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

[Derek Cohen]

I have seen many tool boxes displayed here and there since Christopher Schwarz began popularising them. I see the point of their use for travelling carpenters and cabinetmakers. I understand if you simply lack the storage space. However I am not convinced of their purpose for the average woodworker with space in a dedicated workshop. Chris makes an argument for his tool box, but it is just not convincing to me. I just like to find my tools without having to rummage for them.


Perhaps the biggest issue I have with tool boxes are the tool trays. It is that the tools that are left loose to slide around and bang into one another. Marking knives, screwdrivers, rules, a compass, scribes .... the list is endless .... all of these with sharp blades or clean edges just waiting to be dinged. Not to forget cutting or stabbing oneself as you reach in.


I prefer a cabinet with shelves or hang it on the wall. Out of harms way.


So why the tool cabinets in your shop? Is this just a senseless fashion?


Regards from Perth


Derek​

[Steve Voigt]

I've done wall cabinets and it was ok, not great. I plan to build a traditional chest, and here's why.
Ten years ago, I was earning most of my living making cabinets, built-ins, and the occasional piece of furniture. This involved a lot of on-site work, so I bought one of those cheapo plastic tool boxes on wheels, with the large single tool tray. When I was done with the site work, I'd unload all the tools from the tray back into my wall cabinets.
However, each time I came back from a job, it seemed to take longer and longer to put the tools back in their cabinets. I tended to just take the top off the plastic tool box and work directly out of the tool tray. At the time, I assumed this was just laziness. It wasn't until years later, when I read Chris's ATC book, that it clicked…I had been unconsciously recreating the traditional tool chest scenario with my pathetic plastic tool box. There is something that is just very natural, not to say convenient, about looking down into the tool tray(s) and being able to see and grab most of your small tools. For me, anyway.
The tools in the tray don't have to bang into each other; you can make dividers, french fit them (I wouldn't, but you could), whatever. And I actually think you are less likely to cut yourself reach down into a tray you can see, than reaching back into a drawer. Chris's drawers (in his tool chest, that is ) look pretty unorganized, but that's just his take…he sure didn't invent this form.
I will say that I don't subscribe to the theory of fitting all your tools in the tool chest. My plan is to keep the "second string" planes and other infrequently used bulky tools in the bottom well. The trays will get filled with smaller tools. The "first string" planes will still live under my bench, and lots of other stuff, like saws, will hang from pegs on the wall.
This is probably not the most qualified endorsement, since I don't have the chest yet, but that's my plan, and my reasoning. But I would have zero interest in converting anyone else or talking them out of their current storage system.

[Tony Wilkins]

Where else are you going to sit to eat your lunch? (oh right, saw benches)

I had originally thought about hanging my tools open on the wall but all the talk in CS' anarchy box book about dust and rust has me rethinking. So now, in limbo, I have them neatly piled hither and yon on my bench.

[bridger berdel]

my preference is for drawers that are one tool deep for most smaller tools.
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2 through 8 hang in a cabinet:
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other planes are in deeper drawers. p*wer t**ls are either in their own cases or grouped by kind in even bigger drawers.

I like drawers. that way things have a place, they are out of the way and protected from dust. some things end up jumbled in toolboxes, generally things that are grouped by function, especially if that function is on site rather than in shop. but even some of those boxes have drawers.

[Jim Koepke]

Most of the time my tool boxes are only used for taking tools out of the shop.

My indoor storage is still in a state of flux.

jtk

[Roderick Gentry]

I respect and read what I can of CS's work, but I am not aware of ever following his advice on anything. He has a niche which is modernism combined with resurrection of old methods. The horse drawn light aircraft approach to things. I am partially a cabinetmaker, been at it 35 years. I use open racks, cabinets, and mess in my shop. Seem as though as a cabinetmaker I should be aware of trends in storage, improvement and such. There is constant change in the way we organize, heat, light, an layout stuff. Just consider light. Maybe having every tool in a small space was better for lighting. Who knows, we do know hundreds of years have passed, there are no apprentices in the US, in the real sense. What they did back then is largely irrelevant.

The problem I have with overly regimented storage is that it freezes tools, and their introduction into the shop, into a point in time. That could hardly be more ridiculous in connection with CS's influence of general tool mongering. Of course there are more and less flexible ways of racking things. I use a combination of fixed racks, and one that one can stuff things on. Tool boxes seem to run a gamut from ones with open bits, to one with flocked, fitted, compartments. The one tool box I use goes 2 thousand miles each year, I put stuff in sock or original sleeves or tool rolls, and have never had a problem. So I guess it can be made to work.

[Don Dorn]

I understand Derek's point. Other than a small Japanese toolbox for those few things I take somewhere else, I prefer to work off the wall behind my bench. The upside is that everything is there from clamps, to drills, dogs, chisels, 2 commonly used planes, saw, marking tools, screwdrivers, etc It's very handy and nothing bumps into each other. The downside is that it looks bad having so much hanging off the wall. However, the the Shakers said "beauty lies in functionality" and I can apparently overlook the aesthetics in favor of complete convenience.

[Chris Griggs]

It probably makes a lot of sense for CS to have one given how much he teaches and is on the road. The recommendation for having a chest as ones main workshop storage however, confuses me as well.

[Hilton Ralphs]

The recommendation for having a chest as ones main workshop storage however, confuses me as well.

Perhaps if your bench is smack in the middle of your shop and the walls are accommodating other things like Cliff Richard annual calendars.

[William Adams]

When the pipe to our bathroom sink burst, I was very sad my tools were hanging on the walls of my end of the basement laundry room/workshop and not easily moved.

[Chris Griggs]

When the pipe to our bathroom sink burst, I was very sad my tools were hanging on the walls of my end of the basement laundry room/workshop and not easily moved.

That's a really good point. I definitely worry about what would happen in a basement water emergency. The flip side is, for me, if water were to come in my basement it likely wouldn't reach shelving. I would worry about having my chest full of tools on the floor. I guess one could make a stand for their chest though.

[Sean Hughto]

I would think as an Aussie this would be obvious: In the post-apocalyptic waste land you're gonna wish you had an Anarchist's tool chest or at least a little Dutch one!

[george wilson]

My tool box is 30' X 40' with a 16' X 22' original tool box. It has 450 feet of shelving. I do have my original tool box made in 1970 and used in the instrument shop. It seemed appropriate to have one in an historic style shop.

[Augusto Orosco]

What attracts me is the idea of keeping dust and rust at bay, which is a bigger deal when you can't use your tools too frequently and they could sit idle for weeks at a time. Open shelves won't do that for me, and a closed cabinet on the wall is almost like a vertical tool chest without the mobility.

But I see Derek's point and am still torn if I want a tool chest of a several closed cabinets. In my case, my wall space is very limited, so a tool chest brings some additional advantages. I am still undecided...

[Sean Hughto]

There is a certain posterity aspect to putting together a kit. One imagines it being easier to pass down the kit than the unassembled shop contents. Think Studley as well.