Finished

[Mel Fulks]

Always like to see those old style chests. Now you need to stencil on your name and date, and the owners of the future won't mind a bit. Enjoy!

[Stew Denton]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the photo of the lid from above. The grain does work well together for the top view too. I like the raised panel.

After you have used it for a while let us know your experience, whether it ends up being a good choice, or whether you prefer the wall cabinets.

I have thought for several years that I would like a tool chest to take when I do carpentry for one thing or another. The thought actually started about 30 years ago when I bought a moderate sized tool chest cheap at an auction. It was big enough to hold a couple of panel saws and had two small trays, and would hold a small number of planes, etc. After I had it a while I decided that I really didn't like the design, it was very unhandy to get tools out of, and wasn't well build, so I eventually took it apart for the lumber. The lumber was more valuable than what I paid for the chest.

I don't do much carpentry any more but hope to after I retire, and don't have time anyway, but have worked on my younger daughter and son in laws house, a rental property or two for them, and help out at work days whenever they have them a few days a year at church, but taking tools is a challenge. I have plenty of carpenters tool boxes, but all of them are way too full, so full that they better serve staying in one spot in the garage...way too heavy, and they aren't necessarily very handy designs IMHO, even though they are the traditional design. They are not efficient storage at all, hard to organize, don't protect tools very well, etc., etc., etc. They are hard to travel with in a car, because you can't stack anything on them.

Finally after reading things by Schwarz on tool box designs, I began to think about a better design, and think more about what tools I actually use carpentering, not just take the same ones that set in the box the whole time. It will be a while before I build one, but it will be very high on the priority list, hopefully after I build a shop.

At any rate if you don't mind, let us know what you think, and how the travel chest works out after you have used it for a spell.

Stew

[Mike Allen1010]

[QUOTE=ken hatch;2572408]One more photo, this time how the tool chest fits into the work station. My main bench is just out of the foreground and the photo is of the area just behind the bench:



My most used tools are stored somewhere in that mess. The sharpening bench is off the left end of the main bench and there is a secondary bench and tool storage off the right end of the main bench. The machines are in front of the bench in their own area. It is compact but works well for my builds and way of working.

I'm not 100% sold on a tool chest vs. tool cabinets but I'll give it a try....As posted before if it doesn't work out the Grandpeanut will have a nice red toy box to play with.

ken[/QUOTE]


Ken, There's nothing I like more than workshop pics – A view "behind the curtain" of how the master makes the magic happen.


Best, Mike

[ken hatch]

[/QUOTE]


Ken, There's nothing I like more than workshop pics – A view "behind the curtain" of how the master makes the magic happen.


Best, Mike[/QUOTE]

Mike,

Not so sure about the master part but it usually is magic if something gets finished in the shop .

I've threatened for years to rebuild all the shop fixtures with something nicer, You know the kind, better than the ones in my house that you see in some shops. Problem is the biscuit, pocket screw, and plywood scrap ones on the wall work and there is always some other project that is higher on the 'needs" list, in other words requested by MsBubba.

But like you I like to see how other solve their work space problems.

ken