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

[Derek Cohen]

I have seen many tool boxes displayed here and there since Christopher Schwarz began popularising them. I see the point of their use for travelling carpenters and cabinetmakers. I understand if you simply lack the storage space. However I am not convinced of their purpose for the average woodworker with space in a dedicated workshop. Chris makes an argument for his tool box, but it is just not convincing to me. I just like to find my tools without having to rummage for them.

Perhaps the biggest issue I have with tool boxes are the tool trays. It is that the tools that are left loose to slide around and bang into one another. Marking knives, screwdrivers, rules, a compass, scribes .... the list is endless .... all of these with sharp blades or clean edges just waiting to be dinged. Not to forget cutting or stabbing oneself as you reach in.

I prefer a cabinet with shelves or hang it on the wall. Out of harms way.

So why the tool cabinets in your shop? Is this just a senseless fashion?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[chriscos]

Perhaps nostalgia?

I just leave my tools amongst a smothering pile of shavings on my bench. I keep one corner clear near the front vise and a not-wide-enough swath along the front dog holes to do actual work.

[hbmcc]

1. Some people can put all their tools into that box on the floor. I use cardboard boxes. Both concepts drive me nuts.

2. That box can have wonderful effervescence to prevent rust. Here where I live we blow moss out of our noses. This country is green, wet, and 99-percent humid for 9 months.

3. How much time are you willing to spend dusting your tools? I have a radial arm saw that spits 5 gallons of chips into the garage every time I turn it on. There are several marking gauges and a plane buried right now. And a pile of failed attempts to contain the sawdust.

4. I have cardboard (with tools) containing projects scattered throughout the house. I have not seen some tools for 5 years.... Ummm, ... Yah, about that long.

5. I agree, I hate loose tools. That's been my life for about 6 decades. My design brain puts tools into safe containers, safe containers into shelf slots, drawers, or neat cardboard.... Then, when I work, safe containers move to a neat box under a cool looking stool that I have to sit on, or go screaming, raving insane from lower back pain. The neat safe containers then get placed somewhere and are lost, leaving empty shelf slots to catch sawdust from the RAS.

6. Schwarz drinks beer. His pleasure resides in rectangular boxes.

[hbmcc]

Quote:

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I prefer a cabinet with shelves or hang it on the wall. Out of harms way.

So why the tool cabinets in your shop? Is this just a senseless fashion?

---

I think the above is disjointed thinking. Or, wine? Can't be beer...

[toolemera]

Tradition! Tradition gone astray and out of context. Tool chests and locking tool cabinets were needed to secure tools from other workers and not much else. If a worker did move to a new job, the chest or cabinet might go with him if he owned it to begin with.

Other than these uses, there is no practical need for either one in a personal shop space. An open wall cabinet is just dandy or a standing cabinet with sliding drawers for lesser used tools.

Tradition out of context is pretty to look at but irrational in use. Years past I worked in a number of architectural cabinet shops and not a one had tool chests of locking cabinets. The workers brought their own tools, kept them in shelving units with locking sliding doors or in small, portable carryalls they could bring home each day. Why? Because there were laborers and other people in and out all the time.

No one had a need for the huge variety of tools we seem to think are needed to get the work done. When a job was in the making, the workers brought in specialized tools from home and then took them back home after the job was done.

It's only in photographs if mid 19th C and early 20th C workshops that you see tool chests next to workbenches and tool cabinets on walls and then, mostly in patternmakers and furniture shops.

So, if you want to be traditional, and plan on working from a shop in your home, you don't need a tool chest or a locking cabinet. You just need what Derek describes. Unless the chest or cabinet is something you enjoy looking at.

I currently have two old tool chests that are a pain to use, so I don't use them. I had a wall cabinet from a time when we shared a basement and I had to secure everything. That was sold as soon as possible. I use an old Craftsman bench with a bunch of sliding drawers and a Gertsner Pattern makers tool box, leatherette covered, to hold small tools. That's about it.

The two tool chests will, I suspect, be sold at some point along with the Ulmia workbench which I just don't use for antiques restoration. I use the bench top of the Craftsman bench, a Black & Decker Workmate and that's it for now.

[Corneel]

I don't understand either. Chisels, screwdrivers and such are stacked behind battens nailed to the wall. A sawtill on the right, some shelves for al the small stuff on the left and the planes in a cheap cupboard behind me. Everything in reach and plain view. Perfect.

[Axehandle]

All I can say is that I have been questioning the tool chests utility sin the Anarchist's Tool Chest came out. I have the book and love it every bit of it except the facination with and the need to build a tool chest. For every reason that has been mentioned.

[funchuck]

I have a few reasons why I have a toolbox:

1. It is fairly easy to make.

2. All the tools in it can be easily locked up. My workshop is indoors, in a house addition, and I have a 3 year old and 5 year old kid. I want all my tools to be inaccessible when I am not there, not only for my kids, but also their friends (some of whom are not so well behaved!).

Also, because my workshop is in a part of the house that needs to be presentable, I am not allowed to mount cabinets to the walls. This way, when we have events like b-day parties, I can move all my tools into a spare bedroom so that we have more room for the guests.

As far as stuff banging into each other, I actually keep most of my tools in the original packaging. The only exception are my saws, which are kept in the saw till.

I also have a lockable cabinet under the workbench that is used to keep the rest of my tools... so I guess I do have a cabinet after all... and I do agree that cabinets are much easier to access and use.

[MichaelMouse]

I don't store them in one - well, at least not intentionally - but I have a tote to collect the tools I'll need on a job out of the shop. Kids are gone, and SWMBO has some saucy replies to my requests to go fetch a forgotten tool, so I have to take care of myself.

[Blacky's Boy]

I prefer a cabinet with doors. Mostly so that I can have a de-humidifier in the cabinet to help reduce the rust. But partially to discourage LOML from ever again using my dovetail saw to trim a hedge.