The Anarchist's Tool Chest - why build one or the like?

[george wilson]

As with many things,there may not have to be a logical or practical reason to make something. Just a matter of what ever makes your putter flutter.

[Dave Lehnert]

I plan to build one someday when time lets me. I love to go to antique shops and find and restore old tools. Just think it would be neat to have a complete set of tools in a homemade chest.

Building a chest, for some, is nothing more than enjoying your hobby. I know guys who just enjoy building a shop full of tools and supplies as a hobby. Rarely a project ever comes out the door. As long as you enjoy it and is a way for you to escape the every day, then it is very practical. Maybe not for the shop but for ones self pride.

[Andy Margeson]

I built mine prior to publication of the book and it is not very similar to his; in fact, I think he would disapprove of mine. There are different reasons for building a chest. The way my shop is arranged I don't have wall space that is convenient to my bench, which is under a window and next to a door, with a garage door occupying the adjacent side of the garage. I got tired of the back and forth. Now that I have it, I really enjoy working from it. My tools don't knock together in the chest at all. In fact, they knock together less, because I put them away more often, rather than leaving them on the bench. If I wanted to, I could load my toolbox into my pickup alone in ten minutes: remove the tills, lift the planes out of the bottom, put the chest in the truck and replace the contents. As for where I am taking them, to my bench and back. Same as I did when I had wall cabinets.

Probably best not to generalize about woodworkers who prefer wall cabinets or who prefer chests. Both options have advantages and disadvantages and woodworkers have different preferences.

[Bruno Frontera dela Cruz]

I am a hybrid woodworker (hand and power tools) in a non climate controlled garage. This chest fits perfectly under my out feed table, so no wasted floor space and with vapor emitting corrosion inhibitors and a goldenrod dehumidifier it is my only means of rust control for my hand tools (plus oil of course). It also holds ALL of my hand tools so they are now in one place and the days of fumbling throug router bits and jig saw blades to find my marking gauge are over and my shop organization is much improved.

First of all I find Schwartz's book to be a great read, well worth having & rereading. As I'm nearing the end of the book I thought about the practicalness of the chest it self. Sure if one is traveling it might be a good "travel case" for your tools. But doesn't the weight of the thing require at least two people to heft it into a vehicle? In the days of Hand tool craftsmanship no doubt there were apprentices to help load & move it.

I sure it is a wonderful exercise but how practical is it to have in your shop? I ask because many seem to be building one (not necessarily Chris's) so how useful is it? In what ways do you find it better than a cabinet or tool rack?

[Eric Brown]

One reason to build the chest is that its painted. That makes it an excellent project for those just getting into hand tool work.
Its very good at teaching the basics needed that leads to other carcass work. The paint covers up the mistakes.
It's a great first large project. If you then follow Chris's thoughts on the tool selection, you end up spending more time working wood and less on tool collecting. To someone starting out, its a good way to go. Then as experience and needs dictate, other methods will be much better realized. If someone starting out built the largest tool storage solution, they would not get to the fun part of working wood that will develop their skills near as fast.

Food for thought. Eric

[Peter Pedisich]

A few observations and personal opinions about tool chests and the recent fad of building them:

-How many of you would have built a tool chest if Chris Schwarz ( whom I greatly admire for inspiring many to use hand tools) had not touted them in his book? It's not like they are a new idea! I built mine before I read ATC, and I wish I had read the book first, CS's design is much better than mine. I originally wanted one like Roy Underhill's.
-I built the school box, which was a fun way to practice dovetail construction. I haven't found a good use for it...either.
-It takes two men and a boy to lift a tool chest filled with tools. My wife wouldn't be up to it. Mine is heavy, I can only move it empty, which I must do at the beginning and end of each winter, from basement to garage.
-Just where are you taking those tools anyway? From basement to garage...
Is there a demand for itinerant hand tool craftsmen?
-I cringe when I look at photos of tools knocking against each other in those beautiful tool chests. I don't want my Lie-Nielsen tools rubbing against anything but water stones and curly maple. good point, this is one point I do consider a negative about a chest as compared to wall cabinets, I keep chisel guards in place and use care when removing things to avoid scratching, basically just my LV LAJ and other co$tly new stuff!
-People using tool chest should have to dress like Adam Cherubini. Its only fitting. Better than a lot of folks I see walking around nowadays!
Who knows? Maybe I will run out of things to build and decide a tool chest would be just the place to put all those impulsively bought tools that I just might need someday.... #s 51 through infinity.

