Uncle Bulgaria
Member
Just sharing my experience making a toolbox.
I had some bits of plywood left after some repairs to a garden shed so I decided to make some tool storage.
Looking at wooden tool boxes online they seem to divide into three categories.
One is the tall type, what I would have called a joiner’s toolbox. Wide enough to hold a saw in the drop down front, planes and heavier tools in the bottom and a couple of shallow drawers for smaller tools.
The second type is the engineers or machinists tool box with all drawer storage.
The third type I saw was the chest with bottom storage and sliding tills above, best known as the Anarchists tool chest popularised by Christopher Schwartz in his books.
None of them really fitted my needs. The joiner’s toolbox is probably the best design for a site worker, someone who carries a selection of tools about with him all the time. I wanted something which I could use to carry a few tools if I went to classes in future after I retire but 99% of the time it will sit on a shelf in my garage as workshop storage.
I don’t need to lock my tools away at home, I keep most of them on wall pegs beside my bench and anyway don’t have space for a floor standing chest.
So I seemed to be moving towards a slightly larger version of the machinists toolbox, the same drawer storage but a lot of machinists toolboxes are small, I wanted something big enough to hold woodworking tools. One design feature I liked is the lockable front cover over the doors, what I didn’t like was the design where the cover is removed and then slides in from the front above or below the drawers. This seemed a waste of space to me in a toolbox intended mainly for storage and only very occasional portable use. I could see the value in having a dedicated space to store the front so that it didn’t get lost - a lot of ebay wooden tool boxes with drawers seem to have lost the front cover, but I wanted to keep as much drawer space as possible.
My final design for storing the front is probably not original but I haven’t seen anything similar on ebay.
When the front comes off it slots and locks into a rebate at the back of the case, keeping it safe from getting lost or damaged but out of the way for normal use.
I had to make my drawers in two different ways. The space on my shelves where the toolbox will sit is only 24 inches wide but I wanted to be able to carry a 22 inch jointer plane if necessary. The top drawers have thicker sides with a groove for a runner and a thin bottom. The large bottom drawer has a thicker bottom on bottom runners so that the sides can be narrow enough to give me the 22 inch internal width.
I had some bits of plywood left after some repairs to a garden shed so I decided to make some tool storage.
Looking at wooden tool boxes online they seem to divide into three categories.
One is the tall type, what I would have called a joiner’s toolbox. Wide enough to hold a saw in the drop down front, planes and heavier tools in the bottom and a couple of shallow drawers for smaller tools.
The second type is the engineers or machinists tool box with all drawer storage.
The third type I saw was the chest with bottom storage and sliding tills above, best known as the Anarchists tool chest popularised by Christopher Schwartz in his books.
None of them really fitted my needs. The joiner’s toolbox is probably the best design for a site worker, someone who carries a selection of tools about with him all the time. I wanted something which I could use to carry a few tools if I went to classes in future after I retire but 99% of the time it will sit on a shelf in my garage as workshop storage.
I don’t need to lock my tools away at home, I keep most of them on wall pegs beside my bench and anyway don’t have space for a floor standing chest.
So I seemed to be moving towards a slightly larger version of the machinists toolbox, the same drawer storage but a lot of machinists toolboxes are small, I wanted something big enough to hold woodworking tools. One design feature I liked is the lockable front cover over the doors, what I didn’t like was the design where the cover is removed and then slides in from the front above or below the drawers. This seemed a waste of space to me in a toolbox intended mainly for storage and only very occasional portable use. I could see the value in having a dedicated space to store the front so that it didn’t get lost - a lot of ebay wooden tool boxes with drawers seem to have lost the front cover, but I wanted to keep as much drawer space as possible.
My final design for storing the front is probably not original but I haven’t seen anything similar on ebay.
When the front comes off it slots and locks into a rebate at the back of the case, keeping it safe from getting lost or damaged but out of the way for normal use.
I had to make my drawers in two different ways. The space on my shelves where the toolbox will sit is only 24 inches wide but I wanted to be able to carry a 22 inch jointer plane if necessary. The top drawers have thicker sides with a groove for a runner and a thin bottom. The large bottom drawer has a thicker bottom on bottom runners so that the sides can be narrow enough to give me the 22 inch internal width.
