Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

User avatar
Chris Hall
Site Admin
Contact:
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 2385
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:31 pm

I think I've finally settled upon the details for making the trays easily removable. I am going to stick with the centralized, stacked trays for chisels, with room on either side for another plane or two.

I was looking at a metal lift catch dealie-o, but upon further mulling, realized I could thicken the lower chisel tray side pieces, place tenons onto their ends, and cut a hollow handhold on the side.

Here's an overview:
道具箱 tray detail a-small.jpg
道具箱 tray detail a-small.jpg (123.18 KiB) Viewed 8311 times
A closer look:
道具箱 tray detail b-small.jpg
道具箱 tray detail b-small.jpg (99.33 KiB) Viewed 8311 times
Now with the upper tray removed:
道具箱 tray detail c-small.jpg
道具箱 tray detail c-small.jpg (102.34 KiB) Viewed 8311 times
And here's a view of the lower tray sidepieces, with one wall removed so you can see the x-ray view of the inside of the handle/hollow:
道具箱 tray handle detail-small.jpg
道具箱 tray handle detail-small.jpg (38.51 KiB) Viewed 8311 times
I think this should work and it will be easy to make. It does add 4 more mortises and tenons mind you. It also means i can't fill up those side area of the tray as I need to leave enough room to get my hands in there. I figure a plane each side should be fine, and in the worse case scenario, i would have to remove a tool or two in order to get access to the handholds. Hopefully that won't, uh, be the case. :lol:
djwong
Deshi
Location: Cupertino, CA
Posts: 134
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:52 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:02 pm

That's a really nice simple solution to the "lifting trays" problem. I like the reuse of existing design elements.
User avatar
Chris Hall
Site Admin
Contact:
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 2385
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:31 pm

Glad you like it Djwong. I was relieved to arrive at a fairly simple solution.
User avatar
Chris Hall
Site Admin
Contact:
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 2385
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Fri Feb 24, 2012 6:06 pm

I managed to get the interior partitions and associated joinery competed just short of a final fitting today, so I took the opportunity to do a partial trial assembly to assess how my storage plans for tools were going to look. The spacing between the partitions in my toolbox was set by my jointing plane, so that was the first thing to put in the box:
DSC04914-small.JPG
DSC04914-small.JPG (105.75 KiB) Viewed 8283 times
Then i fitted a few more items. In the drawing stage, I had make an approximate shape for a roll of chisels, and chose to err on the side of caution by making that representation slightly larger than it actually was. A chisel roll is an irregular shape and would have taken too much time to represent accurately in a drawing. I suspected that once I put the designated tools in the box between the partitions though, I would have some extra room to fit in a couple of hammers - I was right:
DSC04915-small.JPG
DSC04915-small.JPG (133.24 KiB) Viewed 8283 times
A view of the other end:
DSC04916-small.JPG
DSC04916-small.JPG (141.34 KiB) Viewed 8283 times
Then I realized I could easily fit two planes to the end cavity, so I did so and it looks like it will work:
DSC04917-small.JPG
DSC04917-small.JPG (154.37 KiB) Viewed 8283 times
This second mock up stage allows for some more focused decisions about tool storage and how best to fix the tools in place. I'm thinking I might be get a hold of some pieces of foam, then cutting and fitting each tool into place in the foam. Foam would protect the tools, help hold them in place, and wouldn't tend to promote corrosion like wood can - and it wouldn't add significant weight to the box. I think there is some room on one end of the box for additional storage above the marking gauges, but haven't decided yet what will go there and how it will be held in position.
mi
michael hollihn

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:41 am

Hello All. Hello Chris. Forgive me for not chiming in sooner. I've been busy with work and family life. I've finally "snuck" some midnight oil and first got overwhelmed by how far behind i was, then excited how challenging this is. I'm approaching my tool boxes (2) from two directions.

The first is i am wanting to make these boxes using store bought SPF (spruce pine fir) from my local hardware store. I have been disgusted at our forest industry and how our legacy of old growth has been turned into tree farms looking more like rows of wheat. The dimensional wood we have to choose from now is basically 1x4 and 1x6 (.75" x 3.5" and .75" x 5.5") unless i want a 2x4 or 2x6. This is what BC forests have been reduced to (besides OSB, plywood and chip wood we sell to the US to burn for electricity ??). Of course i still have my local woodlots which i doggedly support (usually) and i can get some nice wood from them. For now, in protest, i am building with what i can get from the main forest suppliers so i will build this out of 1x4 and 1x6 SPF. It's light and dry and i do like that regular carpenters and loggers and townsfolk can recognize some standard wood and see what else can be done with it.

