When I finally get to point where I’ve answered all my e-mail (sometime about July 2026), I might write a supplement or revision to the last bit of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” to include more construction information on different chests and the principles of their interiors.
When I wrote that book in 2010, I considered the chest in the book to be more of an idea than something that a reader would really build. I love (that’s the correct word) working out of a full-size floor chest and have since about 1997. But most people I talk to think it makes as much sense as using a gerbil to pull a plow.
This week I’m fitting out a traveling chest for an upcoming article in Popular Woodworking Magazine and am designing the interior to take advantage of every millimeter. Here are a few of the thought processes I use when designing the vertical space of a traveling chest (floor chests are different). Here’s a crude, shop-made sketch of the chest’s elevation in section.
The Bottom Well
With a typical traveling chest, you aren’t going to be able to store your moulding planes on their toes – that would take up about 10” of your vertical space. So you store them on their soles so they eat up less of the chest’s height.
If you use panels saws – which is typical if you use a traveling chest – you need to be able to accommodate the full height of the saw’s tote. The saw tills on my traveling chests grab the panel saws at their toes. The heel of the blade rests on the floor of the chest.
And you need to be able to put your bench planes on the floor of the chest with their soles on the floor of the chest. If you use tools with a high cutting angle (moulders or bench planes), you have to be careful and measure their heights.
So when I design the bottom well, I start with a height of 6-1/4”. Unless you have any unusually tall bench planes or panel saws, that’s a good starting measurement.
The Top Till
After drawing out the bottom well, the next step is to sketch the top sliding till. This is the till that usually gets all your small tools that you use constantly – layout tools, block planes a mallet, wax, knives etc. So this till is generally not very tall. I have found that a till that is 2-3/4” is a good overall height. When you figure that the till’s bottom will eat up 1/4” of that height it leaves you with an interior height of 2-1/2”. I really like this height.
When positioning the top till in the chest, I like to leave a 1/4” (or so) bit of airspace above the top till. This gap prevents damage to your tools or chest if you slam the lid and a couple of your tools are accidentally piled on top of each other.
What’s Left
Then you divvy up the space between the top till and the bottom well. If the overall chest isn’t tall, I might put in another 2-3/4”-tall till. But I’d rather have a deeper till that is good for storing tool rolls, boxes of augers, my brace, hand drill and the like. If I can get a till that is at least 5” tall in there, then I’m pretty happy. If I can get a slightly taller one in there, even better. Once you approach 7” deep, however, it becomes a junk drawer.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Apologies for the crude sketch.
I always prefer the hand-drawn “crude sketch” over the cold cad drawing.
Wouldn’t it help to remove the irons and wedges from the planes to save space? You could have them in a roll, and reassemble them once you arrive at your destination. Also, what about laying the saws down on their sides, alternating the tote ends?
Like the comment about 7″ drawers being junk collectors. I have some of those.
Glad we are off the twelve step program about drinking.
I always enjoy reading discussions about the thought processes going into designing tool chests. I enjoy learning about how people just didn’t “build a box” but that each dimension was thought through carefully.
Of course, I don’t do woodworking for a living, and I don’t travel with my tools. Eventually, the more I keep saying this, the sooner Karma will find me and I’ll end up building one.
The pegboards I’ve had hanging along my shop for the past year and a half haven’t failed yet, but it’s such a crude system I’m wondering if folks have experience with why peg board is a bad idea?
In drawings and photos of shops you see tools stored along the walls all the time – have any of the same sorts of thought processes been studied and revealed for non-mobile tool storage solutions? Rules for tool racks? that sort of thing?
I suspect you’ll have to look somewhere else to find rules about tool racks, unless you are looking for the H.O. Studley rules…
There is one terrible word for why peg board is a bad idea in my midwestern shop: “RUST” your mileage may vary, but in my shop anything steel or cast iron gets put inside a wooden box if at all possible.
Rust would definitely be bad. Haven’t had issues yet. Of course I often do my thinking standing around my bench, cleaning my tools.
In a smallish traveling chest, does it make sense for your top till to be full size & removable to allow more storage, or am I just getting greedy at the expense of workflow?
Is your saw till space angled at all? (Toe is higher than heel) I’ve found that doing that can drop overall saw height a bit.
On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 9:12 AM, Lost Art Press
This is important stuff, and it’s crazy how much these details matter. That said, when this class comes to Roy’s school I’ll still build mine a few inches bigger. Not that I’m compensating for anything…
What is the fully-loaded weight of the chest expected to be? I work mainly out of a 26″ Craftsman topchest (containing only my planes, saws, chisels, marking tools and important miscellany), which I find is “portable” only in a literal sense, at 75ish lbs and not bolted down to anything.
I have never weighed my fully-loaded chest. My guess is that mine is less than 200 lbs. full loaded with metallic planes. It would be less if you use wooden bench planes.
By way of comparison, a fully loaded Dutch chest is about 130 lbs.
That’s the floor chest, though, correct? What about the expected loaded-weight of the traveling chest? Sorry for the confusion.
About 130 to 150 lbs. Depending on your tools.
Do you leave enough room at the bottom for a spare six pack?
There is no such thing as a spare six pack. Now an emergency six pack… That’s different.
Inspired from your book, my chest is 14 x 12 x 23″
Here is the article (in french only, sorry) http://lecarnetdubois.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/caisse-a-outils-traditionnelle/
That size is based on a modulus of two Tanos case (used by Festool). Fully loaded it’s still moveable.
In my shop, the chest is on a rolling case, allowing me to move it where I need.
Oh, wow! That was a fun exercise in, “How much French do you remember from two years of foreign language at University?” Quite a bit, apparently! And, for the most part, I could get the gist of what you were saying when I couldn’t translate it properly. Thanks for the mental exercise!
Also, nice looking chest!
Cheers,
Interior spaces of a tool box is the most vexing problem I’ve faced since I started woodworking. Not kidding in the least.
I built two Dutch tool chests.
The first chest was simple to lay out because it has all the mainstay tools and Chris’ example was pretty darn easy to start from.
The second Dutch tool chest is a different story. Off and on for months I’ve stared at the top space trying to figure out how to do the layout. The second chest is for hardware, fasteners, and seldom used tools. The current solution is “none of the above” with all the other tools shoved in the top.
I will try your approach, Chris, and layout the bottom then the ‘top’ (read: back wall) and see what that gets me.
This is good info. 👍
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Hi Mr. Schwarz,
I was wondering what the dimensions of your case are? I’m about to start my own traveling chest and really enjoy the proportions here. Thank you for your time.
The case (not including the skirting) is 28″ long x 18″ deep x 16″ tall.
Thank you so much!
“P.S. Apologies for the crude sketch.”
… hardly the highlight in crudity we’ve had from The Schwarz. :p
Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about making one of these traditional floor chests for one main reason: keeping my tools. My actual tool chest at work opens from the top, but is set on a cabinet on wheels, so when opened all of my tools are at chest height and very tempting to anyone walking by(specifically my boss who never seems to have any tools and thinks everything in the shop is his). People who like to take other peoples tools without asking seem to be pretty lazy, and bending over to dig around some cluttery chest on the floor is just too much for them. I just hope I can find the time to make one sometime soon…
I have a travel chest my great granddad built that I started with. out grew that to dam fast then I made the big chest that Chris was showing off on the woodwrights shop. that I use as my main tool chest and it seems like every time I get or make a new tool I stand in front of the chest for hours with a beer in hand to figure out were to put it. I love the Dutch chest cause there is a place for every thing I need and not a thing more. but I still have a problem lifting it . so I need to get a couple of strong guys to help .