Craftsman-style Tool Carrier

Posted 30 April 2020

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If you are looking for a sampler piece to both learn from and express your appreciation in, this hand-tooled carrier exemplifies a person’s love for the traditions of joinery. It may look complex, but Paul walks and talks you through all of the complexities to a beautifully finished example of your work.

25 Comments

  9. Great project! I made something similar about 58 years ago in High School. A friend that was a bit slow didn’t have very good luck with his and was reluctant to take it home so I gave him mine to take home. I never told anyone until now. Maybe it’s time to make another one. Thanks!

  13. Greetings to the Woodworking Mssterclass crew,
    I don’t usually comment on the internet, shyness probably. I believe there is a weakness in the eesign of what is otherwise a very sturdy and good looking carrier.
    When the carrier is held by the handle, the weak points are the two 1/4 inch tenons joining the handle sides to the carrier bar. In the best of cases, with perfect joints and perfect gluing, it may hold. But for us amateurs there is no way to know whether our glued joint is perfect unless there is a failure
    Even with the dowels shown on the picture, but not on the drawings, it remain just a 1/4 inch tenon.
    I know it is not a life and death risk. It just may not last 100 years. And it is something one should be aware when building the carrier
    Regards

      1. In the politest way possible, I beg to disagree. The thickness that takes the weight is the vertical height, not the horizontal. Like in an I-beam; and these are further constrained from torsion or bending by the housing. In fact the tenons merely have to resist shearing off, and I’m pretty sure that would take over a hundred kg in oak.

        Also, look at the tenons on the rails around chair seats: they’re often only 1/4” or so, and they take a substantial fraction of a person’s weight, probably more than we can easily lift one handed.

        Really to answer this one we need someone to make a couple in pine and test to destruction 🙂 There have been similar test on the internet between joint types (biscuits vs half lap vs m&t etc), and the mortise and tenon is *incredibly* strong.

    1. I couldn’t agree more, the drawings are wonderful! It may well be out of the regular scope of these classes, but I would really like to learn how to make these kind of drawings in a structured way myself. Any chance of doing a video series on that? Does anyone know a good resource for learning this?

  15. Hi Paul,

    Always enjoy watching your work and get learning so much so thank you. Just wondered if there was are reason for going with cutting the stopped groove in the end pieces by hand, over using a plough plane and a lapped dovetail

    thanks
    Dave

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