Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

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.

Ron is originally from Alabama, but he now lives in Ohio and works for Procter & Gamble. His tool chest reflects “Proctoid” sensibilities – they are notoriously precise people – plus his Alabama heritage. It’s a bit like a BMW 740 painted like the General Lee.

Which is all kinds of awesome.

This short video has a tour of Ron’s chest during a class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. And it involves (as always) nipple rubbing.

— Christopher Schwarz

Sometimes I just stare at a project for a long time and wonder what the heck to do next.

This morning I tried to figure out how to get the saws onto the lid of my traveling chest. Layouts. Drawings. Staring. A long walk to pick up some Dogfish Head. And this is what we have.

These three rabbeted cleats are only screwed to the lid in case I change my mind. The tool rack on the front of the chest? Ditto.

— Christopher Schwarz

Our new coffee table is complete and ready for the living room. No, no, I’m serious.

Because we don’t have a scrap of space in the house (this is said in the shadow of a mountain of “Mouldings in Practice” books in the sunroom), this traveling tool chest is going to become the coffee table in the front room of our house, where I do most of my writing.

When I leave town to teach, I’ll roll the chest to the shop, fill it with tools and head out.

It sounds like a great plan, except I have to come up with something to do with the sea chest that my feet are propped on now.

Yesterday I applied three coats of General’s “Coastal Blue” milk paint to the chest and installed all the hardware. The two sliding tills are complete. Now I just need to make the saw keepers for the lid and add a couple racks for chisels, drivers and dividers.

Those can come a little later. I’ve got to finish up a couple more urgent projects, including getting some coffee in my gullet.

— Christopher Schwarz