Has anyone actually built "The Anarchists Tool Chest"?

[Simon MacGowen]

I don't see the attraction to the Anarchists tool chest personally because 1) I hate to give up the floor space in my small shop, 2) I don't like the idea of digging under sliding trays to get at the tools underneath, 3) I really don't like the bending over it takes to get into those style of tool cabinets. If you do build one though, put some nice big casters under it so you can actually move it to where you need it.

Well said. For the same reasons, I'll never build such type of chest, even if I have the floor space. It is an inefficient storage system for my taste. If I built one, it would be a coffee table.

Simon

[Andrae Covington]

Andrae, this has always been one of my favorites, love the tills and the selection of tools, well done! -Pete

Thank you Peter (and Harold, who PM'd me).

[Graham Haydon]

Hello Moses

I built one. I found my interest in woodworking for fun rekindled by stumbling upon the PBS video of Underhill/Schwarz discussing it. I was drawn in by their enthusiasm and the aesthetic of the chest. I bought the book after making the chest and on reflection I'm glad I did. I like the book but it is very personal and although it might sound strange I liked building one for my own reasons.

In use it works well and I'm happy with it. I made it during my lunch times at work and a few evenings as and when time allowed. Being a joiner nearly anything I do is mortice and tenon so making something with lot's of dovetails was a welcome change and good practice. After having a local sign writer was a step I was unsure of, after finding a nice chest in the wild with a name on I felt happier about it.

As time has moved on I wonder if there are more "home shop" space efficient ways of storing tools such as using the space beneath a bench.

I would recommend it as a project and it does what it says on the tin, holds a nice compliment of hand tools. Incidentally if anyone also already has the " The Practical Woodworker" it has a version of a tool chest that is very close in design.

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Tool Chest 2.jpg

[Maurice Ungaro]

Moses, I've always been floor space challenged. Loved the ATC book, and still own it, but much prefer the Dutch Tool Chest. It was a fun and quick build, and I'll make a base cabinet for storing other tools and putting the DTC at an easy working height ( not that it's bad as is).

[Bruce Haugen]

Just start building, you'll find out where your current tools lack as soon as you get into a few projects and have some experience.

Most of what needs to be done can be accomplished with a small set of planes, a set of saws, a setup for drilling and a set of chisels.

Don't have a dado plane? Use a saw. No dovetail plane? Make a batten. Don't have a router plane? Use a chisel.

Also, if you build something for your mom....make sure you also build something for your wife...

I suspect that many here on SMC don't know Moses; he's been posting here only a short while. However, on WoodCentral, he's been an active contributor for many years and is knowledgeable on most aspects of woodworking.

I also suspect that he's contemplating that same old conundrum that many of us face: just how many more tools do we really need to do what we do? I ask myself this very question daily and it's the prime reason that I don't have a quality set of Japanese chisels. I'll just have to bumble along using my Hirsches and Bergs (and Stanleys, Jernbolaget, Swedish, Stiletto, and Solliden), and none of those are slouches. However, as a retirement gift and having saved for these for quite a while, I just treated myself to a new Boggs spokeshave and a LV medium router plane. OTOH, I actually have a use for both of them, even though I have other spokeshaves.

And, totally verboten hier, I was framing out my son's basement, having done so many, many times before using a 16 oz. Plumb hammer. This time I borrowed an air nailer from a friend, and I'm head over heals in lust. But, not getting one of those, either, nosiree Bob!

[ian maybury]

Hi Moses. Tool chests are very attractive (and given the enclosure likely a great way to protect tools from corrosion), but at my stage my feeling is that my methods and tool collection are evolving too fast for it to be practical for me to use one. It's hard not to think that no sooner would it be finished but that a new item just 1/2in too long for the available space would pop up needing to go in it.

Maybe i need one for the same reason as yourself - to enforce some sort of limit. Or maybe it's different if somebody has been doing similar work for many years, and has long since bottomed their methods and tools. Mr. Studley and the precision arrangement of his cabinet comes to mind as the likely epitome of this.

The same issue arose in laying out the ply wall mounted tool cabinet i'm just finishing off. Its reason for existence is to provide an easy access enclosed space within which it's possible to minimise the corrosion risk for expensive hand tools. Despite it being fairly utilitarian it's been a bit of a head wrecker to provide for both what i have (planes, chisels, spokeshaves, marking tools), and what i may have in a year or two. Another factor is that tight packing/very efficient use of space isn't always feasible - because of the need to e.g. lift a chisel high enough to get it out of a rack, and to ensure that it doesn't risk a nasty cut from the next one up. Or (even presuming removable/repositionable/replaceable racks screwed in place) to provide for the possibility that a longer one may arrive in six months. A chest given the multiple layers and trays adds significantly to the problem of figuring out a practical packaging solution - especially if it includes saws.

