Store all the tools you need in easy reach
The list of tools that I have, those I own, and the ones I use the most would be three. When I decided to build a wall cabinet for my hand tools, I put my most-used tools close at hand and at eye level, along with plenty of drawer storage for tools I dont need so often.
I spent time sorting through my tools and experimenting. To determine the dimensions and layout of my tools and cabinet, I cut pieces of foam core (or plywood or cardboard). My goal was to store as much as possible in a compact and organized space.
Tailor The Plan
If youre thinking of building a tool chest similar to this, I suggest that you alter my design and adapt it to your tools, your shop and the way you work. You will be more productive and happier with the results.
I let function lead the way, with a single door for hanging storage. To add depth, the stiles were turned 90 degrees. I wanted to hang a framing square in a corner of the door, and a bit of experimentation led to an overall height of 76 cm and a width of 22 . A survey of the tools destined to hang in the door led to an overall depth of the door at 2 and I settled on a case depth of 11 .
My initial thought was drawers at the bottom of the case with hanging and shelf storage above. I did not want the drawers to be too high so I settled for a range of heights, from 1 to 2, with one narrower drawer. A mock-up of the plane ramp left room at the top and rather than redo my layout, I sketched in three 5 cm-high drawers at the top.
That looked good to me, so I got a few people to support me. The horizontal division of the drawers was moved down to the lower drawers. I wanted wider drawers so I made the two-thirds of the space. The regular division made it easier to manage smaller sizes and kept the arrangement interesting.
From The Outside In
First, function. The cabinet should be designed around groups of tools. Place the most frequently used ones near the front.
The outer case is solid wood, connected with through-dovetails, as is the door frame. The dovetails were laid so that there was a half-tail at the door and case, and half-pins at both the wall and outside edges of the door.
After cutting the pins by hand, I moved the end of my board to the bottom of my vise so that it was level with the top of a scrap piece on top of a container. Next, I used a trim router to remove any waste between the pins. However, the saw cuts were not completed. The small amount of material that remained was cleaned out with a chisel.
Rapid removal. A trim router with a straight bit makes quick work of clearing waste between the pins, and it leaves a flat baseline.
Once the pins were cut, I marked the tails and made the first of many test assemblies. When I have a complicated case, I try to use existing pieces for the joinery. With the outer case together, I marked the locations of the dados that capture the shelves and web frames.
I used a router with a straight bit and a right-angle guide to rout the dados. To make sure I didn’t have to repeat or change my tool setups because the dados were different in width, I set up several routers. There are times when you really do need four routers.
Plan meets reality. With the case dry-fit, dados for interior partitions are laid out from a story stick.
There is a solid shelf below the top drawers and another solid shelf above the lower drawers. These shelves are connected by a solid vertical separator that extends 3 cm beyond the front edge. The vertical divider’s dados are 1 cm from the front. To cover the dados, the front of divider is notched at both ends. I assembled the case and fitted the vertical divider. Then, I cut and fitted the front rails for the web frames.
Next I laid out and cut the dados for all the vertical dividers between the drawers. These dividers are made from a shorter piece at the front that is glued cross-grain to an extended piece running front to back. These pieces are stuck in dados and will not move, even if the cross grain joint fails.
The last set of dados are for the small shelf that sits above the plane ramp. These stop about from the front edge of the shelf, which is notched beyond the ends of the dados.
Right angle. The router cut in the arm is indexed by the T-square Jig. Then, align the cut with your layout lines and rout it.
With all the visible pieces in place, I made the secondary parts to complete the web frames. I made the back rails as long as the fronts and ran a groove along the inside edges. I then cut stub tenons on the ends of the pieces that connect the rails front to back.
Fronts first. The carcase and dados for vertical dividers should be laid together before the web frames supporting the drawers can be assembled.
The web frames are glued together and dry-fit to the case to make sure all parts fit tight and square. This dress rehearsal showed me where I had to clamp for the final assembly. Then the case came back apart to clean up all the visible surfaces.
The back of the case is a piece of thick plywood that sits in 3 cm-deep rabbets in the sides. I skipped the rabbets in the top and bottom to avoid cutting into the dovetails at the corners. The area where the back is to be screwed to is large enough. Both the top and bottom are concealed behind drawers.
Be careful. Good openings will ensure good-fitting drawers. Check and adjust each opening with a dry assembly.
I clamped a straightedge to my layout line at the back of the sides and cut the rabbets with a large straight bit. The cutter was moved along the straightedge by a bearing at the top. I stopped at the end and beginning of the cut, and then cleaned up the corners using a chisel.
Cabinetmakers Tool Chest List
No.ItemDimensions (inches)Material
tw l
Carcase
2 Case sides 11-30 Maple
2 Case top/bottom 11 Maple
1 Shelf above drawers 10 21 Maple
1 Vertical divider 9 16 Maple
1 Shelf below drawers 10 21 Maple
1 Block plane shelf 5 10 Maple
2 Low frame fronts 2 21 Maple
1 Mid frame front 2 13 Maple
3 Vert drawer dividers 2 10 Maple
1 Vert drawer divider 2 10 Maple
1 Vert drawer divider 3 10 Maple
1 Plane ramp 10 17 Baltic Birch ply
1 Case back 21 28 Baltic birch ply
2 Low frame backs 2 21 Poplar
7 Frame rails 2 7 Poplar
1 Mid frame back 2 13 Poplar
2 Mid frame rails 2 7 Poplar
2 French cleats 4 21 Baltic birch ply
Door
2 Outer stiles 2 30 Maple
2 Rails 2 22 Maple
1 Middle stile 1 1 30 Maple
2 Panels 10 28 Maple
Drawer Fronts
4 Fronts 2 6 Walnut
1 Front 2 13 Walnut
1 Front 1 13 Walnut
1 Front 1 13 Walnut
1 Front 2 6 Walnut
1 Front 2 13 Walnut
1 Front 3 6 Walnut
14 Pulls 1 Maple
Drawer sides & backs thick, drawer bottoms -thick plywood
Front
Section
This Is Not Your Average Door
Mark together. Before laying out the grooves for the panels, assemble the door frame.