When I have dedicated shop, I plan to build a wall arrangement, with the chest as auxilliary storage, until then I find it is many times better than what I had before, which was nothing, and it does offer much protection for my tools.


-Pete

[Zach Dillinger]

A few observations and personal opinions about tool chests and the recent fad of building them:

-How many of you would have built a tool chest if Chris Schwarz ( whom I greatly admire for inspiring many to use hand tools) had not touted them in his book? It's not like they are a new idea!
-I built the school box, which was a fun way to practice dovetail construction. I haven't found a good use for it...either.
-It takes two men and a boy to lift a tool chest filled with tools. My wife wouldn't be up to it.
-Just where are you taking those tools anyway? Is there a demand for itinerant hand tool craftsmen?
-I cringe when I look at photos of tools knocking against each other in those beautiful tool chests. I don't want my Lie-Nielsen tools rubbing against anything but water stones and curly maple.
-People using tool chest should have to dress like Adam Cherubini. Its only fitting.

Who knows? Maybe I will run out of things to build and decide a tool chest would be just the place to put all those impulsively bought tools that I just might need someday.... #s 51 through infinity.

#1: I've used my traditional tool chests for years, long before that book was published. In fact, I really don't like that all traditional chests are now referred to as "anarchists tool chests" by Schwarz's readers. It drives me nuts, to be perfectly honest. Like you said, they are far from a new idea.
#2: The school box is useless, as far as I can tell, except for tiny things. Some tool chests are also useless, depending on how they are made and the storage options they have. Mine are not useless.
#3: There is a basic misunderstanding with tool chests. Not all of them were intended to be moved from job site to job site. For a joiner, they were, but they had smaller chests and a smaller kit. Cabinetmakers had to have a larger selection of tools and were more likely to work in one set place, hence a larger chest. I have my chests (one large chest full of bench planes, chisels and saws, one smaller with molding planes and gouges) on moving dolly carts, to help me slide it around my shop. I'm not an itinerant woodworker. When I do need to take tools to another site, I use a smaller, more portable box. I'm not likely to need all of my tools at any one job site. Plus, I have way more tools than I need, or than an 18th century joiner had.
#4: My tools don't knock together. I don't have many Lie-Nielsens, but if I did, I wouldn't treat them specially. They are just mass-produced, readily available tools. Nice ones, sure, but readily available. In fact, I value my 18th century planes and even my 19th century planes far, far, far more than my few LNs. I can easily buy a new LN plane or saw... when is the last time you saw a set of like new Gabriel hollows and rounds for sale? They live in my tool chest and I dote on them, just like all of my other wooden planes. If there was any chance of damage, I wouldn't use the chest for them.
#5: If I could figure out who Adam's tailor is, I'd probably buy a few things... for my work at the Charlton Park living history museum of course. Those loose, flowing shirts look pretty darn comfy though... On the flip side, people who use wall hung boxes should wear a waistcoat and a tie.

The fact is, if you don't want to use a chest, you don't have to. But until you've worked out of one, it is just silly to dismiss their use as a "fad" spawned by a currently-popular writer. A properly built tool chest is a powerful storage tool. The fact that they are the proper storage option for the joiners and cabinetmakers of the time period I choose to study is also a factor in my decision. I've worked out of just about every storage system there is, and the chests work for me.

As with many things,there may not have to be a logical or practical reason to make something. Just a matter of what ever makes your putter flutter.

I'm totally stealing that line, George.

[george wilson]

Steal it,Zach,I stole it from Johnny Carson. And,build your chest however it excites you. I have never been very practical,to say the least. I just get the job done somehow!!

