What to do with my tools

[Chris S]

I spent yesterday morning lapping and honing the irons for several new chisels and planes that have appeared in my garage lately. After honing to a frightening edge and shaving most of the hair off my left arm to be sure they really were sharp I spent some time just staring at them on the bench. I couldn't shake the feeling that I should be doing something with all these nice tools other than looking at them though. Finally it hit me. I need to display them!

But seriously, I do need to create some storage soon as I'm not going to just toss these things into a big box like I do my craftsman wrenches and sockets and such. Can anyone suggest a good project for wall hanging storage that would be a good skill builder as well? Lot's of dovetails would be great! I'm not asking for free plans or anything like that. Just suggestions for a storage project that would get my new chisels planes and handsaws involved.

Thanks!

-Chris

[Tom]

Someday, it'll all be over....

[Joel Jacobson]

chisels and planes ..... I couldn't shake the feeling that I should be doing something with all these nice tools other than looking at them though .....

Might I suggest woodworking?

[Chris S]

I don't understand what you mean.

[Chris S]

But I've already seen them. Oh, you mean "those people".

[Chris S]

I already have a copy and forgot all about the wall hung storage. Thanks for reminding me.

-Chris

[Christian Aufreiter]

Hi Chris,

there are many possibilities to store tools. Tool boxes, tool chests, cabinets, drawers, pegboards - it depends mainly on your taste and your application. How much tools do you want to store? You mentioned that you want something like a wall hanging cabinet but you should maybe consider a small extra tool box for mobile use.

Here are A FEW examples of really nice cabinets and a small box:

and storage in drawers: this helps,

Christian

[Silvan]

For ugly but functional, I have a number of 4x4 blocks of mystery heartwood into which I've bored a series of deep holes suitable for holding chisels and whatnot points up.

I also have a tool cabinet that's really a remnant from the days when my tools were stored out on a screened-in back porch that was very visible to the irritating neighbor who used to bring out a lawn chair and sit in my back yard, staring at the back of my house. (We were both renting adjacent houses from the same landlord, and she evidently thought my yard was her yard too, or something. I think she was trying to get in my pants, but if I was going to give SWMBO an excuse to cut my penis off, I sure would have chosen a much more appealing way to get in trouble than *that* crazy chick.)

So, um, anyway, you could do the tool cabinet, except do it prettier than I did. The back and sides are lined with pegboard, and the doors are thick enough to permit the attachment of short screws for holding various things. I have all kinds of saws and scrapers and whatnot in there. Limitless possibilities. You could even do the front with M&T frames with plexiglass windows, and put a light in there so you can flip it on to display your pretties in all their shiney glory.

[charlie b]

Chris:

I built a pair of wall hanging tool cabinets from scratch using a modular approach. Got to try finger/box joints, through dovetails, half blind dovetails, dados (how do you spell the plural of "dado"?), sliding dovetails ... Learned a great deal - and at low risk. The modular approach limits screw ups to just one module - at a time - and if you want to rearrange later you swap out a module or two and make new ones.

You will be amazed at how much stuff you can get into a relatively small cabinet, especially if you make the doors 2-3 inches deep. And when things have a "home" they're a lot easier to find. I can go right to any of the tools in one of my wall cabinets - in the dark.

Check it out and you may get some more ideas for yours.

(all one line so watch the line wrap)

charlie b

ps: when you get to 3" x 3" x 3" drawers STOP!

[Charles Erskine]

How about something like this?

[david]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who sometimes stands around the shop just enjoying looking at my tools.

-David

[Chris S]

Do you know how long it took me to lap and hone the iron for my tiny little collection of planes and chisels? And you are suggesting that I now plunge that iron into a piece of wood?

[Chris S]

a garage and wants to park in there. Floor space for walking around the sides of a car is going to to be scarce so storage that mounts on the wall and doesn't stick out too far is going to be the name of the game.

-Chris

[Chris S]

Heh, I planed a bit off the side of a mahogany 1X8 Sunday and spent at least

30 minutes just running my finger over the glass smooth surface saying "wow" over and over again. I showed it to my wife and she spent a good bit of time doing the same thing, though I'm sure she was less impressed than I.

-Chris

[Christopher]

I like it. The modular idea is pretty good too since I could change things later and a mistake would not blemish the entire cabinet.

-Chris

[Christopher]

Thanks. Disappointing to see nothing but some screwdrivers and pliers in the toolbox pictured there. Guess that's to be expected though.

-Chris

[Christopher]

My ugly but functional is a couple 2X4 sheets of pegboard I hung in a corner. It helps for a lot of things but doesn't give me a nice place to keep planes.

I like the idea of doing something that would protect while being a nice display. I also like the idea of being able to use the back side of the doors for more storage. I'll probably end up going with whatever give the most storage capacity since I'm short on room.

-Chris

[Silvan]

Oooh, I have a vision that's much prettier than mine. Build shelves on the inside of the doors, with little rails in the front to keep stuff from falling off when the doors are opened. Think spice rack, or maybe a fancy dart board. Then you can open the doors and have all your shiney planes sitting on the shelves while the rest of your pretties are hanging on pegboard or something on the inside.

Suggest if you use any pegboard, go for the 1/4" stuff instead of the 1/8" stuff. (I think those numbers are right.) I used the cheaper stuff with the itty bitty holes, and it's actually a PITA. Hard to get the hooks in, and once they're there, it's hard to keep them from pulling out along with whatever tool I'm removing.

To keep the perf board from getting all dull and crappy looking over time, I gave mine a double shot of poly, front and back. It looks very classy. (Well, really classy in the same way a fancy double wide house trailer looks classy. It's K-Mart classy, but looks better than straight pegboard anyway.)

[Andy Dingley]

Get another set as "users"

[Christian Aufreiter]

How about this one

?

Looks great to me.

Regards,

Christian