Wood for Anarchist Tool Chest

[Brian Holcombe]

I'm liking gaboon ebony for this project.

[Tony Wilkins]

I'm liking gaboon ebony for this project.

Great, let's see some pictures where you're done. Ought to be awful pretty when it's done.

[Brian Holcombe]

hehehe.

Sarcasm aside, I think a nice wood like white ash would be prefect for this, it's easy to work. This thing is going to be HEAVY when packed with tools, so weight wouldn't affect my choice much.

[Judson Green]

I concur. its pretty light for the strength it offers and should be pretty inexpensive. At least it is in my area. pleasant smell too.

You could probably go thinner than ¾".

[Christian Thompson]

I built mine with eastern white pine. The chest is light, but it's not quite done and only have it half full of tools so far. I agree that if you go with a denser wood you probably don't need to go the full 5/4 or even 4/4.

As far as whether you need a chest in the first place... I would say no you don't need it. I'm not sure how much I buy the whole dust argument over the short term. If you use your tools a decent amount, I doubt it makes much of a difference. If you leave them untouched for a few years it probably does. On the other hand, it was a fun build and good practice. But if you have another project you'd rather work on, I'd save working on tool storage for another time.

[Tony Wilkins]

I reckon I could start out with the small cabinetmakers tool chest from Tom Fidgen's first book. I've already pretty much got the materials for it. It's a lot smaller scale and could be used for a lot of things -- such as even if I don't use it my Son could for his growing interest in woodworking.

[David Turner]

Img0066.jpgMine is made form re-cycled yellow pine.Img0065.jpg

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[Andy McKenzie]

I have water stones and I always keep them in their original box. In the new house, there's a sink just inside the garage door that I'll probably make my sharpening station anyway.

Followed the big thread that Derek started over at WC and didn't come to any conclusions. As I mentioned, Lubbock is a very dry area but also a fairly dusty area (New Mexico drops in occasionally with a big wind).

I reckon I could hang stuff on the wall and if I decide to later I can build a Dutch or English style chest.

I moved about a year ago. In my last house, almost everything hung on the walls: I had about 12'x4' of pegboard, and a ton of shelves. It wasn't bad, but everything got dusty and, if I wasn't in the shop for a week or so, covered in cobwebs. We had kind of a spider problem there...

My new shop has concrete walls, so hanging things is a lot harder. I finally built a Dutch-style chest, and I don't know how I ever worked without a chest. I need to work on organizing the bottom cavity more, but even with that mess the thing is far, FAR more pleasant to use than wall-hanging tools. Almost everything has a defined space that's easy to reach, so things actually get put away when I'm done with them. That, in turn, has encouraged me to keep my whole shop space cleaner, since I don't have tools scattered across every surface.

If I had the space I probably would have gone with something like the two-day anarchist's chest, but my space is pretty limited. Fortunately (in some ways) my tool collection is, too, so the smaller Dutch chest works well for me. I'm planning on a cabinet to set it on once I find some more decent 1x12, but for now it's just standing on a couple stacks of milk crates.

[Casey Gooding]

"White pine is scared out here on the South Plains"
Sorry to hear that. There's nothing worse than frightened lumber.

[Tony Wilkins]

"White pine is scared out here on the South Plains"
Sorry to hear that. There's nothing worse than frightened lumber.

Yeah, it looks around and sees no trees and just shakes and whimpers - it's really sad. LOL

[steven c newman]

The chest I built is a might small. Panel saws are about the longest tool I can place in it. Find by me, have four of them to put away. One long jointer plane sits in the bottom. and there is still room for six or more normal sized planes. One sliding tray, and a carry-around tote. Back was pine, instead of plywood. Rest is just some Walnut I had on hand. Trays and such are also pine. Hold most of my hand tools right now. IMAG0005.jpgMight be able to cobble a box to store all my chisels, ther might be some room on the saw til....

[steven c newman]

One other thing to consider, instaed of the large, single panel that will move a LOT as the seasons change, make the tool chest as a Frame & panel style. One could even raise the panels using just a #4 plane. I used a #5, because the panels were a bit on the long side. I used a #78, to make shallow rebate on the non-beveled sides ( the sides of the panel that are on the inside) makes a neater joint. I now have a nice plough plane to make the grooves, too...IMAG0038.jpgNot as much gluing and waiting around....

[Daniel Hartmann]

Poplar is weird. Sometimes you get poplar that works like a dream and other times it seems to fight back. I built my chest completely neader. It was quite a process and my first real woodworking project. I don't remeber how many board feet it took but I do know I paid around $200 for all the lumber. The bottom of mine is QSWO I had on hand. IMO if you build a chest with a hard wood, even softer hardwoods such as poplar, 3/4" is plenty. I wouldn't worry about weight. As others have said loaded up the weight of the chest is insignificant compared to the weight of the tools. It'll take two to move it no matter what wood you choose. So choose what's cheap and available. And in my case I was able to get really wide poplar to avoid excess glue up. I just moved mine from Chattanooga to Franklin Tn and it'll be moving soon to Minneapolis.

[Daniel Hartmann]

The finish on the outside is a navy blue milk paint oiled then waxed with black wax. I have some more pics but it's a disaster in there right now and for some reason sawmill creek won't let me upload right now! I'm in the middle of building another hanging till which will take the place of the tool rack along the front of the chest.

[Bob Snyder - Austin]

Sorry for the necro-post, but did anyone come up with a bf estimate? Trying to figure out how much I need. (Right now I'm thinking about Cypress.)