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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Philadelphia, Pa
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    2,266

    Carving Tool Chest – A Reconstruction

    Sometime ago my wife and I went to a neighborhood garage sale, and there was this chest-sort of thing for sale. It consisted of a small table, about 14" tall, and two chests. All oak, but painted gray by some prior owner. The width is about 19", the depth about 14.5", and one was 14" tall, I.D., and the other 18" tall, I.D. Both were filled with a superstructure, and traditional oak library card catalogue file drawers. So, for $20, we were big spenders. It sat in a corner of the shop for some time, awaiting an inspiration.

    Well, as I began to carve, and as it became apparent that tool rolls were a poor way to store, and then try to locate, a particular chisel, esp. since I didn’t even quite know what carving tools I had (having bought a rather full used set for a fixed price), it seemed that a way to store, and organize, the tools was important.

    So, I stripped out the guts of these two cabinets, set new interior sides of 1/2" scrap birch ply, and grooved them on the TS to 1/4". Most of the drawers are 2" tall, which left me room for a 1/4" bottom on drawers, where the bottom would slide in the groove, and net me 1.75" deep drawers. Used 6mm BB for the bottoms, and scrap for the balance. Some of the drawer sides are walnut, some cherry, some poplar, etc. The sides, fronts, and backs, are glued and shot with 18 ga. nails. Pretty quick way to make 13 drawers. They work well; the wax helps.

    The top, when my buddy ( a tile and stone man) gets around to cutting me an 18" x 22" top of some scrap stone, will become my sharpening station, which is why the top two drawers are deeper.

    I then built a bridle jointed plinth base, and on the front are two steel, rubber covered feet, just screwed into the base probably from an old appliance I scavenged, and two fixed casters on the rear. For the front feet, I just tapped the scrap cherry to establish threads. The ropes are my present lifting system for rolling this fellow into a convenient position. As it gets heavier, I may change that around a bit. I do not yet have a good home for it, so it will be here and there a bit till I figure it out. My shop is quite space challenged at about 500 sq. feet and this seeed a pretty efficient way to use a few sq. feet.

    Alan
    Last edited by Alan Turner; 11-23-2004 at 9:16 AM.

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