Tool box

[William Adams]

Nice! Did you consider having the brace partially outside so as to serve as a handle?

[Jim Ritter]

That is a great idea William, no that had not occurred to me. I do want the box to have a vertical orientation as opposed to horizontal. The brace is too long to fit across the top of the box, but I have a 6" John Fay brace that will fit. That would solve two space and weight problems at once. Thank you, I'm going to work on that.
Jim

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

That's cool, Jim. Looks very well thought out. Trying to cram as much as I can into spaces in my tool cabinet, I know how tough it can be to cram things in that space while still keeping things functional. Looks like you've got that taken care of.

I'll be watching this space for more - keep us posted!

[Jim Koepke]

My biggest problem with laying out a tool box is once there is a place for every tool, some new tool enters the shop and says, "hey, where can I stay?"

jtk

[Rodney Walker]

Pretty sweet so far. Just waiting to see it done.
Rodney

[Jim Ritter]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, unfortunately I've got to go away this weekend so it will just be languishing on the workbench. The only thing to add at this point is, I've weighed the the box and all the tools I hope to fit in and it comes to 31 pounds. Not too bad. More work on it next week after I get the few chisels I'm waiting on.
Jim

[Jim Ritter]

I made some progress on the tool box since my last post, here's where I am now. I chose two different dovetail patterns, a more decorative one for the upper corners,







The box assembled, but not glued, I've got other work to do on the sides before that.


Then came the back panel. 1/2" teak same as the sides of the box.



All glued up and sanded.


And a quick fit into a shallow rabbet into the box.


I'm still trying different tool layouts. I got the chisels in and just finished fitting them with handles today. I've been working on other tools for the box which I'll be sharing in in a couple of days.
Jim

[Jim Matthews]

Nice! Did you consider having the brace partially outside so as to serve as a handle?

Now that's clever, right there.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Looking great, Jim. Did you rabbet all four sides, or just top/bottom? Always a bit I debate in this sort of thing, but I'm limited in tooling, so through rabbets are so much easier for me.

[Jim Ritter]

Hi Joshua, I did all four sides. I used a router table with stop blocks so I didn't cut into the joint, but came real close. Then just finished with a chisel. I didn't measure the depth but it's real shallow, less than a 1/16". It really give a nice clean joint on the inside and worth the trouble because it is now impossible to see straight through the joint. Plus the panel has something to register against when I do install it.

As to using the brace for a handle, I did give that some serious thought. But I decided not to use that excellent idea (on this box at least). The reasons against it were several. It would need to be at least a 10" brace to have enough hand clearance once it gets through the top. The only time I break out the 10" brace is dealing with fairly large screws, and that wasn't the scope of this box. I would have had to make the box wider than 12" because every 10" brace I have is longer than 12", and I didn't want to do that. Lastly I would have wanted the handle to fit through a hole in the top, which means the sides of the box would have to be clear to be able to lower the brace down to remove. That would have given up way too much space. I do appreciate the input.
Jim

[Jim Ritter]

I've spent my available time lately making or modifying some of the tools that are going to go in the box. First up is a tool that I wasn't sure was going in but I think it will work. It's an old Yankee 1431 "radio" drill. I bought it a while ago mostly for the chuck to get a Yankee with the ratchet up and running. This little one came with no handle, perfect for this job. So first order was to figure out where it was going to go, and then make the handle. I made the handle a bit more slender than an original one so it will lay into the box a bit closer. This is a shot in the lathe just after drilling the 1/2" hole to press it on the drill.




Next was a little bronze hammer. I turned the head and made the handle. The dimensions were dictated somewhat by where it is going in the box.





This photo shows all the chisels that I re-handled. Most had none to begin with so no loss there. Despite different iron lengths I made the handles to make them all the same height hopefully to simplify their security in the box. I think this is where they will end up, we'll see. The 2" paring chisel on the left is a copy of my favorite chisel. Mostly used for trimming bungs, the short round handle just fits in the palm of the hand. It will go along the side of the box where it is, but I still need to fit the upper and lower blocking. You can also see where the egg beater drill is going and I've substituted a new brace that fits the width of the box.

The next tool I need/want to make is a little 4" level. I'll let you know when I get that finished.
Jim