Plane till problem

[Dave Cav]

I'm building a relatively large wall hung tool cabinet. I'm trying to make the rear section a plane till, and will hang the other tools on the insides of the doors. I"m having a really hard time figuring out how to deal with the smaller planes. I want to arrange all of the planes vertically for maximum space utilization, preferably with the totes down. The #5 and longer planes aren't much of a problem. I installed vertical dividers the width of the #5 - #8 planes, and made horizontal dividers just above the ends of the sole. The tote ends of the soles rest on the bottom of the cabinet. To remove a plane you lift it vertically until the heel clears the lower divider then swing it out and down. However, this won't work with the smoothers as the sole doesn't protrude past the tote and there is very little sole protruding past the knob. I tried making pockets in the dividers and putting the planes knob-down into them, but I don't like the way it looks. I also tried putting pieces on the sides of the dividers to support the planes by the cheeks, but I wasn't happy with how that looked, either. Tomorrow I'm probably going to rip the dividers out and try to think of something else, but I'm about out of ideas. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks
Dave

[Johnny Kleso]

I'm not sure what you have but can you add two ears an inch from the bottom, one on each side to catch the sides of the plane??

[philip marcou]

Well it is a personal choice-but make sure you don't drill holes in any planes so that you can hang them.....(;)

[Dave Cav]

I did try making some supports that held the planes vertical with the bottom half of the cast iron side "cheeks" resting on the supports; I wasn't crazy about how that looked, but that or a variation on it may be the best solution. I will admit that after yesterday I WAS about ready to drill hanging holes in all of them and hang them from nails, but since most of them are Bed Rocks, I have resisted...

Part of the problem is I have spent too much time looking at Studley's chest.

Thanks
Dave

[Jim Koepke]

I am going through a similar situation.

Love the Studley tool chest and am inspired by some of its features.

Have thought of the smaller planes being held in by small cleats at the tote end with wooden gravity latches at the top that swing or slide out of the way when the plane is to be removed.

jim

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

I've seen some that hang the planes vertically by the knobs with a small loop of string attached through the back of the till. If done right with a stiff enough string, the planes can be removed and put back with one hand. Also has the advantage of not dedicating a space to a plane with specific dimensions, in case you ever want to change one out to a different size or make.

[philip marcou]

Magnets? How about using these?

[Dave Cav]

The string idea is a good one; I hadn't thought of that. I DID think about magnets; Lee Valley has a great selection of magnets and I did strongly consider putting a disk magnet at the toe end of each space to hold the planes vertical. However, I would have to order them and given the weather right now, who knows when I would get them. I am building this cabinet over Christmas break (I'm a teacher) and I want to try to get it more or less finished by the time I go back to school.

I decided to go with Johnny's idea of "ears" to hold the bottoms of my two #4 1/2 planes, using dowels for the ears and coping out a contoured support for the bottom end of the sole. The #2, 3, 4 and 40 will all go on conventional shelves above the 4 1/2 and 5 1/4 planes and I'll have room for one more shelf for block planes or a #1 if I ever get one. I'll try to post a picture in a day or two.

[John Keeton]

I would be afraid of magnets. If you were to happen to magnetize the iron bodies, or blades, when you flatten or sharpen them, it would be difficult to get all of the metal filings off the body/blade. I did this to a set of cheap chisels one time - put them on one of the magnetic bars. Everytime I sharpened the chisels, it aggravated me to death.

Just a thought.

[Derek Cohen]

Here is a sample of what I do with the planes above my workbench. There are the woodies I use the most. They lie in an angled "tray", resting on a wooden stop. Gravity holds them against this. They cannot tip forward and off the tray as they are held with "ears" at their heels. To remove a plane, I slide it up and into a small recess behind the heel, then lift it over their stop. I have used this system for some years.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Newworkshopwoodies1.jpg

This works for my iron planes as well.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Dave Cav]

Thanks for the picture. I will be doing a variation on your setup when I get back out to the shop. We have two feet of snow and no power for Christmas today.

Nice looking woodies. Did you make them?

[Jim Koepke]

We have two feet of snow and no power for Christmas today.

We lost power for a while here this morning, then had a quick off on later.

When we lose power, we lose everything except the wood stove.

We just moved to Washington not too long ago and did not expect this much of the white stuff.

That bump in the picture is a lawn chair. Everyone has heard of a hot seat, well, this is a cold seat.

At least I can get to the shop and try and figure where the tool till is going to go. Maybe it would be better to say figure out where to move everything that is in the way of where my plans are to place the tool wall.

jim

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hang in there Jim. We were 4 days without power after our ice storm a couple of weeks ago and we were the lucky ones. Some folks only got their power back yesterday after 14 days. The wood stove in the bench room provided our heat and all the cooking capacity we needed.