Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

[Dominic Greco]

Good evening all,

I guess we all reach this point. I have enough hand tools that they are stored in several different locations all over my shop. It can get to be a real pain to gather up the ones needed for a job. I want to design a wall hung cabinet that will hold them all (or most of them) comfortably, safely, and securely. The basic design is easy. There have been scores of articles and books written on the subject. I think I want to base mine on a combination of the features shown in a recent FWW mag, and those shown in Jim Tolplin's "The Toolbox Book".

The problem is laying out the tools so that I fit them all efficiently. I like to design all my shop fixtures and furniture in CAD. Most likely AutoCAD. It makes coming up with the most efficient design easier. You can easily move items around, save different configurations, mess with dimensions. All that good stuff.

I was wondering of there was a source for CAD "blocks" (drawings) of handtools. Something like very simple 3 view drawings (plan, elevation, and side views) of handplanes, saws, and such. I mean, I can't be the only one who has wanted to design their tool cabinet using CAD, right? They have to be to scale, and be drawings, NOT images.

Thanks in advance.

[John Gornall]

I built a few fitted drawers for my measuring tools awhile ago and designed them in CAD. I place the tool on the scanner and save a low rez jpeg file which I then import into CAD, scale to size, and then draw around. Then I delete the image. I juggle the various tool drawings to fit the drawer size and then I print this out at 1:1 scale and use it as a cutting template.

[Dominic Greco]

I built a few fitted drawers for my measuring tools awhile ago and designed them in CAD. I place the tool on the scanner and save a low rez jpeg file which I then import into CAD, scale to size, and then draw around. Then I delete the image. I juggle the various tool drawings to fit the drawer size and then I print this out at 1:1 scale and use it as a cutting template.
John,
You know, I think you're on the right track here. Importing a image, scaling it to size, THEN tracing around it may actually be easier than what I had considered. I was concerned that the distortion of the image would be so much that the drawing would be out of scale. But then again, this isn't rocket science. I just need the "space envelope"'.

Thanks!