A box chock-full of tradition. This tool chest, which was designed from time-tested examples, holds every hand tool you need, protects those tools from dust, and keeps everything just one hand motion away.
When storing tools, don’t reinvent the wheel. The best tool storage solution is still a proper chest.
People look at me strangely when I tell them that I have worked in a traditional tool box for 15 years.
They say, Havent you tried a wall cabinet? You could also build storage under your workbench. Why not a series of open shelves next to your bench?
The truth is that Ive tried all those methods yet I still return to my tool chest. It holds every hand tool a woodworker could want. It protects the tools from dust (which contains salt and encourages rust). It allows me to reach every tool in the chest using only one hand.
It is tidy, efficient, and protective. What more could you ask for?
Most woodworkers are unable to stand tool chests because they have never used one or have only ever used a modern chest.
You see, most new chests that Ive encountered are all wrong. They are usually too small to be useful. Most of these mini-chests were built in woodworking classes and needed to be transported home easily hence their squat stature.
And the interiors of these modern chests are poorly divided. The woodworker may have French-fitted each tool into an inflexible space or has no other way to divide the chest so they pile the tools at the bottom.
Over the past few years, I have been studying many ancient chests. And what I found was surprising. Old chests look very similar in terms of size and how their interiors have been divided. Another thing that’s surprising about old chests is their interiors.
Most of the tool chests we see in books are the fancy ones, on which some enterprising soul spent months adding veneer and inlay to the interior. These chests are very rare in nature. Old chests usually have three compartments in the bottom for planes and saws and three sliding trays above for the remaining tools. No inlay. No banding.
After studying these chests I developed 12 rules to describe their construction and size. Although not all chests are created equal, the majority of the best ones follow these rules.
Rule No. 1: As Long As Your Tool Plus Some
The sizes of woodworking tool chests are fairly standard between 89 cm and 109 cm. The chest can hold full-size handsaws with a 66cm blade and 13cm of wooden tote. Ripsaws can have an even longer blade, up to 76 cm. You will also need to reach in to grab the bag for your longest saw. In addition to long saws, the chest needs to hold a jointer plane. While metal planes top out at about 61 cm long, wooden-bodied planes can be as much as 76 cm long.
Rule No. Rule No. 2: Be Tall Enough To Make A Human Tripod
The long of it. My jointer plane, measuring 61 cm long, is the largest plane I have. It was so small that it could fit under my chest, and I wanted to be able to remove it easily.
Short tool chests are difficult to use. They measure between 36 and 41 cm in height, so it can be difficult to reach a tool when they are on the ground. You place them on top of the table saw or workbench. The toolbox now takes up valuable space.
Traditional toolboxes are usually about 56 cm to 69 cm high. These heights are perfect for the human body. The rim of the tool chest is below the pivot point of your waist. To stabilize yourself, bend over and place the off-hand on top of the chest. Then you can use your dominant hand for shifting trays. Your off-hand is now the third leg of a human tripod.
Rule No. 3: A Depth To Match Your Reach
Place your right hand in. Your left hand should be in your right hand. Your dominant hand will help you locate the right tool. No deep-knee bends are necessary.
The depth of the chest is usually about the same dimension as its height. This makes sense for a lot of reasons. It looks great. It is pleasing to see a square profile. But it also makes practical sense. A shallow tool chest wouldnt be as stable, especially with its lid open. A deeper chest would be a pain to use. Imagine a 91 cm-deep chest. Imagine your arms struggling to reach the back for tools.
Rule No. Rule No. 4: Reduce Weight; Increase Joinery
Chest construction should be light and portable to allow for easy movement. It also needs to be strong to withstand the elements during a long voyage.
Heavy woods are stronger than lighter woods. So heres what you do: Use a lightweight wood such as pine. But join the corners using a bombproof joint: through-dovetails. Use this lightweight wood with dovetails for every component of the chest, except for the parts that endure friction. Soft and lightweight woods are easily worn away if they rub constantly against other parts.
Rule No. 5: Make A Thick Shell
Light but strong. If you use pine for your shell (and you should), then you should beef up the thickness a bit. I like 720 cm some people go for the full inch.
Let’s now discuss the four walls that make up the chest. Thats where material selection and construction begins. The material for the shell is specified in old woodworking books: clear pine, without knots or sapwood.
Most tool chests have shells made from pine that is between 720 cm and 3 cm thick. It was more common for early furniture to have thicker structural parts, so a shell of 310 cm would be unusual.
Why not use 1-15 cm material to make the shell? You could, but dovetailing those corners would be a major pain because your material is so thick youd probably have to use a tenon saw to cut the dovetails. The extra thickness of the material wouldn’t add any strength. Chests made from 720 cm material stand up just fine for a couple hundred years.
Rule No. Rule 6: The Bottom Must Be Nail. But Why?
Fixable.
So after all this talk about dovetails, it might seem odd that I recommend tonguing and grooving the chests bottom boards and nailing them on. You can put in a solid base that is held in place by a groove.
One solid-panel bottom is more stable than five to six individual bottom boards that share seasonal expansion and contraction. If you are using a solid-panel panel bottom, you will need to leave enough space for the panel’s expansion and contraction in the groove. This isn’t ideal. Everything should be as tight possible.
