Why loose tools in a tool box? Why even a tool box?

[DaveLeard]

I can't imagine how anybody could efficiently work out of a traditional tool chest. Do they bend over every time they need to access the chest or do they put it up on a bench? As long as I have a wall, I can find better use for bench space than storing a tool chest.

I prefer working with a hanging tool cabinet or with tools hung directly on the wall.

That being said, I've built 3 traditional chests because I, like many of you, enjoy collecting tools and like having them safely put away in a sturdy traditional container, often in an area of the house outside of my workshop. "Nostalgia".

[Window Guy]

I do have a Wall Cabinet, that was one of my first woodworking projects 40 + years ago. When I built it originally it was to hold my power tool accessories and a few small corded tools. When I moved back to Florida and got real interested in Hand Tools as opposed to power tools I modified it for hand tools. The problem is when I built it I didn't even consider space high enough for a saw till so no place for my saws. I also built a new bench which is right at my overhead door and faces outward for the natural light and gives me room to move all around my bench.

With this being said the cabinet is not real handy for when I am working and I don't have enough space on my bench for a bunch of tools etc. I do want to build a chest of some sort with castors so I can roll it around and also when I travel I can take it with me. Another problem is I have small Grandchildren and there is also a lot of smaller kids where I live and don't want them to grab a tool and get hurt if I duck into the house for something. Also I had some hand tools stolen from me when I lived in Atlanta because my Garage Door was up and they helped themselves when I was working in my back yard.

I guess this is a case each to his own and for me personally I am in the camp of a tool chest. Now which design I haven't decided but wall space is a premium for me so I need something that is close to my bench and I don't like clutter and have to take time to figure out where something is. Use the tool put it back and all is good, just my $.02

Steve

[toolemera]

Sort of in response to my own website link, but maybe not so much...

I've had three old floor tool chests, of which I have two now:

Poplar and apple house timber framers tool chest

Walnut and rosewood shipwrights tool chest

Walnut cabinet makes tool chest

I have the first two but no longer the last. All three are locking. All three have substantial metal handles. All three have similar tills although the cabinet makers had covered tills and nicer looking interior.

The timber framers chest came with a full set of tools and some documentary material. The shipwrights chest came from the coast of New Hampshire with a set of ships carpenters planes.

The cabinet makers chest was empty but clearly that's what it was.

All three were made for someone who might either work for some extended period of time on a job site or who worked in a shop with other people and needed to secure their tools.

What I think is most relevant is that nearly every photograph I've ever seen of woodworkers in shops show floor tool chest next to workbenches ... and... wall tool cabinets holding regularly used tools such as chisels, gouges, saws, etc.. It's only field photographs that show a floor tool chest in use as the sole means of storing and moving tools.

I think this whole tool chest thing is so far out of whack with reality that the tool chest has been elevated to a new pantheon of wonderment. Make and own such a chest and you will be a better woodworker.

The truth is that the floor tool chest has it's place in particular work settings and that's all there is to it. If that fits your need, than it's right for you. If not, build or buy something different.

[Admiral]

I am a wall hanging cabinet type of guy, but I have given thought to a traveling tool chest, light enough to carry by myself, with just the basics, maybe 2 bench planes, some saws, chisels, marking and measuring, etc.

I think Chris is in the business of writing, and a chest just sort of caught his fancy, so he wrote about it. For some fo1k, it is a valid storage alternative as a stationary unit, but the larger chests are certainly not portable.

[DallasStarter]

Admiral said:

---

. . .the larger chests are certainly not portable.

---

Depends on your definition of portable I guess. They're not practical for running around town doing handyman work, but who travels their tools in such a capricious manner anyway?

My chest is actually slightly larger than Chris's full English chest and it easilly fit in the back of a Nissan Murano when I took it with me to a week of classes at the Homestead Heritage School of Woodworking. Sure, I needed another body to lift it in and out, but it wasn't a big deal. And it sure was nice to have all my tools with me
Just sayin. . .

Reed

[Gregory of Sherwood Forest]

I started with a chest, then outgrew it.
I then made a wall cabinet, but then I outgrew it.
Then I had a medium sized plane till. But then I outgrew it.

Now I have this monstrosity.









Plus another wall of saws and one of drawknives, carving tools, and measuring tools.



I don't think I'll be going back to a toolchest any time soon, but I really do have a little piece of me that envies those that have one and are happy with it. Contentment is a beautiful thing.


.

[Bob DeViney]

I live in western Washington and have stored all but my largest tools in a tall stainless steel mechanics-style cabinet for decades. While the tools I need while working lay about the bench and assembly table, they get wiped off and put away at the end of every day. I use the walls to store wood, fasteners, finishes, books and clamps.

I very much enjoyed the ATC book, and was challenged to rethink my approach to all forms of purchasing as well as woodworking. While I don't have a need or desire for the old style of tool chest, I can see why it has great appeal to some.

My best tools never leave the shop. I use a combination of old milk bottle carriers and beat-up rolling suitcases to carry my carpentry and older woodworking tools when I help my own kids with remodeling or work at an orphanage in Mexico each winter.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle

[henrypig]

toolemera said:

---

Make and own such a chest and you will be a better woodworker.

---

Well - yes. In Britain, at least, the chest was the final apprenticeship project, worked on in your spare time without help, and was meant to display your skills to your master before the end of the apprenticeship term. The apprentice would most often then become a shop-less journeyman, at least initially, and the chest would travel with him.

toolemera said:

---

The truth is that nowadays the floor tool chest has it's place in particular work settings and that's all there is to it. If that fits your need, than it's right for you. If not, build or buy something different.

---

Yup. But the first reason still obtains.

[Henry Disston]

For me a tool chest protects my tools from the changing humidity levels and dust in my basement shop, both will cause flash rust in a day or two.

And they're just cool!

[measure once cut remeasure]

I like tool boxes, as a means to keep similar tools together in one place where I can find them. All the tool boxes are stowed away on shelves except for the plumbing box.

Someday, some of the tool box items could end up in drawers, when I get around to making more drawer storage.

Plumbing box Weighs a ton, you pull things out of it, and lift at your own risk.

Metal working box has snips, files wire burshes, scotch brite pads, taps and dies.

Wrench box for large wrenches.

Dremel box has three dremel tools and bits

Electrical box has electrical tools and parts

The other box has an angle grinder and multi oscilating tool.

my .02
Karl