Tool tote and or chest drawer hardware

[RayV]

Still working on ideas for the tool tote/chest that I am going to make. It will have drawers in the bottom section and a bin and maybe a tray up top. The box will sit on the counter most of the time but needs to be portable.

My first attempts at designing a door to keep the drawers closed were no good but I was thinking of the door being above the drawers and needing a slot to slide into. Checking out some hardware showed me a better way would be to have the door slide in under the bottom drawer. Anyone have experience with this hardware or something similar?

would need two since this 'portable' box will probably end up being around 30" wide.

Or I could have no door and use a gang lock to hold the drawers closed. The hardware from Rockler says it only needs a 5/32 groove, great!

wouldn't need to install the drawer clips; I could have the pins go into slots cut into the slides when unlocked and into slots in the drawer sides when locked. The drawers and slides will be similar to these being I will have two drawers per row so would need two of the above locks. Even better would be if I could figure out a way to spring load them open and allow the lid to close them.

I would like to hear from anyone who has tried either of these pieces of hardware, has helpful suggestions, or just wants to ridicule me.

[dpb]

No experience w/ any of the indicated products, but have done two over the years...

Unless it's to be an elegant piece, the first one I ever made that I still use 30 yrs later simply had an added brass ring on a swivel mounted on the bottom of the tray front support rail and a matching hole w/ brass insert in the bottom. A rod simply dropped through the ring and into the hole...

Second for a friend was nice walnut chest...for it I simply routed a groove for the door hinge pins and the front panel lays flat and slides in w/ nothing more than the pins dropping into a vertical groove at the front--raise the panel 1/4" or so, then lay it down and slide it back into the space under the drawer...used a piece of the thin, pressure sensitive plastic to make it stay slick. As far a I know it's still functional but haven't seen it for 10 years or more...

[RayV]

What method did you use at the top of the panel to keep it from tipping forward?

[dpb]

...

Really, really, high tech.... :)

Button catch(es) gave it a little satisfying click and aligns it. There was an inset handle to grasp that left the front surface flush that was sufficient since the catches weren't terribly strong. It isn't a solid locking arrangement, though, obviously. It was, however, pretty simple to make and works fine for the casual move/use, but may not hold against an actual spill or drop if the contents are heavy. If are looking for either a security lock or for an actual work site portable box so that were necessary I'd probably have gone with the inset lock or made a ledge enough that I could have had a drop-thru rod. The rear drop rod or bar is another possibility, of course. I've seen one where the drawers were made w/ about a 1/2" inset in the middle at the rear and a plate inset in the bottom with a slot in it to receive the locking plate that was a 3/16" x 1" or similar strap. One can get carried away and include that w/ a hinge and mimic the self-locking toolchests, but I've never really liked them as it requires opening the top tray lid to open a drawer, hence my choice of the button on the front or the manual drop rod.

HTH for at least some ideas...I'm sure there are a lot of much more exotic/fancy/impressive solutions... :)

[J T]

Fri, Nov 3, 2006, 7:20am (EST-3) [e-mail] (RayV) doth sayeth: The box will sit on the counter most of the time but needs to be portable. this 'portable' box will probably end up being around

30" wide. I would like to hear from anyone who has tried either of these pieces of hardware, has helpful suggestions, or just wants to ridicule me.

I'm just curious. What exactly is "your" definitin of "portable"? 'Cause I've seen "portable" tool boxes before. It usually meant it was carried around in the back of a pickup, after two men, or more, wrestled it up there, often meaning it wound up being slid up a couple of planks, because you were risking serious injury ifting the damn thing. At 30" wide your version doesn't sount any lighter.

If it was me, making a chest to hold tools, and be able to wrestle into the back of a truck to take to a job site, I'd make something along the line of what my grandfather had. It was a large chest, probably about 4' wide, about 3' front to back, anc probably something over 2' high. Locking top. Inside the tools were in rectangular boxes, that slid back and forth on lips or ledges, about 3 layers of them. This let you have access to every tool in the box, even those on the bottom. the saws were held in the top. All the tools were hand tools, but it would work with power hand tools. It wasn't light, but it was "portable", and it didn't set on a bench, it sat on the floor.

Again, if it wss me, I'd make several "totes, that one man could handle by himself, making multiple trips from the shop to the truck, the truck to the job site, and reverse when done. I'd just load the tools I needed for that particular job, and when in the shop I'd keep them in some non-portable location, wheher a chest, hanging on the wall, on a whelf, whatever.

JOAT If you're not making a rocket, it ain't rocket science.