There are other good reasons to use individual boards secured by nails. It is much easier to replace a cracked board than a whole panel if the bottom becomes damaged. It is much easier to replace a board that has been nailed on than a board that has been secured in a groove.
Rule No. 7: Skirts, Dust Seals & Miters
Not mitered. To ensure that your skirt stays put, you should hem it and attach a dust seal to the shell. Literally.
The chests skirt and dust seal are nearly as prone to damage as the chests bottom. When the chest is being rammed or loaded onto a truck, they are the first line defense.
The skirt and dust seal (the skirt near the top rim of the shell) should be bulletproof. Simple miters won’t work.
Your skirt and dust seal should be shaped to fit together. It can be difficult to fit everything around the shell.
A dovetailed skirt will not break, but a seal and seal will. They will not open at the corners. Your chest’s exterior will remain as strong 100 years later than it was when you first built it.
Rule No. 8: Dont Blow It On The Lid
There are several ways to make a lid. Some work great. Some are temporary.
The best solution is to build the lid as a frame-and-panel assembly. This keeps almost all wood movement contained to the panel and allows it to float in the middle between the stiles and rails.
Rule No. Rule 9: Divide The Bottom Layer
Better lid. Frame-and-panel lids with raised panels are as strong as they come without adding much weight.
American tool chests usually have planes and saws on the bottom layer. Some English chests put the saws in a till affixed to the underside of the chests lid, some did not. Some American chests would put a saw or two on the lid at times, but mostly the saws went in a rack near the front of the chest.
The back of the chest is a good place for moulding planes and rabbet planes. Place them on their feet with the wedges facing inside the chest. A dividing wall under the wedges will hold the planes upright. The good thing is that most moulding planes are the same length and width. It is a good idea to keep the planes upright on your chest. This will allow you to view their dimensions and profiles.
This chest will only take up a small portion of the bottom, approximately 3-15 cm plus the thickness wall. So there is lots of space left.
Rule No. 10: Trays
The simplest and best way to divide the upper section is to build trays that slide forward and back. Two or three trays are typical. Although they are not common, chests with trays that slide left or right are possible. Why? It makes it hard to find the long tools down below.
The trays slide forward and back on runners that are nailed and glued to the sides of the chest. These runners are like shallow steps up the side of the chest so that each tray can be pulled out of the chest should you need to repair it.
Rule No. 11: Sticking Stuff To The Lid & Walls
The classic bottom layout. Most chests have three compartments in the bottom. There are three compartments in most chests: one for saws, one to mold planes and one each for bench and joinery plans.
Flat stuff can be stored on the front wall or lid. Some people place a framing square, or several squares, on the lid. A few backsaws and handsaws have been seen hanging from the lid. On the front wall of the tool chest you can hang try squares and joinery saws this is the traditional approach. I just rest my carcase and dovetail saws against the wall.
Three trays. These are my three sliding trays. Im only one hand motion away from accessing any of the three bins in the bottom of the chest.
Rule No. 12: Paint The Outside
It is clear. A painted finish is the best choice for a tool box. The chest is protected from the harsh realities of workshop life by the paint.
This is the hard part. Paint the outside of a tool chest. The modern choice is to use milk paint, which is durable and looks better as it ages. We dont have lead-based paints available, which were the paints of choice in the pre-Industrial world.
On the inside of the chest, I recommend skipping a finish. If you must finish the inside, use shellac, which will cure quickly and wont leave a nasty oily smell like linseed oil will.
A Shipload Of Gold Is Worth More Than A Shipload
Without a proper tool chest, the novel The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe would have been a whole lot shorter.
After Crusoe was shipwrecked off the coast of the Americas in the 1719 novel, he returned to the wrecked vessel to pillage it for supplies. Crusoe was a big fan of food. Tools were second on the list.
After much searching, I finally found the carpenters chest. It was a valuable prize and far more valuable than any shipload of gold at that time. I got it down to my raft, whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.
With the tools in the chest, Crusoe is able to build a whole life for himself, including a house and many niceties. Of course, first he has to learn to become a woodworker. And first he has to learn to sharpen.
On his second trip back to ship: I found two or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone.
Crusoes’ first project? Learning to process rough stock into boards so he could build a table and chair. His own words should be encouraging to beginning woodworkers who are teaching themselves the craft.
Here I should need to point out that just as reason is the origin and substance of mathematics, so every man can, in time and with the best rational judgment, master every mechanic art by stating and squarering everything. I’d never used a tool in my entire life. But, through labour, application and contrivance, I discovered that I could have made it, even if I didn’t have tools.
Dont Be A Modern Failure
Modern efforts to improve workshops have failed many times. We tried to re-engineer our workbenches so they were portable, and they became too lightweight and spindly. We redesigned the sawbench into plastic sawhorses that are the wrong height and are flimsy. We invented iron quick-release vises, which wont hold much of anything relating to woodworking.
And we have done the same thing with tool chests.
Our woodworking ancestors may have been uneducated and illiterate, but they certainly werent stupid. Their tool chests were essential for their livelihood, so they carefully considered the design and function.
A traditional tool chest can also teach you valuable lessons. It holds the right amount of tools you need to make any furniture piece and doesn’t have more than you actually use.
