Hand plane storage advice

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Drawers hold spare parts, and un-used block planes.

Good use...

"Glass" is Plexiglass. Other than the #7s and #6s....all else is 3 planes deep...

I had to buy some for a large blessing box that I built for the church and that stuff was crazy expensive. I purchased it at Home Depot, maybe that was the problem. In my mind, "plastic" window material should have been very inexpensive not crazy expensive. A glass place might have had it cheaper, no idea. I just know that I was shocked at the high price.

[glenn bradley]

I kinda like this idea! But with the weight of a no 8 would that be too much stress on the knob hanging it like that though?

I'm probably overthinking it

I'm reasonably sure I am putting way more, and more aggressive, dynamic force on the knob while using the plane than the static hanging weight could ever achieve. The Veritas shooter and jointer both weigh in at just under 8 lbs (the heaviest planes I have) and the para-cord is rated to 550 lbs ;-)

I used a piece of 1/4" pegboard because I use pegboard for other things around the shop. The original idea . . . ah, here it is . . . was a bit more upscale. I had started with the dividers in place between planes (you can see one to the right of the jointer). I soon found there was more banging into the dividers than there ever was bumping tools together so I eventually removed most of them.

[Jason Buresh]

Glenn,

I really like the versatility of your setup. I use 550 cord all the time when I'm hunting and camping so I have a good supply. I am going to strongly consider this design

[Phil Mueller]

I don’t have a picture, but I embedded magnets into a custom panel for my most used planes. The magnets hold the metal planes vertical (which took up less space than a tilted till).

If interested, I can take a photo and post.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Jason, you have a nice bit of wall to get this done. For the eight planes you mention, the till I built for my four planes might be expandable to hold all of yours. Mine holds all the bench planes I'll probably ever have: a 607 Bed Rock, a Stanley Bailey 5-1/2, a L-N 4-1/2, and a Stanley No. 62 block plane.

plane rack.jpg plane rack closeup.jpg

The till itself sticks out maybe an inch from the wall, so the overall projection is just a bit more than the height of the planes. No need tilt it. I have it on the wall with two French cleats, plus a square key inserted to prevent accidental raising off the cleats. The plane toe slips in under the till's top cleat, and then the heel slides into the bottom cleat. Gravity holds them in; the top cleat keeps them from leaning out.

I like that I don't have to swing open a door to get the planes. As for dust, when I pull out a plane, if it's dusty, I just whisk it off with a little bench brush. I keep the metal parts lubricated with camellia oil anyway. But since I centralized dust collection and put in an air cleaner, I don't get much dust buildup.

I think Steven's case is beautiful and I'll be he's proud of it. Mine is modest but I like the cherry and brass screws.

For my router plane, since you asked about that, I use a different part of a larger French cleat wall, to the left of the bench:

router plane box 2.jpg router plane box 1.jpg

This of course sticks out a lot, like all the tools on that portion of the wall. I aim to use the minimum possible wall area for each tool, and allow boxes to stick out as much as 12 or 13 inches. That way, the wall holds every tool that isn't in a drawer.

The French cleat wall only gets plywood cleat boxes, so no particular aesthetic here. I tell myself the holders are merely functional, working prototypes that I can always rebuild someday with nicer wood and joinery. But I needed to get the tools up, out of the way, and where I can quickly put my hands on them.

Like your planes, my tools swam around on my bench for years until the French cleat wall and the plane till. It's a joy to have a place for everything right at arm's length. I especially like how I hold my 30+ router bits, 25 or so Forstner bits, 16 screwdrivers, and 14 chisels on the wall. All tools fit on less than 1.5 square feet of wall.

Let us know how you solve the storage question! Good luck.