I'm also a power tool worker, and so have lots of stuff about in cabinets, and on wall mounted boards. (the more corrosion resistant stuff)

It's not a very trad solution, but a multi drawer mechanics toolchest is mobile. It's also the high rise multi storey version of a tool chest, and as a result can accommodate a lot more in a given floor space...

[ken hatch]

Just start building, you'll find out where your current tools lack as soon as you get into a few projects and have some experience.

Most of what needs to be done can be accomplished with a small set of planes, a set of saws, a setup for drilling and a set of chisels.

Don't have a dado plane? Use a saw. No dovetail plane? Make a batten. Don't have a router plane? Use a chisel.

Also, if you build something for your mom....make sure you also build something for your wife...

Brian,


That's the advice I give to anyone that asks and to a few who didn't. Really applies to building the first work bench...keep it simple and go to work building furniture.

Not only good advice, you are a smart man .

ken

[Brian Holcombe]

I suspect that many here on SMC don't know Moses; he's been posting here only a short while. However, on WoodCentral, he's been an active contributor for many years and is knowledgeable on most aspects of woodworking.

I also suspect that he's contemplating that same old conundrum that many of us face: just how many more tools do we really need to do what we do? I ask myself this very question daily and it's the prime reason that I don't have a quality set of Japanese chisels. I'll just have to bumble along using my Hirsches and Bergs (and Stanleys, Jernbolaget, Swedish, Stiletto, and Solliden), and none of those are slouches. However, as a retirement gift and having saved for these for quite a while, I just treated myself to a new Boggs spokeshave and a LV medium router plane. OTOH, I actually have a use for both of them, even though I have other spokeshaves.

And, totally verboten hier, I was framing out my son's basement, having done so many, many times before using a 16 oz. Plumb hammer. This time I borrowed an air nailer from a friend, and I'm head over heals in lust. But, not getting one of those, either, nosiree Bob!

Bruce, not attempting to read into Moses' delema too much, but my comment was in reply to his '...then start building'.

Brian,


That's the advice I give to anyone that asks and to a few who didn't. Really applies to building the first work bench...keep it simple and go to work building furniture.

Not only good advice, you are a smart man .

ken

I'm in good company! Cheers!

[Moses Yoder]

This makes me think you haven't made enough things around the house for your wife to feel the presence of your woodworking. That is one of the secrets of finding yourself helping your wife in with the groceries and her then handing you a box with some tools in it she thought you might be able to use.jtk

While that may actually be the case on the part of some people, it is in fact not even close to being my problem. My wife at one time occasionally bought tools for me. When the shop got to the point where there wasn't room for any more tools, she stopped. The other point is that up until about the year 2000 I made lots of furniture for the house. I have lots of stuff in the house that I built with very few tools and a very inexpensive table saw. ABout the year 2000 I got online and found out how many tools I needed and how to find them and what they were worth. I built a tool box and workbench since then, and occasional small stuff, but nothing compared to what I was doing when I was ignorant. This spring I think I probably have added 50 tools to my collection, some of them very nice stuff like that 45 I just posted. People at work literally bring me bags full of tools they find at garage sales for cheap. Most of the stuff people give me is not really very desirable, so what do you do with it? I smile and thank them for the tools, thinking that someday they might bring me a #1 bench plane. Some of the stuff people give me is very nice.

Another aid in getting the wife to go along with buying old tools is occasionally I buy and sell tools to make a profit. I do keep an eye on what is being bought and how much it can bring when sold. That is where you need to be up on current prices and what function a tool serves.

jtk

The only problem I have with "finding tools to sell" is that I always find ones I can't part with.


This is really a great thread so far. I am thinking of reading the book and sorting out the tools he recommends then designing my own chest to house them.

[John Vernier]

My tool chest isn't very anarchic. I modeled it on an original I was able to inspect, made around WWI, which seemed appropriate for most of the tools I keep in it and use regularly.
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I think it's a very efficient way to store tools, and I've never understood why people object to moving tills, the number of hand motions, etc. But then, when I was working in small commercial shops the tools tended to be scattered all over the place, on high shelves, piled in drawers, stuffed in deep cabinets, maybe in boxes up in the loft - the usual mess. That's anarchy, and I like this solution a lot better.

