Page 2 of 8 FirstFirst 123456 ... LastLast
Results 16 to 30 of 117

Thread: Why loose tools in a tool box? Why even a tool box?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Princeton, NJ
    Posts
    7,252
    Blog Entries
    7
    I prefer them all neatly arranged on the wall, but I don't travel to jobs.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Johannesburg, South Africa
    Posts
    1,076
    Quote Originally Posted by Augusto Orosco View Post
    a closed cabinet on the wall is almost like a vertical tool chest without the mobility.
    You could of course change that by mounting the cabinets with French cleats. Add a couple of handles to either the top or sides and it becomes mobile. This is especially dandy if you are renting a place where at least in this country, the law states that you can't remove fixed furnishes.
    "If you have all your fingers, you can convert to Metric"

  3. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post

    So why the tool cabinets in your shop? Is this just a senseless fashion?
    It's just another fad to trot out to beginners, that's my opinion and I don't expect anyone else to have it just because I do. The real questions in woodworking start more like "what do you want to make, and what do you want it to look like so that it's attractive", and that kind of stuff isn't what CS could trot out to beginners (they usually don't have a clue what looks good, half the time I still don't, but I've gained an eye for it). When I say beginners don't have an eye for what looks good, I mean that once they have had some exposure to design, they likely will feel like they wished they'd have spent more of their early time figuring out what makes for tasteful design than just copying things by various writers. I made some things early on that have tighter joints than I've made on anything since, and they've held up well, but they don't exactly seem tasteful to me now.

    With a stationary workshop, I also have nearly all of my tools on shelves. The saws are out in the open in front of my bench on the wall, and the three planes I use the most are on a rack within reach, same with the chisels - either in the open or on a rack that I can get to without digging things. I can't stand digging through things when I want to be working on something, it ruins your rhythm and your train of thought (even if you don't think you have rhythm).

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Peachtree City, GA
    Posts
    1,582
    I've labored with this. I like the "rack on the wall" system, and have that over my bench. I also like the Studley wall "chest" arrangement. I think it's best left to the scenario and user. For me, I have downsized twice, and now reside in a house with an attached one car garage. Don't know the last time that garage has seen a car, but since I've moved in it's been wired, insulated and clad in wood. It holds: a full wood working shop; six bicycles; a full size gun safe; reloading bench, and the back wall is dedicated to a lumber rack.
    Now, while we all can claim that with all the wall space, I'm set. Kinda, sorta. I even, to myself, railed against the traditional English chest, as my floor space is at a premium. Enter the Dutch Tool Chest. It's slim profile allows me to stow it under one end of my bench. The interior space accommodates essential tools and has ability to morph with imagination.
    No one particular item is a panacea - you need a systematic approach. For me, the DTC may very well be one part of a system. The second part is going to be a cabinet to store the planes that are not going to fit in the DTC. In other words, the less commonly used planes, but ones worth keeping. Another part will be a purging. Nothing drastic mind you, but duplicative things acquired in the heat of things, items that work, but replaced by those that work better, etc.
    The fourth part is a bench to replace the first one I made. It will be stouter and longer, and will allow me to work more efficiently. Yes, it will be a Roubo. My oak slab is secured. Benchcrafted hardware is on a rack in my shop awaiting installation. Just need to adjust my 65 hour work week to get it done.

    I guess it all comes down to preference, ability, & work habits. I cannot refute the abilities of Derek Cohen, George Wilson, and even Chris Shwartz. Each one has their own system, yet each produces good work.
    Last edited by Maurice Ungaro; 01-07-2014 at 10:06 AM.
    Maurice

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Chevy Chase, Maryland
    Posts
    2,484
    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    It's just another fad to trot out to beginners ...
    I'll disagree. If you have tools you need storage and organization to keep them. There are lots of options for accomplishing storage and organization including chests. There is no one right solution for everybody, but chests are likely the best solution for many. I don't see a significant difference between a rolling cart like this and a traditional chest:




    Or the cabinet aspect of a dutch chest and a wall cabinet:




    Or tills in chests versus tills on walls:



  6. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Peachtree City, GA
    Posts
    1,582
    What Sean said!
    Maurice

