Chris mentioned in his Sunday post that since The Anarchist’s Tool Chest was published, he’s nailed in a few till dividers to corral small tools. After I showed my chest last week, people asked for a look at my tools and tills…so I’m scrambling to clean them and make them slightly more organized – and divest my chest of the stuff that really shouldn’t be in it – before showing what made the cut.
Chris cleans out the offcut bin regularly, and we’re selective about what goes into it in the first place. We have severely limited space here for storage, so we don’t save much (a contractor friend takes all the small stuff/bad stuff to burn). But I am a hoarder…so I sometimes squirrel away under my bench and on my office shelves pieces that Chris would certainly pitch. And it finally paid off. I had the perfect 3/8″-thick walnut to cut up for dividers – it was almost no work to get it ready for use. I just had to cut it to length, then shoot it for a perfect fit.
To set the wall locations, I plopped the tool for which each was intended in place, then added a bit of wiggle room with the nearest thing to hand that seemed of about the correct thickness – a half-used Post-It pad. After marking out center lines on tape (with thin material, it’s best to be dead-on), I nailed the walls in place (two pins on each end) with the 23-gauge pinner. Yes, the walls will come out easily – that’s on purpose. And all the tool racks in my chest are screwed in place. I want to be able to easily rearrange things if my needs change (or for whomever inherits my chest to be able to easily re-arrange things to fit their own needs. If they don’t burn it or sell it for $50 at an estate sale).
On the other end, I used a coaster to locate a cubby wall for confining pencils, a silly cat-head tape measure I won’t use (but love) and my most-used safety device – a hair clip.
Chris and I do have a lot of the same tools, but five years ago, our in-chest tools kits were a lot closer to identical (’cause I learned much of what I know from him). But since Chris’s uptick in chair building and my penchant for teaching all things dovetailed, our kits have diverged somewhat. I’ll clean out the rest of my chest and show its contents in full this Sunday.
– Fitz
The evolution interests me as much as the contents. For instance, my ATC started pretty much like the one in the book. I ended up ditching the saw till on the floor. Backsaws now hang vertically behind the front wall rack. But I just don’t use panel saws enough to give up that real estate.
I love the cat treats in your top bin. Bean has a good life.
I recently inherited my grandfather’s tool chests, has was a carpenter and furniture builder… one thing that’s different, grandad has a couple of “bobs and bits” type small boxs in his tills. What ever happened to these bobs and bits type boxes… do folks put these else where now instead of their tills? I’ve found it very handy to have. Thanks
That is the kind of nitty-gritty stuff which brings me here. THANK YOU!!!
Ahh! The all important cat treats
Thanks for doing this. Sorry we made you have to clean it out. Looking forward to the post.
I had the chance to see your tills during a class or two at LAP. I very much admired them but I hadn’t seen the bottoms. May I ask what kind of wood that is?
No one has seen the bottoms for a long time! It’s curly maple.
Looking forward very much to Sunday’s full reveal – more food for thought that’ll be, towards my own chest build! And I really agree that the 60-1/2 and 102 so complement each other! My mitts being medium-bordering-on-small, I also much prefer the fit and feel in the hand of the 102, but as you say, that adjustable mouth makes all the difference for certain jobs.
luv the party mix
So tasty
Fancy till bottoms looks like a great idea. I’d be cleaning it out a lot more often, just to admire it!
I hate cleaning.
Really?
You’re a laugh riot
Have you ever seen an actual “laugh riot?”
I have seen a Three Stooges Marathon. Deserves its own merit badge.=)
End of Life Planning Department: It used to be (6-9th Century CE) a sign of high status in Anglo Saxon England to be buried in a chest rather than a purpose built coffin – most of those found have been found very close to the walls of Cathedrals or major Churches rather than out in a burial field with the hoi polloi.
A dirty (sawdust covered) chest is a happy chest.