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Dutch Tool Chest Book Update/Last Call

Posted on by fitz

I hope no on has a heart attack upon reading this…but I will be turning in the completed manuscript for the long-promised Dutch Tool Chest book by the end of this month. This year. In two weeks.

Why is it so late? I am definitely the problem. I’m not great anymore at working 18 hours a day like I used to. And after a full day at work, well, I just want to go home and weed the garden (temperature allowing) – not stare at a screen. Or sit on the couch with my cats and read a book. But…that’s really no excuse. I’ve to some extent made myself busy during the day; Chris would absolutely have let me work less at the office and work more at home on the book. So there is no one to blame but me. I’ve become a lazy git. (See also: My house renovation is not done.) But the shame and pressure are now outweighing the laziness – on the book, not the house.

With that mea culpa out of the way:

I’m including a gallery of pictures from other makers that shows as many different interesting and effective layouts as possible of the interior. Cool adaptations for a specific set of tools. Cool adaptations for a non-specific set of tools. Interesting use of the spaces in the bay (or bays). Clever rolling bases. Wacky oversized (or undersized) chests. Mind-blowing uses of the back of the fall front and or/underside of the lid. You know – anything that is nifty and sets it apart from the basic interior shown below.

(Mind you, the basic interior works quite well. I like its flexibility, because my tool needs change depending on the class I’m teaching (this chest travels with me if I’m driving). In theory, anyway; 90 percent of my time on the road, I’m teaching either the ATC or DTC.

Never forget to pack your hair clip.

All images used in the book will, of course, be properly credited – and I’d love to include a sentence or two about your inspiration, and/or why you did what you did. I need high-resolution (at minimum, 300 dpi at 5″ x 7″), non-blurry, decently lit images. It would be great to have an overall shot of your chest open and closed, and detail shots of the clever bits. Please also include your name (as you wish it to appear) and your phone number, in case I am in desperate need of contacting you (though I’ll use email first…who talks on the phone anymore?!). The deadline for your submissions is June 7.

Here’s an excellent example of a clever idea…though a bad photo, hurriedly snapped by me during a class in our shop (it’s too close up, and without the context of more background, it’s a little hard to immediately understand that you’re looking at the side wall of the chest, outfitted with storage for large-diameter tools (how is it attached?!) and a clever pencil box. (Olivia, if you’re reading this and have time to send me better pictures…)

Please send pictures to me at fitz@lostartpress.com. (If the file sizes are too large to email, I can send you a WeTransfer or Dropbox invite – whatever you prefer.)

Detail shot of cleverness inside Olivia Bradley’s tool chest.

And thank you to those who’ve already sent submissions – I do still have them!

– Fitz

Covington Mechanicals Classes, January-June 2024

Posted on by fitz
Paul Murrett, working on a seven-stick stick chair during an early 2023 class.

Next Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, at 10 a.m. Eastern, bench spaces go on sale for January-June 2024 Covington Mechanicals classes at the Lost Art Press storefront. (And we’re excited to announce that both Roy Underhill and Matt Cianci we be once again make the trek to Kentucky to teach!)

We have only eight benches, so classes are – with rare exceptions – limited to six students (which leaves the not-teaching editors here at LAP one bench on which to work). Thanks in part to the small class size, most classes sell out in nanoseconds – for which we are grateful; thank you. But it does mean that it’s best to be ready to hit “register” the split second classes go live on the Covington Mechanicals Ticket Tailor page (and it helps to have a pinch of luck). If a class is sold out, I recommend registering for the waitlist; we end up filling a slot or two from the waitlists for almost every class.

Dovetailed Shaker Tray class, February 2018 (I wish my knees still bent like that, sans pain).

Upcoming classes are:
• Build a Comb-back Stick Chair with Christopher Schwarz, Jan. 15-19, 2024
• Make a Dovetailed Shaker Tray with Megan Fitzpatrick, March 9-10, 2024
• Window Joinery with Roy Underhill, March 23-24, 2024
• Build & Engrave a Shepherd’s Coffer with Christopher Schwarz, April 5-7, 2024
• Build a Traditional Sawbench with Megan Fitzpatrick, April 20-21, 2024
• Saw Sharpening 101 with Matt Cianci, May 18-19, 2024
• Build & Engrave a Shepherd’s Coffer with Christopher Schwarz, June 7-9, 2024

Classes for the second half of 2024 will be posted in February.