The second angle is my last tool box broke after a rafter fell on it from on high. :o The hockey stick handle broke and old yellow plastic classic rope made do but i can't stand it any longer. Years ago when i was at the Timber Framers Guild conference at Asilomar, i took part in a workshop where we made the shelter that you go to before you go to the tea ceremony. There were Japanese masters there guiding us. One of the younger masters had a simple yet beautiful slim tool box with a lid. The lid slid off and went upside down and he put the tools he needed in it and carried the lid around to his work station. It resonated with me so i hope you will forgive that i've modified the lid to suit this function.

Of course it's all bits and bytes still so if anyone sees any part of this design that raises an eyebrow please share your skepticism.
Attachments
big box closed.jpg
big box closed.jpg (171.11 KiB) Viewed 8267 times
big box opened.jpg
big box opened.jpg (275.08 KiB) Viewed 8267 times
big box bottom.jpg
big box bottom.jpg (396.13 KiB) Viewed 8267 times
long box closed.jpg
long box closed.jpg (218.11 KiB) Viewed 8267 times
long box opened.jpg
long box opened.jpg (192.37 KiB) Viewed 8267 times
User avatar
Chris Hall
Site Admin
Contact:
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 2385
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:17 am

Michael, good to hear from you and interesting design. Good work! I like those custom tools! :)

A couple of observations:

- I can understand, given the slimness of the box, why you located the floor panel dadoes in plane with the lower carcase tenons, and why you chose to not extend the dado all the way along on the end boards (otherwise a chunk of the tenon would be removed). I don't follow however why you kept the long side carcase dadoes back - surely they could run right up to the tenon. The box's design would not be impaired at all if you added 3/8" of height to it and lowered the floor pan so that its dado would clear the tenon. I notice you have done the same stopped dadoes on the lid. Personally, I'm not exactly wildly enthusiastic about that detail - it wouldn't be hard to configure the dovetailed corners of the lid to allow a dado all the way in. If your floor panel shrinks appreciably, there will be gaps visible in the corners - are you sure you want that on the top of the box?

- the partition tenons are intended to keep the sides of the box from any tendency to bow outwards, and are located in the middle of the carcase sides. You have placed yours up high. Any special reason for that?

-since you are going with a overlapping top lid, do you have any concerns about being able to grab the box side handles? I guess I would worry that it might be easy to grab the box so that your grip is more on the lid than the box itself and that if your grip slipped a little the lid would remain in your hand while the box contents would get dumped out on the floor. This might be more likely to happen if someone else picked your tool box up to move it, someone unaware of how the lid and box were connected.

One final note - possibly a suggestion: I find it helpful to work in whole inches as opposed to feet and inches, especially on smaller projects. Having a measurement with two units present, feet and inches is going to lead to 'transposition of number errors' more often, I would suspect, than keeping to one unit. 1'-5", or 17" - which is less complicated? It's easy to reset SketchUp for this, and I personally like to use decimal inches all the time in Sketchup (and elsewhere in my work) as it is the most seamless when going from calculator to wood. Similarly, I avoid using fractions generally. I think that 3.3125" is easier to remember and less likely to be confused than the combined measure of 3-5/16". If a person were not familiar with feet-inches-fractions conventions, they might think that 3-5/16" is a subtraction problem.

I use a calculator a lot in my work and this is what I've gravitated towards after a while. YMMV.

If working in metric or shaku/sun/bu, then decimalization is of course, um, built right in.
Jack_Ervin.
5
5
Posts: 296
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:36 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:11 pm

Here is a start of the drawing of what I plan to build. The dimensions are 15.625" wide by 27.750" long by 9.500" high outside. These dimensions fit the material that I have milled up. I have some more work and clean up of this sheet. I will work up the side, end and divider detail drawings next as well as cutting the stock to length.
Attachments
DSC01736.JPG
Basic shell
DSC01736.JPG (208.47 KiB) Viewed 8227 times
Last edited by Jack_Ervin. on Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jack_Ervin.
5
5
Posts: 296
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:36 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:17 pm

A little more drawing.
Attachments
DSC01741.JPG
DSC01741.JPG (197.57 KiB) Viewed 8227 times
Last edited by Jack_Ervin. on Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Chris Hall
Site Admin
Contact:
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 2385
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:20 pm

That's looking good. Can you post slightly larger file sizes so it is easier to see the detail? I find a width of 600~800 pixels is about right.
Jack_Ervin.
5
5
Posts: 296
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:36 pm

Re: Preliminaries - what goes in the box?

Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:53 pm

Chris Hall wrote:That's looking good. Can you post slightly larger file sizes so it is easier to see the detail? I find a width of 600~800 pixels is about right.
The program I'm compressing with doesn't do pixel width specifically so I'll have to work it out and then I'll be making adjustments on some of what I have already posted to give better clarity. Thanks for the heads up.

Jack

Return to “Project 1: The Tool Box”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests