My first shop was on the back porch – 6’ x 8’ of sloping, rotting, dead opossum-smelling space. So I am sympathetic to anyone who has a small shop.
Blogger Brander “Badger” Roullett has a petite shop and a plus-sized storage problem. He needed a sawbench and he needed someplace to store his saws. What he came up with was a clever adaptation of the classic six-board chest.
These sorts of chests come in all sizes – I recently saw a sawbench-sized one at the Museum of Early Southern Decorate Arts. So Badger’s chest “looks” right to my eye.
And it’s all assembled with nails, so Adam Cherubini is somewhere smiling.
Check out Badger’s post on how he built the chest, along with step photos at Badger Woodworks.
Some readers have downloaded “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and have asked how to then get it on their iPad or iPhone. The process is manual, but it is easy and quick. Here’s a short tutorial.
1. Find the file named “ATC.epub.” It will probably be in your “Downloads” folder. If you can’t find it that way, try searching your computer for that file.
2. Open the file in iTunes. There are two easy ways to do this. You can simply drag the “ATC.epub” file over the iTunes icon and drop it. That will open iTunes and import the file into iTunes.
The other way to do this is to first launch iTunes, then go to File/Add to Library. That will open a dialog box that will allow you to navigate to your “Downloads” folder or wherever you have put the ATC.epub file. Once you find it, click on “Open” and it will bring the book into iTunes.
3. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer. Your device will then show up in the left sidebar of iTunes. Click on your device and navigate to the “Books” section of your device. You should see “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” there and be able to click the box below it. Then sync your device and you will be ready to read the book in the iBooks app.
“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” is now available in a completely DRM-free format for your iPad, iPhone, Nook or other reader that can read .epub files.
The price of the ePub version is $16. A Kindle edition will be released shortly. Click here to order the ePub version.
This is exactly the same book – same words, photos and drawings – we have been offering since June 2011. But with the ePub version you will be able to search the entire book, write electronic notes in the margins, change the font size and (of course) carry it with you anywhere on an electronic reader.
Unlike many ePub files, we chose to make ours without DRM – the acronym for “digital rights management.” Many ePub files with DRM are a pain to use. You might have to be connected to the Internet to read the book (that stinks on an airplane), or you can be restricted from copying the file for backup, or even simply copying and pasting passages from the book.
Frankly, DRM doesn’t jibe well with the philosophy of the book or its author.
So what is “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” about?
“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” paints a world where woodworking tools are at the center of an ethical life filled with creating furniture that will last for generations.
Author Christopher Schwarz makes the case that you can build almost anything with a kit of less than 50 high-quality tools, and he shows you how to select real working tools, regardless of their vintage or brand name. “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” will guide you in building a proper chest for your toolkit following the ancient rules that have been forgotten or ignored.
Schwarz argues that woodworking is a rare and radical act in today’s age of cheap, mass-manufacturing and wasteful consumption. He uses the word “anarchist” to describe individuals who “work with their hands, own their tools, and seek to live in a world where making something (anything) is the goal of each day.”
Building a chest and filling it with the right tools just might be the best thing you can do to save our craft.
