Dutch Tool Chest - anyone build one?

[Maurice Ungaro]

Liking the format of this style chest, and it's footprint! Has anyone made and/used one yet?

[Chris Griggs]

No, but I really like it to. I need to build some better tool storage and that design is definitely on my short list of possibilities

[george wilson]

Is a Dutch tool chest where the woman pays for the wood?

[Chris Griggs]

Is a Dutch tool chest where the woman pays for the wood?

:D:D:D If I hadn't already finished my coffee I would have spit it on my keyboard!!! That would be awesome!


Its another chest The Schwarz has been working on...

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/01/11/a-quick-tour-of-the-dutch-tool-chest/

[Zach Dillinger]

Is a Dutch tool chest where the woman pays for the wood?

I thought it meant we were all supposed to paint our tool chests orange...

/I've made a huge mistake.

[Jim Matthews]

If you've a small workshop space, and need to roll things out of the way, it makes some sense to have the most frequently used tools at waist height.
I have a tool cabinet on wheels, and I find it's always in the way.

That said, if you look at the video around 1:17 and again at 1:40 you can see that the fit is fiddly - lots of stuff rattling around.
If you have the space for it, an open shelving system behind you as you face your bench is really efficient.

The only real advantage I can see of the currently popular tool chest designs is that they offer some measure of stability against rapid humidity changes.
In my damp basement shop, it makes no difference - everything needs to be oiled.

I've got to ask one thing of the video producers - why must everything have a banjo soundtrack?
Unless it's Jens Kruger or Bela Fleck, so much of it is like the plaintive wail of a drowning harpsicord trying to save it's beloved bagpipe.

[David Weaver]

Noam pikelny would do, too.

It seems like banjo background music is used to signify (not just in woodworking, about everywhere), "hey, we're non corporate, non-threatening and semi-academic relative to the topic".

Yeah...a lot like harpsichord background.

[David Weaver]

Oh,....it's clawhammer. That doesn't say what I though it normally says (like neck plucked banjo). Clawhammer usually says "this is a documentary"...

.. or any show in north carolina.

[george wilson]

There seems to be a lot of wasted space in the chest. Also,a lot of spaces where tools are just allowed to shift about and clunk into each other. In the top section,it seemed like the back saws were sort of hitting things like the large thread cutting tap. Nothing in the bottom spaces to prevent tools from damaging each other. I don't see much to recommend itself in this design.

In English chests,the hollows and rounds are packed in a contained space. Only the smallest items,like awls,pencils and drill bits are loose in small drawers.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I think more than anything, it's royalty free music they can use in their videos, and after they found a few they enjoy, they just keep using 'em. I haven't done an extensive listen to royalty free music, but the little bit I did for a project, the majority of the stuff I found wouldn't have really felt right for a woodworking video. and once you've found something, it's easier to keep using it than keep looking . ..

[David Weaver]

There seems to be a lot of wasted space in the chest. Also,a lot of spaces where tools are just allowed to shift about and clunk into each other. In the top section,it seemed like the back saws were sort of hitting things like the large thread cutting tap. Nothing in the bottom spaces to prevent tools from damaging each other. I don't see much to recommend itself in this design.

In English chests,the hollows and rounds are packed in a contained space. Only the smallest items,like awls,pencils and drill bits are loose in small drawers.

George, wasn't there a dutch cabinetmaker at williamsburg? What did he put his tools in?

[Chris Griggs]

George, wasn't there a dutch cabinetmaker at williamsburg? What did he put his tools in?

Wasn't that the guy who was really cocky but screwed everything up?


RE: Why I like the chest. I guess to me it seems like a nice space efficient movable tool cabinet (as opposed to a tool chest). It would be useful in my small, dirty, cluttered shop. I agree George, I wouldn't want it as a traveling tool chest. Everything would go all over the place.

[george wilson]

Yes,there was a Dutch off the boat cabinet maker when I was first there. He was such a grump and general pain,the director put him out in the back up shop to work his last 7 years!! I was in charge of both the Musical Instrument and the Cabinet Shop for years while a new master cabinet maker was found. He turned out to be more of an actor than a craftsman,so in a few years he was out. In the cabinet shop,tools were mostly hung on the wall or on shelves. Who is going to use a chest where you have to remove a bunch of tools in order to reach the one you want,when they are in a permanent work station in a building? Tool chests are for itinerant workmen who move from site to site. They often used their chests as work benches. Not a good case for the slant top Dutch chest. Their chests had to properly hold tools to keep them from banging against each other during the rough wagon rides,or rolling of ships. Other than the saws mounted on the lid,I can't see that the Dutch style chest offers much protection. I think it is more the novelty aspect of it that one is even being made and talked about.

[David Weaver]

I kind of figured the same thing about the toolbox craze in general. For a while, people were talking about getting gerstner chests to store small things in, and now people are building chests. I'm too lazy to work out of a chest, and never go anywhere, anyway. I wouldn't mind building a chest, but i'd have to give it away because there's no way I'd use it.

[Maurice Ungaro]

The bottom portion of the Dutch chest looks very customizable, like with cubbies, or drawers, or some other dividers.
I agree that the whole "box on the floor" thing looks very tantalizing for the traveling woodworker. I have so little floorspace available that wall systems seem more efficient to me. BTW, I don't travel....with my tools.

[Jim Matthews]

Who is going to use a chest where you have to remove a bunch of tools in order to reach the one you want,when they are in a permanent work station in a building? Tool chests are for itinerant workmen who move from site to site.

Glad I'm not the only one that sees it this way.
I'm already on record saying I don't understand why people spend so much shop time building things no one else will see, let alone use.

[Jim Matthews]

If'n you was to build a chest large enough to hold only your favorite planes, what do you suppose it would weigh fully loaded?

I've got a cheapo toolchest to hold my collection of hollows and rounds, and it's essentially immobile.
I could move it, but I would have to pull everything out of it, first.

[Jim Foster]

Regarding the Dutch chest Schwarz built & uses. He is an itinerant worker, moving his tools from home to shows & classes all the time. He also mentioned the main design benefit for him is that it fits in his car, where the more traditional chest he built does not.

I suspect if I had a chest, it would be half empty most of the time and full of shavings.

[John Coloccia]

Is a Dutch tool chest where the woman pays for the wood?

Every since I started building and repairing guitars for a living, pretty much everything I build is Dutch these days :)

[george wilson]

I have a tool chest. It is 30' x 40',2 story,with an additional 16' x 22' tool chest on the first floor in the rear.:)

[Trevor Walsh]

I'm working on one at the moment, it's on my blog, though I still have an update to post. I've got an antique nailed together affair that I added a sliding till to now. I really don't like it. It's huge, low to the ground. I wind up putting things on top of it and as consequence don't store anything in it, because I can't get things out of it.

I really liked the dutch cabinet, and I agree with to possibility of setbacks you guys mention. I am however doing some things differently. I reduced the height of the top till, and added a second set of dadoes to the case. I can fit moulding planes under, along with the plow and skew rabbet. I may make partitions or something to keep them separated. The mid layer will have two drawers, one for loose layout stuff like the small square, 6" ruler, dividers etc. one compartment for the waterstones, a holder and some slips. Up top I'll keep the jointer, smoother, jack, mitre planes, dovetail saw, cross and rip saws, chisel set, combination square and some other things I can't remember at the moment. I plan to make a grid of dividers to keep things from clacking.