Lost Art Press

Watch Me Build a Dutch Tool Chest May 21-22

Posted on by Lost Art Press

This month I am headed to Omaha, Nebraska, to build a Dutch Tool Chest over two days for the Omaha Woodworkers Guild, and anyone can buy a ticket to watch. And if you are lucky, you can try to win the finished tool chest in a raffle at the end of the seminar.

The event is May 21-22 and is being held at the German American Society in Omaha. During the session, I’ll build a Dutch Tool Chest using hand tools and discuss all the different hand operations and how you might be able to use them in your shop. Plus, there will be squirrel jokes.

I’ll be covering:

  • Dovetailing
  • Dados
  • Basic hand mouldings (beads and thumbnail mouldings)
  • Rabbeting
  • Tongue-and-groove work
  • Lots of sawing and shooting board work
  • Finishing surfaces with handplanes
  • Installing surface-mount hinges

At the end of each day, I’ll also give presentations on other interesting topics – on one day I’ll examine the history of workbenches in Western culture and on the other day I’ll do a presentation on chair comfort and show off one of my stick chairs (I think I have one of those thingskicking around here somewhere).

The admission fee also includes breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. 

You can register for the event here. You can read more about the two-day seminar here.

This should be a fun weekend event. I’ve never been to Omaha, and I haven’t talked to many human people during the last two years (except for Lucy, Megan and the cats). I’m sure I’ll be a little rusty, but I bet we can all get through it together.

— Christopher Schwarz

14 thoughts on “Watch Me Build a Dutch Tool Chest May 21-22”

  1. So glad this was rescheduled. I am super excited for this weekend!

  2. Chris, for those of us who can’t attend but need some instruction for building our own chest, is the Lie-Nielsen DVD of your build still the best source?

    Or maybe Megan’s book is nearing release?

    1. The Lie-Nielsen video shows how I do it in great detail. Megan’s book is in the works and should be out this year. Either will get you headed in the right direction.

  3. Not having seen one in person and historically speaking, are these chests designed to be carried to a job site by one person or two? Or, do they reside in the workshop? Perhaps they were/are sized for different uses.

    1. They are excellent site boxes. I can carry one by myself. If you don’t own a lot of moulding planes, they work great in the workshop as well.

      1. In all honesty Chris I doubt that the typical size of the DTC you build would suit me on a job site, it would just be too big. I crammed a great deal of accessible hand tools in a scaled down version. It was altered so the bottom section is a drawer with all my boring bits and sharpening stones in it and I am still thankful. While I can lift and move the chest with everything together, at the end of the day it is a relief to drop the weight by around a third and move it in two sections. They do make an excellent site box to work out of and for protection of the contents.

    2. @Eric I built the sinlge bottom compartment DTC and crammed it with stuff (i have a sliding till and Megan’s double row tool rack in the top, drawer and open room for joinery planes in the bottom). I stuffed extras like clamps in and around everything so it was packed to the brim. Then, drove it 700 miles 1 way when we spent 3 weeks with my inlaws in the middle of nowhere ND. The chest weighed about 120lbs fully loaded (probably 90 with a normal load). My chest is also slightly larger than Chris’ plans. I used full 12″ wide boards for the middle (not 11.25″ 1x12s). It fits my 24″ long jointer with an inch or 2 to spare. Given the size/shape of the box and location of the handles, it’s surprising how easy it is to lift (even at 120lbs). BUT it is way to heavy to carry around. I built a 4 wheel furniture style dolly sized to match the rot strips on the bottom of the chest. Ideally, you will only be lifting the chest in and out of your car and then rolling around the rest of the time on the dolly which makes it plenty mobile. If you use wooden planes, and only bring the essential tools plus use a dolly/casters, it’d make a great site box! Heck, if you need more room, build the bottom boxes that Chris did. Who needs Festool systainers when you can build a DTC and the matching bottom modular box? (I store all my handheld power tools except drills in my bottom DTC box).

  4. My work involves teasing children in life threatening situations with large hooved creatures on the week end so I can’t watch. Is it possible some future event might be taped to buy for down loading as a way of showing updated methods of work? Just curious.

  5. Hey Chris,

    Will you by chance be recording this class? I’m guessing no but I want to ask because I’d happily pay to get a video I can keep and the money goes to you! If the Lie Nielsen videos money goes to you as well then I’ll go that route.

    Also, thank you for all the videos of late, they’re great!!

  6. I wonder if there will be any unvaccinated people there. If everyone hasn’t had their 15th or 16th covid shot things could go bad.

  8. I’m kind of upset I won’t be able to meet you in my own stomping grounds, but I will be at the stick chair class this summer, so I guess I will live. You probably won’t have much time outside of the class, but if you do, Omaha is actually pretty cool, for being as small as it is and in just about the middle of nowhere. Our zoo is often rated number one in the world, the Joslyn Art Museum received a grant so it is free to everyone, and the Fontenelle forest is an awesome urban forest to walk through.

    Omaha is a big food town, so you can get an excellent steak at pretty much anywhere you go. King Kong is a local greek chain known for gyros and huge burgers, Lo Sole Mio is great for some fancy Italian, and pretty much anything in the Blackstone district is great. I personally recommend the Blackstone Meatball, Coneflower Creamery (try the cherry cobbler ice cream), and Noli’s is basically the best pizza in town (try the local salami and fresh mozzarella).

    Hope you have fun, come back some time!

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