[Zach Dillinger]

I just get the job done somehow!!

And that's all that counts, wherever you choose to store your planes.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've been thinking of building a tool chest for a while now - simply because while I don't have much space in my shop, the footprint of a chest will take a little space, but hold more tools than I can fit in the available wall space, and I locate it more comfortably to my bench.

#1: I've used my traditional tool chests for years, long before that book was published. In fact, I really don't like that all traditional chests are now referred to as "anarchists tool chests" by Schwarz's readers. It drives me nuts, to be perfectly honest. Like you said, they are far from a new idea.

I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed by this. "Anarchist's tool chest" is the title of the book, a bit of credo, and a toolchest that belongs to an anarchist. It's not the form itself!

#3: There is a basic misunderstanding with tool chests. Not all of them were intended to be moved from job site to job site. For a joiner, they were, but they had smaller chests and a smaller kit.

Exactly! Yes, a toolchest would be much easier to move than maybe a wall cabinet if you needed to and had the manpower, but the large sized ones weren't made to be moved. I don't know where this misunderstanding came from.

#4: My tools don't knock together.

Again, I don't understand where this perception comes from - it must be related to the perception that these large chest are made for traveling, or people who roll their chests over really bumpy floors? Saws sit in their nice little spots. Molding planes have their pocket in the back. Large planes don't really move too much on their own. Some chests have nice dividers, or little holes to keep the edge tools from banging around, otherwise you use tool rolls or whatever.

#5: ... On the flip side, people who use wall hung boxes should wear a waistcoat and a tie.

Haha! (I've tried working like that - I get too stinky. I don't even wear a shirt woodworking half the time, with all the dimensioning/surfacing by hand I've been doing)

The fact is, if you don't want to use a chest, you don't have to.

again, exactly - although I feel like the thread was originally questioning why some folks like them. I think shop storage is one of those personal things that is both related to how you work and the layout of your shop.

But until you've worked out of one, it is just silly to dismiss their use as a "fad" spawned by a currently-popular writer.

I think there's a tendency, with the internet, to just sort of figure everything is new if we haven't seen it written about recently. The thing is, there's so much more woodworking getting done around the world by folks that we don't know about because they aren't writers, or they aren't sharing their work on message boards or whatever. I mean, I'm sure that a lot more toolchests have been getting built lately than maybe in the past, because the builders where inspired by Chris's writings. I mean, there's enough toolchests in Tolpin's book (which has a couple of really cool variations on the traditional chest, by the way) to suggest that the form didn't die out with the advent of the wall-hung tool cabinet



The bending over thing gets commented on a lot - I know it seems odd, but if you build a large chest, the bending is a lot easier than it would seem - you put a hand on the rim of the chest, and support most of your weight with that - I don't know quite how to explain it, but it makes things a lot easier than say, getting something out of the bottom drawer in the kitchen cupboards without squatting. It's when you build a small chest that you need to worry about bending or getting the chest up on something.

One feature I really like that I've seen in some chests, are tills (either in addition to or in replacement of the normal sliding tills) with small handles - so they become lift out trays to bring all of one set of tools to the workbench at once.

[Adam Blanton]

A few observations and personal opinions about tool chests and the recent fad of building them:

...
-People using tool chest should have to dress like Adam Cherubini. Its only fitting.

...

"Hey, if I saw myself in clothes like those, I'd have to kick my own A**"

[Zach Dillinger]

One feature I really like that I've seen in some chests, are tills (either in addition to or in replacement of the normal sliding tills) with small handles - so they become lift out trays to bring all of one set of tools to the workbench at once.

I do this all the time with my chisel tray and my gouge tray. Works great, they all stay together and I have them all at hand when I need them.

