Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

[djwong]

Has anyone else had a similar experience with fir?

It can be a bitch to work sometimes. I had a co-worker at Eastwind in California who was so pissed off with tear-out planing some Fir one day that he threw his plane across shop. Not something they tend to mention in company promotional literature...

I mostly have experience hand planing using LV bevel up planes. I recently planed a beam of the VG DF and it actually planned beautifully. I have had the same experience as your friend when planing flat-sawn DF boards. The edges also tend to splinter off if you are not careful. I have only used DF for a workbench project, so I had plenty of thickness to play with. We'll see how it goes with thinner boards.

For this project, I am trying to get my japanese planes setup for use. My smoother is now taking acceptable shavings. Next I have an adjustable throat kanna that I am going to setup in a jack plane configuration with a cambered blade.

[yanai]

Has anyone else had a similar experience with fir?

It can be a bitch to work sometimes. I had a co-worker at Eastwind in California who was so pissed off with tear-out planing some Fir one day that he threw his plane across shop. Not something they tend to mention in company promotional literature...

haha... well i'm happy to hear i'm not alone there then, though i think i'd be more inclined to throw the wood rather than my plane. i had a co-worker who did exactly the same thing... which is how i ended up with some chisels and other damaged items he tossed and i fixed.

as mentioned in the other post i tend to use fir for work benches, for trim and framing, or for parts that will be sanded.

[Chris Hall]

I did some mock up with my chisels to see what minimum dimensions were required for the interior trays.

First the bench chisels - looks like 12" should be wide enough for these 9, allowing a 1/4" (6.35mm) space in between each one:

DSC04762-small.JPG (169.33 KiB) Viewed 10816 times

Then the timber chisels, which are longer and wider:

DSC04763-small.JPG (165.72 KiB) Viewed 10816 times

It looks like I'll need another 12" for those 6 chisels. The timber chisels have heavier handles and I need a minimum depth of 1.4375" to accommodate them. The bench chisels, on the other hand, only need 1.125". So, back to the drawing board to work on fine-tuning the drawer configuration.

[Chris Hall]

A little more work on the drawing and things are much closer. The box will now look something like this, with the wenge lid:

道具箱 moved along 1.jpg (173.49 KiB) Viewed 10812 times

And the two trays remain for now, though I may change the upper one into two side-by-side trays, as that is starting to make a certain amount of sense (and yes, it will be more work to make):

道具箱 moved along 2.jpg (236.74 KiB) Viewed 10812 times

[Chris Hall]

For Tim Moore - maybe this could be something for your son?:

toy-7.jpg (33.6 KiB) Viewed 10802 times

[timoore]

For Tim Moore - maybe this could be something for your son?:

toy-7.jpg

The size might be right. I was thinking of taking the dimensions of "Papa's box" and scaling it by sqrt(2) to get something that's about half the weight and 1/3 the volume.

On the other hand, the tools are a bit dull Isaac has a mini kataba with pistol grip that I occasionally borrow, as well as a small drill set. He's pretty good at making shavings with a block plane, so a small plane is in his near future too.

Tim

[djwong]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here is what I have drawn so far... I do not have a need for a traveling toolbox, but I could use a toolbox for the workshop. I envision having the toolbox near the bench (I will eventually build). As such, I would like the toolbox to offer easy access to the tools I use most.

I have configured it for mostly planes on the bottom, and chisels and layout tools on the top trays. There is an upper tray that holds bench chisels, that can slide around to gain access to the lower tray. The sliding tray also allows a couple of taller items such as my mortise gauge and hammer, to fit. When setup for use, I will move the planes to hang on the side wall of the toolbox.



Toolbox shown with the bench chisel tray.



I guessed at using a 1 1/2" overhang for the cap. I am also not sure if an allowance of a 1" clearance on the sides of the lower tray is enough to easily grab and lift it out. Need to work on trying to shorten the length a little more.

Your thoughts and criticisms are welcome.

David

[Mathieu]

A finger hole or reces in the short sides of the tray might help lifting them out. I have no idea which joinery you plan to use for the cap but keep in mind that you will lift the whole box filled with steel and heavy wood with it, they need to be structuraly sound.

I love that toolbox with the wooden tools! Must have it, wanna play with them. I am a playboy after all..

[Chris Hall]

David,

I like your design. What brand of chisels are those by the way? Seriously, I like the sliding tray within a tray. And Mathieu is right, there needs to be a way to easily pull the tray up from inside the box. That's something I've been thinking about with mine and have not addressed yet design-wise. I've starting to consider the idea of a pair of tray units side by side, one of which with two chisel trays stacked, and the other deeper to hold marking gauges. I'll post up a picture in a little while.

And the cap joinery, well, that is something I have solved after a lot of thought. I would say the cap joinery is the toughest part of the entire piece to sort out - more on that when we get to it.

As for the cap overhang, good question: it is 1.25" to the inside of the box, and 1" to the outside of the box. The end wall of the box is 0.5" thick, hence the cap's width is 2.75". The handle of course sits under the outside overhang, attaching to both the cap and the end wall of the box.

[Chris Hall]

The size might be right. I was thinking of taking the dimensions of "Papa's box" and scaling it by sqrt(2) to get something that's about half the weight and 1/3 the volume.

On the other hand, the tools are a bit dull Isaac has a mini kataba with pistol grip that I occasionally borrow, as well as a small drill set. He's pretty good at making shavings with a block plane, so a small plane is in his near future too.

Tim

Sounds like you've created a real monster there Tim. This kid's going to be dangerous when he gets older. What's next, an axe? How about a rifle?