Richard Hubbs of Indiana is spending eight weeks at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking on scholarship this summer to learn all manner of woodworking. So to prepare for his joinery journey, he built a traveling version of the Anarchist’s Tool Chest.
He took a few minutes out from his class with chairmaker Peter Galbert to show me some of the details.
Some details to note that you might consider for your own chest:
1. His sliding tills are rabbeted on the ends and ride on narrow hardwood runners – not the wide and stepped pieces I use. This saves on material. To remove the lower till, Richard made the top runners removable by securing them with dowels only.
2. Also in the till department, he added one divider in each till, which is inserted with a sliding dovetail. It’s a nice touch.
3. The sawtill for backsaws is at the back of the chest but is one solid block of wood, which will protect the entire sawplate of each tool.
4. He attached his rack of Irwin bits to the front wall of his chest and is removable.
All in all, it’s a great chest and carried all the tools he needed for his classes.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. For a SketchUp drawing of the traveling version of this chest, visit the 3D Warehouse here.
Boy, that’s a beauty!
Richard did a heck of a nice job on that one !
Great chest – my question is how does one get an eight week scholarship?
My thoughts exactly, Michael. Let’s hear about this scholarship!
There are several scholarships, actually. Some are good for a week, others longer. Check out:
http://marcadams.com/opportunities
for more details.
I’m lusting after the Irwin card for the auger bits! I haven’t come across one of those in the wild, but it certainly seems more convenient than a canvass roll. Thanks for sharing pictures-it’s always nice to see how other people address storage issues.
I got one from Walt at Brass City Records. I don’t think they’re that uncommon to find.
Very nice chest btw.
You didn’t show the top! Nice details though, excellent work.
Toby
Nice job! Well Done.
Hey, that looks just like the “wannabe” from my town.
It looks good Richard. Hope you are having fun up there.
Now that I’ve built my own tool chest, there is something pornographic about looking at the chests of others. The way the tools are arranged, the thoughtful modifications. This lovely chest makes me wish I had built my entire chest from poplar and not just the trays. Very nice work!
Holy smokes!!! I’m on Chris Schwarz blog! I had a great time building this tool chest, it was a lot of fun and fabulous learning opportunity. Thanks for writing a great book. I look forward to to everything Lost Art Press has to offer.
Thanks for all the nice comments and thanks to Marc Adams School of Woodworking for the eight amazing weeks.
TJ, I’m having a great time. Maybe someday you will make it out of the comment section and into the content, like the “wannabe” from your town.
The runner/rabbet idea is brilliant and like all brilliant ideas the response is, “Why the heck didn’t anyone think of this before?” Might it not be up to long term wear and tear? I think it will be fine, so again, “Why the heck didn’t anyone think of this before?” 🙂