As you design your tool chest, a little bit of cypherin’ can make a tool chest seem like the Tardis – way bigger on the inside than it should be.
This traveling chest carries a remarkable amount of tools in its 28” long x 18” deep by 16” tall carcase because it imitates a lot of older tool chests I’ve observed. Those numbers above are one of the typical sizes you’ll see for a working chest (plus or minus a few inches here and there). Another set of common numbers is found in my Anarchist’s Tool Chest.
Where do these numbers come from? Our tools and our bodies, which is to say, from our bodies. The 28” length allows you to fit a long jointer plane and your panel saws inside – a critical dimension. The 18” depth is a standard depth for carcases, it also creates a box that one person can lift (ignoring the weight of the loaded chest for a moment).
The height? When this chest is complete with its lid it will be 18” tall. A square profile view is another standard form you’ll find in furniture, and it creates a stable case compared to a much taller carcase. I’ve also noticed how many chests seem to be divided into thirds along their vertical axis. The bottom third (about 6” or 7” of height) is for heavy tools such as bench planes, the big dinosaurs of our tool chest strata. The middle third (another 6”) is for the medium-sized tools in a big sliding till – braces, hand drills, some joinery planes and hammer. The top third is for the little bits, such as layout tools, knives, little planes and the like.
Today I finished fitting out the interior of this chest by adding a till for backsaws. I made it much like the till for the panel saws, except there are two bits of wood and the wood bits are wider because I want to hold three joinery saws.
The wooden holders are arranged so the saws can go into the rack either with their handles on the left or the right (I want them on the left so their horns are protected).
And yes, the wood is white oak – it’s what I have on hand after making the tills and runners. Several readers have questioned the wisdom of using oak because of its pH and tannin content. I’ve seen a lot of oak in old tool chests, and here is my reasoning:
If you use your tools and keep them wiped down with oil, like a responsible mechanick, you will not have a problem with corrosion. If you plan to store your tools for a long time without using them, consider Tupperware and rust-inhibiting paper. Wood is acidic. Period. But if you take care of your tools, oak isn’t going to give you any trouble.
Now I just have to turn the handles for the carcase and wait for the lid to arrive….
— Christopher Schwarz
Is that a Stanley 55 laying on the bottom,sir?
No. A 45. I use it mostly as a plow.
I bought one about 2 years ago and got about a dozen blades. It’s on my list to get in working order. I have a lot of sharpening to do.
Thanks
Joe
Or you could just sharpen the blades as you need them. I have the complete set and have sharpened only a few irons.
My first thought when I saw the 45 was doesn’t Chris already have a nice wooden plow? Is this more of a case of using which ever plow is closest, or you take the 45 when you travel. When would you choose to use your 45 over another plow plane?
Stefan,
My Barrett plow is intimidating to students, so I switched to a 45.
Hi Chris,
I feel like I stepped into the middle of a multi part blog. Did I miss something?
Lynn Bradford
My fault
I apologize for going off topic
Sorry
Joe
Chris,
Will the lid on this smaller chest be capable of holding your panel saws and misc. bits similar to your previous, larger tool chests?
Looking good! – Marty
Nope. The saws go on the floor of the chest. The will be for something else.
I hate to be a tease, but you’ll just have to wait and see.
I had a girlfriend in high school tell me the same thing
And I thought I was the only old person that has a 45 and three wooden box’s of blades that I am going to sharpen some day
Will the lid be carved and veneered like the one on the Lee Valley 2015 catalog ?
Dear kendewitt608 –
Don’t feel bad. I’ve been using a 55 & four boxes of cutters for years. In total, I’ve sharpened only six blades!
Or an old person with some 25+ of the Stanley 45’s, with some 50+ boxes of blades to sharpen. I had the sickness bad a decade or two ago.
May you live lo g enough to complete your task
Gazintas. One half of what my granddad used to describe any mechanical object; it has two parts. Gazintas and Comezoutas.
Lid to arrive? It better not be a custom molded plastic job. Underhill would be very displeased.
Chris probably commissioned Follensbee to carve one…
Nope. This chest is a joint project. But not with Peter (though that’s a great idea).
Chris,
Hi!
Two questions:
-Aren’t you concerned that the handle of the rabbet(?) plane (the one with the LAP logo) is going to bend the (relatively thin) sawplate of the backsaw that it’s pressing against? Especially in transit (e.g. slamming on the brakes)?
-It makes sense what you say about the wood’s acidity, and that using tools frequently (and keeping them oiled) will prevent corrosion. But — don’t those two components also negate one of the stated benefits of a tool chest: preventing rust by avoiding rust-inducing dust? (i.e. If you oil your tools and use them frequently, tools in a rack on on a shelf would not develop rust.)
