have seen them in Birch, Scots pine, Willow and Ash and Oak, each of which was older than my grandad.

 

[TRITON]

it would be locally grown i guess... haha. would it actually be suitable?

Not a necessity , but its bloody lovely stuff. I just wish it were a bit cheaper.

 

[thetyreman]

thanks for the reply. thats good to know - unsorted/joinery grade redwood?
have you had any problems with movement?
you must've gone to a timber merchant i guess as most of the redwood I've seen b&q/wickes is pretty junk.

no problems at all with movement, even after 4 years in a less than ideal environment, it's painted with chalk paint and water based varnish, yes it's unsorted 5ths grade redwood, it should be much cheaper, try and find a timber merchant that's not B&Q, actually I've found wickes can be ok if you go through the boards and select ones with no knots, but this was all before the pandemic e.t.c and things have changed, so have prices.

 

[Adam W.]

i thought not!

interestingly the pics didn't show until i hit reply - looks beautiful

I think I spent about £300 in all, but I ended up with enough mahogany and walnut for 2 chests. Most of the money went in fuel the get the tables and the ironmongery, that wasn't cheap! But it was worth it as the boards are huge and easy to work with.

Nice dark red colour too, although I painted it black on the outside with homemade linseed oil paint, but it's a rich red inside.

The next time I wanted a chest, I bought one off the bay, but I had to wait a while before the right one came up.....I wanted a cabinetmakers chest with all the proper ironmongery on it. It's rough on the outside but nice on the inside, I'll post a picture of it later.

There must be loads of old tables in Brighton that should be cheap as chips.

 

[woodspiral]

Hi Nic,

I made one of these chests with Christopher Schwarz in Germany. Dictum ran the class - well worth a look at their classes. I also made a roubo with him in the same place.

He often makes the point that for workshop furniture you should use whatever wood you can get your hands on cheaply. For the chest softwoods were traditionally used to reduce the weight. The ancients didn't have smooth rolling castors (maybe they used some kind of wheels on the base but I don't think so). Chests would be lifted on and off ships for example and with the tools in them would have weighed a ton.

I can testify this. Fully laden I cannot lift my chest and the carcass is Scots pine. I probably could if I was doing it a lot and had another strong person helping. I originally put weeny castors on and they got crushed. Upgrading the castors to some big ugly things, which you don't really see anyway, allows me to roll the chest around with ease. What I'm saying here is although the traditional advice was to use as light as wood as possible for the carcass, this decision becomes a little less important if you have big strong castors.

If I were you I'd work out the cheapest possible source of light wood I could find - this would usually be pine of some kind. Doesn't need to be pretty or furniture grade as it all gets connected with a hundred dovetails and is painted. B&Q is slated for its wood quality but if you pick out straight boards then there should be no issues.

On the inside you can use oak runners and oak drawers - these can be made very thin and run nicely on oak.

Good luck!

 

[woodspiral]

p.s. You can see my chest here;

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

no problems at all with movement, even after 4 years in a less than ideal environment, it's painted with chalk paint and water based varnish, yes it's unsorted 5ths grade redwood, it should be much cheaper, try and find a timber merchant that's not B&Q, actually I've found wickes can be ok if you go through the boards and select ones with no knots, but this was all before the pandemic e.t.c and things have changed, so have prices.

thanks - i'll keep this in mind and have a look next time I'm at wickes

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

I think I spent about £300 in all, but I ended up with enough mahogany and walnut for 2 chests. Most of the money went in fuel the get the tables and the ironmongery, that wasn't cheap! But it was worth it as the boards are huge and easy to work with.

Nice dark red colour too, although I painted it black on the outside with homemade linseed oil paint, but it's a rich red inside.

The next time I wanted a chest, I bought one off the bay, but I had to wait a while before the right one came up.....I wanted a cabinetmakers chest with all the proper ironmongery on it. It's rough on the outside but nice on the inside, I'll post a picture of it later.

There must be loads of old tables in Brighton that should be cheap as chips.

beautiful looking chest for sure - I've been keeping an eye out for solid wood tables but tbh i'm not great at identifying the wood yet and also we have a wood recycling centre here and i think that maybe gobbles up a lot

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

Hi Nic,

I made one of these chests with Christopher Schwarz in Germany. Dictum ran the class - well worth a look at their classes. I also made a roubo with him in the same place.

He often makes the point that for workshop furniture you should use whatever wood you can get your hands on cheaply. For the chest softwoods were traditionally used to reduce the weight. The ancients didn't have smooth rolling castors (maybe they used some kind of wheels on the base but I don't think so). Chests would be lifted on and off ships for example and with the tools in them would have weighed a ton.

I can testify this. Fully laden I cannot lift my chest and the carcass is Scots pine. I probably could if I was doing it a lot and had another strong person helping. I originally put weeny castors on and they got crushed. Upgrading the castors to some big ugly things, which you don't really see anyway, allows me to roll the chest around with ease. What I'm saying here is although the traditional advice was to use as light as wood as possible for the carcass, this decision becomes a little less important if you have big strong castors.

If I were you I'd work out the cheapest possible source of light wood I could find - this would usually be pine of some kind. Doesn't need to be pretty or furniture grade as it all gets connected with a hundred dovetails and is painted. B&Q is slated for its wood quality but if you pick out straight boards then there should be no issues.

On the inside you can use oak runners and oak drawers - these can be made very thin and run nicely on oak.

Good luck!

thanks Spiral - sounds like a fun course and your chest come out really great. good info about the casters. i was thinking that i might make a detachable rolling base for the chest - kinda like one you get for an engine if you're in a workshop.

 

[Nic_the_Urchin]

no problems at all with movement, even after 4 years in a less than ideal environment, it's painted with chalk paint and water based varnish, yes it's unsorted 5ths grade redwood, it should be much cheaper, try and find a timber merchant that's not B&Q, actually I've found wickes can be ok if you go through the boards and select ones with no knots, but this was all before the pandemic e.t.c and things have changed, so have prices.

just out of interest what is the thickness of your sides please? wickes mostly stock 20.5mm board in redwood and I feel like thats probably too thin