Click here to go to our registration site. From there, you can click on each class for more details about it. NOTE: There will be a button on each class page that says “Register Now.” You can click that, but you won’t actually be able to register until 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 25.

Check out FAQs about classes here. If, after reading the FAQs you still have questions, please post a comment here, or email covingtonmechanicals@gmail.com. (These classes are independent of Lost Art Press/Crucible Tool, so please do not email the LAP help desk.)

– Fitz

p.s. There are still 2 spots available in my Shaker Tray class in beautiful Berea, Ky., Oct. 14-15, 2023. Come cut some dovetails with me; I promise to pay more attention to my students than to Woodsy, the new Pine Croft shop cat. (Or I at least promise to try.)

ATC Innards Video Almost Done

Posted on by fitz

It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I got distracted by other work…and that I forgot it takes me five times longer (at least) to do things with a camera pointed at me than when no one is watching. And that is why the video I promised a few weeks back on kitting out the interior of an “Anarchist’s Tool Chest” is taking a bit longer than expected. But with Wally’s help, we’re nearing the finish line. (A special thanks to its soon-to-be owner for bearing with the delays.)

The video will feature:
• installing the till runners
• a brief look at dovetailing the three tills (goodness knows if you’ve built this chest, you know how to cut dovetails!)
• fitting the till bottoms to the runners
• installing a moulding plane till at the back
• making and installing a hanging hole-y rack with slots behind it for backsaws
• making and installing a saw till for larger handsaws
• notes on finishing the interior
• tips on fitting the lid
• hardware installation, including hinges, chest lifts, ring pulls and a “crab lock”
• caster installation
• surprisingly few cats (unless we add then in post production).

Chris plans to start editing at the end of next week, and he’s fast – so it should be available soon thereafter. Below are a few pictures I snapped during the process.

Always a good idea to make sure the saws fit before you install the rack in the chest.
The owner chose Horton Brasses forged hardware (good stuff).
Never use your hair as a glue brush. But if you do, make sure you’re using hide glue (it washes out easily).
Tills before “make pretty” and finish.
Bean and Wally know that I keep treats in my tool chest. Could there be some in this chest, too? (Nope – sorry boys.)

Tool Chest Till Cubbies

Posted on by fitz
Eooouuuwww. I’m a slob, but I’m not (usually) dirty. This till is disgusting.

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.

Ah – that’s better. (I’d forgotten I’d used fancy wood on the till bottoms!)

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.

Arguable a bit too anal-retentive for a cubby wall. But I’m arguably more than a bit anal-retentive about many things.

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).

A little protection for my new and already beloved No. 60-1/2. (As I’ve mentioned before, the No. 60-1/2 is a bit large to feel comfortable in my hands, but that adjustable mouth makes it worth a little discomfort.) My long-time love, a No. 102 (which fits my hand perfectly), got an adjacent cubby.

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.

That’s one down, two to go. (I’m afraid to find out how much cat hair and sawdust is in the bottom of the chest proper.)

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

Reminder: LAP Open House November 26

Posted on by fitz

Wally hopes you can join us on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for our holiday open house (at which you might consider giving him a cat treat or 10). We’ll have available our full line of Lost Art Press books, Crucible Tools and apparel, including new baseball caps – khaki with the English square (from the cover of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” cover) embroidered in black. We’ll also have a selection of “blems” – slightly damaged books – at half price (blems are, as always, cash only please).

Plus, we’ll have a special gift for the first 100 or so visitors – a gum eraser stamped with the Lost Art Press logo (I’ll post pictures when I have those in the shop). And if you’re 21 or older, do ask to see the clock. (We’ll also have treats and beverages for those who eschew alcohol, of course).

We’ll be happy to raise a glass with you, and an answer your woodworking questions – or even demonstrate any techniques that are flummoxing you (preferably before raising too many glasses). And I believe we’ll have a special guest demonstrator, too – more on that to come!

– Fitz