As always, love the blog entries. 🙂
–GG
1. The tool arrangement in the photo is how I would probably lay out my planes when I was working. When I travel, the tools are wrapped up. In any case, this isn’t my chest, so the owner will decide how to parse the floor.
2. No matter what, keep your tools oiled. Having them in a tool chest does not relieve me of the responsibility to wipe down the tools after use. So whether they are in a rack or a box, they will be fine. Using oak inside your chest is no big deal. Heck Gerstner makes tool chests for machinists that are 100 percent oak through-and-through. I think the pH of the wood is irrelevant for a working chest. For long-term storage, however, I would use something else.
Chris If you had aligned the holder for the back saw under where the chisel rack is attached to the back of the chest it would be able to hold one more chisel. Chisels wouldn’t be hitting the saw rack, taking bites out of it. I greatly enjoy your blog. I’m enjoying getting back to the basics of woodworking rather than what machine to use. Hugh Hurley
so if I am right there was a mention of a crab lock or something like that , which is why you couldn’t put the saws on the lid. is that what you are waiting for? I saw one on a 15th or 16th century chest and the key hole was hidden on the top .and the key hole on the front was fake.
Not that this has much to do with this post but wait to see wher I go with this.
I just subscribed to the new PWW ebook app and the first mag I downloaded was from 2001. On page 4 was a pic of a very fresh faced Chris Schwartz. I laughed and laughed oh what time and beer do to a man. I have not fared any better I am the first to admit but could I be so bold as to suggest a finish for this chest?
Time and beer, liberal application if you please – seems to be used by many a woodworker with effect.
Cheers
Andrew
I would posit that raising two children aged me more than the beer.
This may be a stupid question, but just how does one store the rag used to apply oil to the tools?
I hang mine on my bench lamp. Jojoba is anon-drying vegetable oil. So it’s not going to combust.
It won’t spontaneously combust, but it’s still flammable.
How do you store the rag in a tool chest when you travel? I store mine sealed in a zip top bag.
Mine is a mixture of oils. I am sure I have some olive oil in there some wiped off WD-40 and Boeshield and likely some 3in1 oil as well as others. I store mine sealed in a zip top bag. That begs two questions … 1 – Any issues with a mixture of various oils like that? 2 – Do you toss yours out after a while and start over?
Ever see the can Sellers uses? Old tomato can, I believe, with a rag neatly rooted inside with an inch or two above the rim of the can, with lite oil on it. Uses it on saw plates or plane soles when working gets to be a drag…:-)
Lynn
I just throw mine in the top of the chest. The worst that could happen is some oil gets on the tools. 🙂
I have my own tool chest question that the series of tubes behind the computer can’t seem to answer. What is wrong with putting a coat of mineral oil on the interior wood surface of the chest? It is more rhetorical at this point as I’m going to do it following the same reasoning as the woobie: the worst that can happen is some mineral oil gets on the tools!
I hang my “oiling rag” on a cup-hook that protrudes from the rack over my workbench. I use a 50-50 mix (or thereabouts) of eucalytus oil (because it smells “effective”) and mineral oil (baby oil, really), to dilute the eucalyptus oil (because the baby oil is cheaper). It’s a non-drying oil, **and** the rag, when it hangs, is pretty “open” — so it shouldn’t spontaneoulsy combust (i.e. not bunched up, so no heat build-up).
As Steve Schafer notes, the rag **is** still flammable. But I don’t do any burn-y things at my WW workbench.
For tool chest rags: I play electric guitar (sometimes), and wipe down the strings after each go with baby oil on a rag. I keep the rag in a sandwich bag, in the guitar case. Again: non-drying, so **shouldn’t** spontaneously combust. I hope. 😉
So presumably one could keep one’s “travelling” oily rag in a zip-lock bag, in the tool chest?
–GG
I keep my “traveling rag” in a small metal can with a screw lid to keep it from drying out. Thta’s a lot less messy than a plastic bag.
I built both a traveling “Anarchists Tool Chest” and a Dutch tool chest, but since I’m over 70 now, I tend to move a little slower and sometimes leave a lot of time between sessions at the workbench. Because of that, and the fact that I can’t carry as much weight as I used to, as well as a few other reasons, I’ve switched to a Tupperware on steroids tool chest (a Pelican model 0450.) To each his own.
Chris,
I noticed the dimensions for this chest differ from the Anarchist’s Traveling Chest by ten inches in length. Is this a revision of the traveling chest based on your experience with it and the Dutch Tool Chest you take on the road?
Ryan