  7. #22
    I like bridger's idea of a chest of shallow drawers; most tools will fit into, and would be well-organized by them. The configuration also wastes less space. Tool chests with sliding drawers take up a lot of floor space. Furthermore, a tool chest doesn't use as much of the volume for tool storage, as a chest of drawers would. I picked up a microwave stand at a garage sale for adaptation into a chest of shallow drawers with casters. The drawers would contain marking & measuring tools, chisels and gouges, planes that store flat, rasps & files, and odds and ends like screwdrivers and scissors. The back will have backsaws hanging on it, one side will have bench planes, the other side panel saws or maybe something else will suggest itself. The top would have a strop and maybe a fine hone for quick touch-ups; a dish for screws during assembly, some space for shop notes or a design. The idea is to roll it next to the workbench when working on a project, then put everything back at the end of the day/project/session. A place for everything and everything in its place.

    The problem with organization is that you have to be constantly rethinking it until you have a full stable of tools to do the work you want to do. What starts out as a simple store-bought toolbox at age 20 doesn't suffice after you've learned what you need to know. And one of those things you need to learn to know is the mistakes you made, such as tools you thought would be great, and made room in your shop for, but have concluded are useless/dangerous/spacewasting wastes of time and money.

    As I've become accustomed to home ownership, there are some tools that I find myself using over and over again and those go into a simple tool tote. Screwdrivers, combo square, hammer, block plane, channel-lok pliers, tape measure. Accessible without too much fussing. If I had everything figured out I'd post pictures. But that's why I think tool storage and organization is one of the most popular subjects in the magazines or on the web.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Cedar Rapids Iowa
    Posts
    209
    I am with Bridger on the drawers. I have a couple of large mechanics chests with shallow drawers for chisels, small planes, measuring items,scrapers, files, extra blades, etc. The larger planes rest in the open compartments in the tops of the chests.

    Small clamps, large squares, levels, pliers, are mounted on the wall. I built drawers for under my traditional woodworking bench, but found that they are not very convenient as far as leaning over to reach anything in them. I wish I had built fewer drawers and left a shelf for a shooting bard, monxon vise, that sort of thing.

    Since I don't like leaning over to grab frequently used tools from under a bench, I especially don't get having a pretty huge tool chest (in CS' case) on the floor. In fact, CS specifically advocates a chest design dimensioned to allow you lean over with one hand on an edge to support your weight as you rummage around the bottom for a tool. After about the second or third time doing that (maybe even the first), I probably would not be able to get back up!

    Of course, many of my tools are conveniently stored on top of every horizontal surface in the shop instead of neatly stored in the aforementioned drawers . . .
    No, the sky is not falling - just chunks of it are.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
    Posts
    12,402
    It should be remembered that Studley was working in a factory,or in a shop with other workmen. You HAVE to have a lockable chest to keep your stuff from being "borrowed" and never returned.

    At a nearby shop where they make wind tunnel aircraft models,a requirement is a list of tools you must bring yourself,and a locking chest to keep them in. At 1 time I was getting sick of my boss,and went down there to check out the possibility of a different job. But,those type places constantly teeter on the brink of going out of business if they don't land government contracts. They wasted a million dollars secretly developing their version of a supersonic passenger plane. They put on a large cockpit canopy to fool the inspector about the actual size of the aircraft. It didn't fool me. I wonder how some inspectors get their jobs? The bottom fell out of that in a hurry when their noise became a big issue at airports.
    Last edited by george wilson; 01-07-2014 at 10:23 AM.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Lafayette, Indiana
    Posts
    1,378

    Chicken or Egg?

    I'm not naturally inclined towards organization. I can function (not necessarily at optimum efficiency) in a fairly disorganized space. This is not to say that I don't appreciate order and admire a well ordered shop, and even aspire to have one someday. It is just to note that organization is not my default mode of operation.

    Over the years as I've acquired tools, usually the last consideration for the tool is "where am I going to store this?" The same can be said for supplies and lumber as well. I need these screws, these clamps, these chisels, this saw, I need this finish, I need this lumber.

    Oh look, someone is throwing away a perfectly fine cherry headboard, I can't let that go to the land fill, I can use that. Oh look, a laminated maple table top sitting on the curb on garbage day, that will fit in the back of my truck, I could build a sharpening station out of that. Oh look, a nice little cedar log, let's not burn that, I can make some jewelry boxes out of that. And so the collecting and hording goes, and then I reach a point of where I just can't stand the mess and I need to impose some order. It is so much easier and faster to organize things when their home is defined. Putting things where they belong is easy when they have a place.