The chest takes up a little floor space, but the trade-off in having everything at hand makes it worth it. My shop is a narrow 1 car garage, and the chest is on the wall opposite the bench, just a step away. It's on casters but rarely needs to move, which is just as well as it weighs a ton, fully laden. On the other hand, even if I need a few friends to help when I move to a new shop, it will be able to get right back to work, without needing to be remounted on a wall or restocked with its tools.
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I put more tills in my chest than CS did in the ATC. It's pretty densely packed, with a tool rack on the front wall for long items, and a sliding saw till which keeps the floor clear for lots of planes. All the same I find I can get to all of the tools with no difficulty, mainly because by now I know where everything lives, more or less. I have a drop-in platform which slips down between the two till banks and acts as extra floor space when I'm putting things away for the night. My most-used planes and a few other items live there, and get lifted out and put under my work bench at the start of work, leaving room for the tills to slide. So far I haven't taken CS's advice to heart and pared my kit down much, although since the chest is pretty full I find I do question any potential new purchase with that in mind, which is just as well.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I read the book, but actually built a chest several years prior to reading it! I always liked the style of these chests and bid on a few at auctions, but never won one, so I built one! I sized mine a bit to small: if I had to do it over, I would have dimensioned it similar to the one in the book.

Now, would I do it over again? No! I don't find it particularly convenient at all. I built a full size "Dutch" tool chest, per the article in PWW and like it much better. I also built a bench to set it on (16" off the floor for height), with a lower shelf. With the space under the slant top and the shelf under the bench, virtually every tool I regularly use is easily at hand. I would not hesitate to suggest building a "Dutch" tool chest, or building another, should the need arise.

Have I limited my tools, ala "The Anarchist's Toolchest"? Nope, not at all! I've spent too much time accumulating them and enjoy them, even if some are not used.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Given that I do all of my wood working in my shop, I'm of the opinion that chests are for blankets and tack which is why my current project is a tool cabinet. But if someone in the household quilts or sews, then go for it.

[george wilson]

My tools are on the wall. I like to see what I've got,and just reach for it. Those large old chests were used by traveling craftsmen,and were even used as make shift work benches on sites. Their exteriors were made of cheap woods,painted,and got knocked about in shipping. The woodworker could,and sometimes did,show his skill by making the insides veneered in a more or less elaborate pattern. Why would you really need one if you work in a permanent location? I suppose if you had no wall space it would be necessary.

I cannot bend down easily to be getting tools out of a chest at my age. And,I have never been an itinerant woodworker,so have never had the need for such a chest.

I did build a pattern maker's type chest many years ago,which I still have. But,it sits on a high stand these days so I don't have to get down on the floor to take tools out.

Zach,I must say that your shop building really looks like an original 18th. C. type of shop,except for the one area of modern chip board material shown.

I recall seeing those old chests for sale in Pennsylvania flea markets for as little as $75.00. I never bought one.

I will say that if anarchy did reign,we'd all be spending our time trying to defend ourselves and our families,and finding food,rather than enjoying woodworking!!!

[steven c newman]

And now the other side of the coin. Not sure who all has seen my shop. I work in a celler. There is enough room to work at the benches, and that is about it. Forget hanging anything on a wall. Fieldstone walls with a plaster stuff troweled over it. Most of the walls I can't even reach. Have one little section, by the old coal bin door, trash can usually goes there. Have a rack to hold most of my screwdrivers in screwed to the jamb of that door. Both of the tool chests can slide under a bench if needed. Usually, I start by getting out what is needed for the day. Close the chests up. Sometimes, the walnut chest is a seat. I can sit down on it while sawing /filing items in the bench's vise. Might get a seat pad, sometime. The Oakenpine one is a stowage for tool in use but while others are being used. Keeps the benchtop clear that way. Saws get hung from the open ceiling joists. As well as most of the clamps. Just a hook or a nail will do. The saws hang from a wood screwclamp.

Not much room down there, but things do get made.

[Zach Dillinger]

Zach,I must say that your shop building really looks like an original 18th. C. type of shop,except for the one area of modern chip board material shown.

Thanks George. The chipboard is a temporary door I made that has proven to be somewhat less that temporary. The plan has always been a nice Dutch door there, just haven't made the time to do it.