[Allen Hunt]

Well I've bought the lumber to build my chest. I've noticed that most tills hang from the left and right sides. I am thinking of hanging my tills from the front and back so that when I take a till to the bench it will be smaller. Also since I think my chest is going to be 43" to 45" I would have two tills on each level, about 11" wide each. This way my dovetail chisels will be in one till and regular bench chisels in another, etc. I am just getting into wooden moulders and am going to use my grandad's smaller chest to house those. I am putting some good sized casters on the bottom and four Brusso stop hinges on the top so I don't have to use a chain to hold the top open. I am hanging two handles on each end, which seems more practicable to me. I know, it will be heavy, but if I move it, I plan to roll it into what ever is the transport vehicle.

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

I have three, and don't really have the floor space for all of them, but I'm not willing to live without them. My shop is a one car garage, and I have only the bandsaw for stationary power tools; I could see things being different if I had to fit a table saw inside, too, but I don't actually want or need one. I have also worked out of wall cabinets, wall hung tools, and a machinist's toolchest. The traditional designs are better suited to woodworking, more robust, very easy to work out of, and customizable; I have retrofitted two of mine with fitted chisel racks and am delighted by it. I never move two of the chests and the third (smaller) one only very occasionally; they're not about moving stuff from place to place. I have found that I dislike intensely the "internal till" style of wooden chest, preferring open trays, but that's the biggest limitation I've found for wooden chests.

To dismiss the alternatives I've tried; the big problem with wall hung tools is that they're inefficient on space and so you have to walk all over creation to get the thing you want. The problem with wall cabinets is they are almost universally smaller in size and in holding capacity than floor chests; this is particularly important for me because of my ridiculous wooden plane habit but it is generally important. I do have a wall cabinet for my saws, of which I have too many; it's surprisingly obtrusive considering how much it stores. Tool racks have similar limitations. The machinist's chest of drawers is about a dozen (on my example) stacked drawers all of which are always the wrong size for everything; they are either too thin, designed for wrenches, or too tall for anything and turn into a junk drawer. I used to store my chisels and files in them, but you have to be careful that they don't bang into each other opening (which is a huge problem!), something I don't have to worry about with the chests.

[Andrae Covington]

I am still slowly building my tool chest, so I can't really comment on usability, but so far my tool storage has been haphazard and inconvenient, so I am confident the chest will be an improvement. I am already storing my planes and saws in the chest while I complete the sliding trays.

I believe I was first inspired to build a chest when reading an Adam Cherubini article from 2006 on hand tool shop layout and space requirements, entitled "The 'Ultimate' Hand Tool Shop". On tool storage he noted that pre-industrial shops had frequently-used "bench" tools stored under the bench, hanging on the wall behind the bench, or on a nearby shelf; while the remaining tools were stored in a tool chest, also within easy reach.

I then purchased Jim Tolpin's The Toolbox Book, which has some examples of traditional and re-interpreted tool chests, as well as wall-mounted cabinets, floor-standing cabinets, portable storage to take to jobsites, etc. I considered the various options but returned to the traditional chest as the best choice for me.

So eventually I began drawing up a tool chest design based on some of the drawings in The Toolbox Book as well as a small tool chest that Roy Underhill built on The Woodwright's Shop and wrote about for Popular Woodworking.

Then I watched Chris Schwarz's chest come together on his blog, and bought the book when it was available. His construction methods were simplified in various respects from what I had originally planned. Simple is good. I've ended up building mine fairly close to his design.

As others have said, portability is not really the purpose of a large joiner's chest. I put casters on mine so I can roll it around the floor. I was concerned about reaching down inside to grab tools on the bottom, but it's no big deal at all. I did, however, slightly shrink the height of the walls from Schwarz's dimensions to better accommodate my shorter arms. Humidity is always an issue here in the Northwest, so the tool chest will help keep my tools from rusting; I've had problems occasionally with tools left out (because there was no proper place to store them). I do think that the chest will force me into being more organized and better about returning tools to where they live; I need that. I am not planning on French-fitting, though I will probably specialize the trays just a little bit for chisels. I think the mostly-undivided trays allow for flexibility over time as my tools change or if I end up needing specialty tools for a certain project that otherwise will be deep stored elsewhere.

Besides all that, it has provided me with lots of through-dovetail practice.