    So which comes first, the storage scheme for the tools, supplies and materials and then the tools, supplies and materials? Or do you start by gathering tools, supplies and materials and recognizing you need a storage plan? For some a tool chest may make a lot of sense, for others, it might be one more thing that looks cool, and I could build, so I build it, then I have to decide where to put it and what to put in it.

    There certainly are handful of tools that I want at arms reach - utility bench chisels, a mallet, a coping saw, a backsaw, squares, rules, marking knives, glue, tape, pencils, and a few bench and block planes, and others that I'd like to see "put away". Since organization is not at the top of my need for inner peace, it will likely take some time for me to get there, but eventually, I'd like my shop storage to feature more wall cabinets with doors, mounted of course with french cleats. Maybe a variation on Gary Zimmel's shop: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/album.php?albumid=244.

    So no tool chest for me, of course years ago, I said the same thing about a cabinet maker's workbench, and now I can't wait to finish my bench build which of course will feature storage (gads a tool chest!) under the bench. I guess this just proves that organizing and laying out one's shop truly is never done.

  11. #26
    I don't know, Sean. All of that stuff looks a lot different than a chest with loose tools in it like Derek is talking about (as in, something intentionally portable for a shop where portability isn't an issue). Quite a bit of it looks a lot more like the stuff he's arguing for.

    I have a bunch of stuff in a craftsman rollaway like a mechanic would use. Never considered it much like a portable historically accurate tool box. I'd hate to lift it. It's kind of like your roller there, except I'm lazier so I bought a cheap metal box with wheels instead.

    The tool box thing has an air of playing billy-big-rigger to me, or a translation of the old ERTL commercials or something. "make one like you saw at the flea market". "just like the real thing, only newer".

    Like I said, my opinion that there are things the target audience would be better serviced by unless they are actually traveling.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Chevy Chase, Maryland
    Posts
    2,484
    Have you seen the details of the Anarchists tool chest or the article on the big and small dutch tool chests? They have trays and dividers and such that don't leave much loose. Perhaps Derek's predicate is faulty?

  13. #28
    >> Perhaps Derek's predicate is faulty? <<

    Could be. I bought some of the Schwarz stuff early on and it became apparent that he was a writer satisfying his curiosity and practicality wasn't really the strong suit of all of it - and I stopped reading it (though he does a good job publishing material, and I'll buy if he's publishing something a professional wrote about).

    As in, when I think of the few practicing professionals or very experienced woodworkers that I know, they don't worry about the things Chris writes about.

    So, I relied on what Derek said and didn't adjust his statement - it would create a multiverse of arguments, and the universe of them is plenty.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Chevy Chase, Maryland
    Posts
    2,484
    I like Schwarz. I think his inquires are mostly pragmatic and not simply academic. He does lots of empirical stuff that leads to useful info. He seems down-to-earth and sincere. Like a friend who shares the hobby and tells you about their latest endeavors and hard won insights.

  15. #30
    I have 2 inherited wooden tool chests, a real nice one of "standard historical size" and a smaller and more portable one which was nailed and butt jointed. Both are used mainly for storage of "spares" and rarely used tools. I also have a Craftsman double height red metal roll around mechanics chest for soldering, plumbing, precision test and measurement machinists tools,and other non-woodworking type items. Being well aware of my personal tendencies to fail to put tools away after use, the vast majority of my woodworking hand tools are on the wall behind my bench which is 4 feet from the wall. This allows me to just turn around to grab a tool within reach and makes it far more likely it will get put away after use. Like Derek's supposition, I find wall mounted tools to be far more convenient than rummaging around in a tool chest.

    As a bit of heresy, when I go off to demonstrate hand tool woodworking or teach a class, I put the necessary tools in a gray Craftsman plastic tool box and a couple of canvas totes. Items are padded and protected from each other with old tee shirts, dead hand towels, and other cast off household cloths.
    Last edited by Dave Anderson NH; 01-07-2014 at 11:30 AM.
    Dave Anderson

    Chester, NH

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •