Preliminaries - what goes in the box?
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:05 am
The tool box has a relatively set joinery arrangement, however the boxes dimensions will vary depending upon what you put in the box. I have several wooden (plywood) toolboxes, and most of them store a power tool. One box contains a large timber circular saw, one a finishing circular saw, one a portable beam planer, one a groover. If you want to store a power tool in your toolbox, you will have to consider what special blocking or positioning it may require, what accessories it may have and whether you want those stored in the box too. For example, my groover is stored with both of its accessory guide fences, and my finishing saw stores a spare saw blade. The boxes for the saws have a slot in the interior floor so that the saw's blade and guard can slip down past, leaving the tool resting on its base.
if you're planning to put hand tools in the box, the last thing you want is an open box with a pile of tools inside. That makes it hard to find a tool when needed, and the tools are easily damaged when they are free to move about and bump into one another. So you'll need to decide what goes in your toolbox, and as mentioned in the 'views' post, don't try to fit everything you have in one box such that it becomes massively heavy and a burden to move around. You would also want to design a box that wasn't so long that you couldn't comfortably carry it on the end handles. Maybe 30" (76cm) would be a rough length limit - you'll have to decide, based on your arm length, etc..
The tool box I am making for myself here will store primarily three chisel rolls, 4~6 hand planes, and some assorted other hand tools like marking gauges, bevel gauges, etc. I am planning this box to be a site used tool box, not a shop-use tool box.
So, the first step for me was to lay some of these tools out and take some measurements of their dimensions so I could plan the tool box proportions accordingly:
Once you have some volumes to work with, you can think about how to nestle them together in the box. You may wish to consider such factors as placing, say, more commonly used tools in the top area of the storage, and infrequently used tools in the bottom. Or not. You may wish to keep planes with planes, and chisels separate, also all together, or fit them in amongst one another, as their dimensions require In my box I have roll of paring chisels, which is quite long, and a jointing plane, also quite long, so I will place those items next to one another. I also envision that my normal way of using this box will be to pull the interior tray out from it and place it to the side so I can get at everything at once.
Don't rush this step- you want the box to be useful and practical when you're done making it. If in the end you can't fit your tools in as planned, or there is wasted interior space, or the tools move around and get jumbled, it is likely because you didn't spend enough time planning. If you've never done a box with interior partitions, it is likely that in the end something won't come out quite to your satisfaction and you may wish you had set it up differently. While there's always the next tool box you could make, the more time spent thinking about what goes in the box and how it will be arranged pays dividends later.
If you have a particular idea as to what you want to put n the box, but aren't sure how you might want to set up the box optimally to hold those tools, post up your questions here and see if some members might have ideas for you.
if you're planning to put hand tools in the box, the last thing you want is an open box with a pile of tools inside. That makes it hard to find a tool when needed, and the tools are easily damaged when they are free to move about and bump into one another. So you'll need to decide what goes in your toolbox, and as mentioned in the 'views' post, don't try to fit everything you have in one box such that it becomes massively heavy and a burden to move around. You would also want to design a box that wasn't so long that you couldn't comfortably carry it on the end handles. Maybe 30" (76cm) would be a rough length limit - you'll have to decide, based on your arm length, etc..
The tool box I am making for myself here will store primarily three chisel rolls, 4~6 hand planes, and some assorted other hand tools like marking gauges, bevel gauges, etc. I am planning this box to be a site used tool box, not a shop-use tool box.
So, the first step for me was to lay some of these tools out and take some measurements of their dimensions so I could plan the tool box proportions accordingly:
Once you have some volumes to work with, you can think about how to nestle them together in the box. You may wish to consider such factors as placing, say, more commonly used tools in the top area of the storage, and infrequently used tools in the bottom. Or not. You may wish to keep planes with planes, and chisels separate, also all together, or fit them in amongst one another, as their dimensions require In my box I have roll of paring chisels, which is quite long, and a jointing plane, also quite long, so I will place those items next to one another. I also envision that my normal way of using this box will be to pull the interior tray out from it and place it to the side so I can get at everything at once.
Don't rush this step- you want the box to be useful and practical when you're done making it. If in the end you can't fit your tools in as planned, or there is wasted interior space, or the tools move around and get jumbled, it is likely because you didn't spend enough time planning. If you've never done a box with interior partitions, it is likely that in the end something won't come out quite to your satisfaction and you may wish you had set it up differently. While there's always the next tool box you could make, the more time spent thinking about what goes in the box and how it will be arranged pays dividends later.
If you have a particular idea as to what you want to put n the box, but aren't sure how you might want to set up the box optimally to hold those tools, post up your questions here and see if some members might have ideas for you.