Schwarz Tool Chest
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I also tend to have some back pain and was storing all my tools on wall shelves and hooks prior to the chest. If you raise the chest a few inches off the ground you will find that you are only slightly bending for the stuff on the floor of the chest. Your trays and rack (if you make one) are right there by your hand. The stuff you pick up most can be right at arms length.
I have seen some chests in pictures on a small, low bench in the shop, but that didn’t really appeal to me. I put some nice, medium size casters (with a foot operated switch for the brakes, toggles very easily and chest will not move with the brakes on. $7 per at home depot. Larger than the ones in Schwarz tutorial video) that raise the chest about 4″ or so.
If you are keeping saws in a till and planes on the floor of the chest the handles will be up off the floor a bit as well… meaning that you don’t have to bend too far. You keep them on the bench until you are done and the frequency of bending over is not that often.
Ultimately, my fears of an aerobic workout while I was in the shop turned out to be a bit over-blown. YMMV, but I hope this info helps.
I copied my tool chest wall cabinet from beecksvort if I spelt that right anyway LN had it for sale with all the tools in it for about $12,000 a bit pricy but I liked the design so I made one and then my shoulder plane fell out, followed by mt bull nose and lately but this was my fault for not putting it in properly my no.4. Luckily I was able to fix all the damage but I have rubber bands holding everything in place. So what I thought was a good design isn’t after all.
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The Lost Scrolls of HANDWORK
(Hand tool only woodworking magazine)Here is an update on my chest project, with pictures, as requested.
This is a bed I made for the planes so that they are raised and I can keep them set, easier to reach the totes, won’t slide into each other if the chest is moved, etc…
This was made from scrap pine and poplar I had in the shop. It’s anchored to the wall of the chest with 2 small corner braces. If I ever want to remove it and put it on a table or shelf, or just change things in the chest, I just have to remove 2 screws.
Pictures are the bed, then loaded with planes, then installed and loaded in the chest.
Next I’m going to play around with the bottom sliding tray and make some compartments for my specialty planes.
Having a lot of fun with this… thanks for looking.
Looks like a great way to keep the planes from shifting around. Should be easy to reach in and grab the one you need. The chest looks even better as you fill it up. Thanks for the update, keep em coming.
Sorry for the delay… here are some shots, as requested, of the chest trays starting to fill up. You can see in the 3rd tray, I have made compartments for my various specialty planes. Some people would say this is overkill, or a waste of some space, and that is probably true, but I had fun making it and I like the idea of each plane having its own spot. I made little racks on the compartment walls for router and plough plane blades.
I modified a tool belt and attached it to the lid so that I would have a spot to hang pencils and knives, etc… I’m not really in love with it so I will probably make some kind of a custom thing eventually, maybe out of leather… but it is useful for now.
Finally, some people had asked how I like working out of a chest, and now that I have had some time with it, I can say that I really enjoy it. There isn’t as much bending as one would think (which is nice for us guys with sore backs). I really enjoy all the tools being this close to one another… at first I found I was still reflexively reaching for their old spot on the wall shelves, but after I broke this habit (maybe a week) everything is very quickly within reach. If I stagger the top two trays while I work, there is even very little sliding of trays needed. One of the best parts, for me, is I found that it is easier, and that I am more likely, to keep my shop tidy. Everything has a spot and is easy to get to, so I put them back in the trays more often than leaving them on my bench. I also tucked an eva-dry dessicant back in the bottom corner of the chest.
I hope this is all helpful to someone out there. Thanks for reading.
Looks nice Jay, seems like everything is finding a home. I’m glad to hear that it’s working out like you planned also. Still waiting to start mine, the summer heat has made my garage workshop less attractive and I’ve spent a lot of time watching the Tour de France this month but I do need to get going on it. Do you have any pictures of your chisel rack showing how it integrates with the 3 tils? Like to see that.
Cheers
Sure Sid… Here’s a picture I just took. The chisel rack is just 2 pieces of scrap pine (the back one spaces the tools away from the chest wall, the front one is drilled with forstner bits in the press) with spacer blocks glued in the middle to make custom sized slots for my saws and larger chisels.
The rack rests on the bottom till, and is attached with two corner braces to the wall of the chest. I only have to remove 2 screws if I ever wanted to get rid of it. Not sure if you can see in the picture, but I nailed two thin scrap pieces of poplar, the width of the rack, on top of the top two tills to prevent the top two trays from closing into the rack. The bottom tray is just stopped by the front of the rack. I put a couple pieces of weather stripping on the back corners of each tray so that they stop softly and quietly.
Hope this is helpful.
Interesting. I finished the P.S. tool chest but I can’t fit everything in it. I was thinking of doing the Dutch tool chest but now leaning to one of these traditional chests. One that I know I could fit everything in.
David, even after I fit all my tools in the way I want them, there is going to be a little room for growth. It’s really like a workshop on wheels.
If you don’t like the quick and simple method I used on mine, check out this awesome thread by Dave Riendeau and the very nice chest he made. https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com/discussions/topic/tool-chest-build/
Jay,
I’ll review the thread. Yea, I would like one tool chest that everything fits in. I also use wooden bodied planes, and they take up more room. I will do mine with pine and not ply material. Its difficult for me to work with sheet goods. I think normally 7/8 material is used and not 3/4. I have to look into that. The lid on the P.S. Tool chest was pretty hard. I will save that part for last on the next.David, I agree… working with the plywood was a bit unpleasant. If you have the time to build one with real wood I would say definitely go for it. I may make one some day as well.
Thanks for the tool rack pic Jay, looks like an effective and somewhat elegant solution for storage while saving til space.
Cheers
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