Lost Art Press

Metal Binding and Class-conscious Sliding Tills

Posted on by Lost Art Press


It’s raining. I have Lost Art Press’s world-class collection of tarps at the ready. But the truck that’s supposed to deliver “Mouldings in Practice” hasn’t shown up. Perhaps the driver is waiting for a thunderstorm to kick in before backing a semi down my street.

So instead of drinking some of the beer from the Upper Midwest that a student brought me, I attached the steel binding to the Traveling Anarchist’s Tool Chest. I stink at metalwork, so I took my time hacksawing all the pieces to length and drilling the bores and counterbores.

As a result, this was a fussy three-hour job for me.

I’m fairly happy with the results, however. I managed to get almost all the counterbores at the right depth, and the screws from blacksmithbolt.com look great. The only task that is left is to file the metal corners flush and remove any snaggy bits that might bite me or my students.

Now I get to turn my attention to the chest’s interior fittings. I tried to dig up enough pine for the sliding tills from my wood rack, but I’m still awash in mahogany from building campaign furniture. I know I’m going to catch some grief for using such a bourgeois wood on a proletariat project, but I don’t want to buy more pine and wait for it acclimate.

So mahogany tills, here I come. Now where did I put my pocket square and ascot? Oh Muffy, have you seen my velvet smoking jacket?

— Christopher Schwarz

21 thoughts on “Metal Binding and Class-conscious Sliding Tills”

  1. On the bottom strap, did you opt for a smidgen of proud wood to protect floors or flush metal for case-protection?

  4. Hey Ironman, it’s looking great! Did you put any type of protective finish on the steel prior to screwing it in place? Some rust preventative primer might be worth the trouble.
    Will it be traveling to WIA Pasadena? Hope to see it there. You can come too.
    Dave

    1. No coating on the steel. It’s blued, though that won’t do much. I might paint it; I might not. I’ve seen it both ways though the painted banding is almost surely a coat that was added later.

      I might just oil it and let the brown patina develop.

      I don’t think it will make the trip to WIA — there’s no money in the WIA budget for me to ship tools. Just my hinder.

    2. If you paint the chest, you can leave the iron bare and just hit it with some wax before you re-install it.

      This chest is speaking my language. (Swahili.) I expect the tour video will be set to Big Iron.

  5. To assure you are not up against the wall with the rest of the bourgeoisie when the revolution comes, add a recessed bottle opener.

    1. I don’t think he needs one… Just gouge out a notch below the strap on the top, and hook the caps with the steel.

  6. I thought the general rule for toolchest materials was ‘use what’s readily available’. If that happens to be mahogany, so be it.

    By the way, the old boys had countersink brace bits (the flat ones with effectively two cutting edges) that cut steel, the reason being that 19th century ironmongery was somewhat erratic on quality control of holes – and screw sizes – so the user adjusted to suit. I know you know that, because you’ve read ‘The Joiner and Cabinetmaker’ – just wondered if you’d tried adjusting your countersinks with your brace and countersink bit.

  7. Chris,

    I think this would be a great class to offer. For it gives people another option other then the traditional chest. This would aslo be good option for people who take workshops throughout the U.S. Even I want to make one.

  8. Since your daugher’s version of a roubo bench has been refered to as “The Son of Roubo”, and this is smaller “version” of the Anarchist’s chest, can we refer to this chest as “The Son of Anarchy”? (Nyuk,Nyuk,Nyuk!)

  9. I like it a lot!! The hardware look great and sturdy!!
    Great work as usual!
    Cheers
    David

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