I made the door before I glued the carcase together, just in case I needed to adjust one or the other to ensure they fit together nicely. The door’s outer corners are simple through-dovetails. The extra stile in the middle of the door makes it a beefier structure and allows for two solid-wood panels.
It is held to the rails by a single dovetail at the ends of the central stile. This tail is reattached to the groove holding the panels. It’s located about 3 cm away from the front edge. I dry-fit the five frame parts, then marked the location of the groove with these pieces together.
You can stop right there. You can make stopped grooves easily by bringing your tool to the job. Plunge first close to the ends, then make the cut in between. A mortise chisel makes short work of squaring the ends of the grooves.
These panels are thick with a cove on both sides. This creates a wide tongue. The cove is a radius and I set the front by eye until the cut looked pleasant, then lowered the cutter to make a smaller cut at the back. Then I used a small plunge router to insert a spiral-upcut bit measuring -diameter and cut the grooves for my door frames.
As long as the panels are able to slide in the grooves, the door is strong and simple to assemble. After the bottom and top rails are fitted, the panels can be slid into their respective positions. The stiles then go on either side.
Moment Of Truth
In sequence. There is a logical sequence to the final carcase assembly; with this many parts, it is worth a couple of practice runs to make sure everything fits
If all of the carcase pieces have successfully gone together in the dry-fit, final assembly can be done in one go. To make sure that the sequence was correct and that I had the right type and number of clamps, I did a few practice runs.
I laid one side down on my bench, with the dados facing up. Next, I applied liquid hide glue (for its extended open time) to the dados as well as the dovetails’ end-grain surfaces. Better glue joints can be achieved by letting the glue wick into end grain.
From the middle out, assembly is required. The large vertical divider was placed between the solid shelves. I then attached the shelves to their dados. At this point, the small shelf that is above the planes goes in as well. Next, I added the web frames and the small vertical separators. There should be enough play between the frames and the shelves so that the dividers can drop into their dados.
If the fit is too tight, it would be foolish to slide the dividers in from behind. If they are not properly fitted, they will become stuck halfway back. Once the frames and dividers were in place, I applied more glue to the dovetails. Then, I added the tops and bottoms.
Square and tight. Liquid glue has a longer time to cure than yellow and white glue. That gives me time to make sure the corners are square and the joints are tight.
Before I added the second side, i brushed glue onto the frames and shelves’ join surfaces. It is not easy to add the second side, provided the parts fit.
The dovetails were started at the top and the bottom. I then lined up the shelves, frames, and tapped them into my dados. When all the joints were started I drove them home with a mallet.
First, fit. Before assembling the drawers, I ensure that the drawer fronts fit into their respective openings.
The dovetails should fit if they aren’t needed to be clamped. However, I did need clamps at the dado joints front and back. As I clamped I checked to be sure that both the entire assembly and each corner was square. The final step was to cut and fit the plane ramp from -thick plywood. It attaches to x cleats nailed to the side of the case and the vertical divider.
The Right Strategy
This corner. A stop-block on the jig (attached to the table saw miter gauge) is used to make identical cuts on all corners of the drawer fronts.
Two methods are available to make sure drawers fit well. The first is to fuss over the openings and try to get them as perfect as possible. The second step is to attach the drawer parts to the openings, before you assemble the drawer boxes.
I start with the drawer fronts. After marking a rough layout with chalk, I cut the fronts slightly larger than the openings. Each front is carefully trimmed until it fits into the opening. I want a slight gap when Im done, but at this point I aim for a snug fit.
Each side is made to fit into the opening. To compensate for any opening variations, I plane the edges to the drawer sides. I aim to leave a gap at the top of each side. The sides may vary so I mark each one with the location.
That’s it. The finished fingers from the drawer fronts can be used to mark the sides of the matching finger joints.
My theory is this: If the fronts and sides fit nicely, the assembled drawer should fit with minimal fuss, as long as the joints between them are correct. I chose to use Greene & Greene-style finger joints, but the principle applies no matter how the pieces are joined.
I started by laying out the joints on the fronts. Each drawer has an x notch in the top and bottom corners. The tall drawer and the two shorter drawers have a vertical x-notch. The tall drawer has notches that line up with the notches in the short drawers next to it.
I made a jig from two pieces of plywood and attached that to the miter gauge of the table saw. I used a Freud box-joint cutter set to make -wide cuts and set the height of the blade to above the flat part of my jig. I ran the jig over the blade then set the pieces vertically, lining up the layout lines to the edge of the cut.
A little higher. This jig can also be used to trim the drawer sides. The saw blade is raised to the thickness of the drawer fronts plus 141 cm.
I used a stop-block for corner cuts and positioned the interior cuts by hand. These pieces are rather small, so I recommend clamping the work to the jig.
After the notches had been cut in the fronts I made a shallow rabbet at the back of the pins to make it easy for them to register on the sides. Then, I marked the locations of the joints with a pencil. (I fudged the sides down from the fronts about when marking the joints.) After assembly, this leaves the drawer front with the desired gap.
I adjusted the thickness of the drawer fronts and then cut the fingers on the table saw. These joints should be easy to fit together using only hand pressure. When I had two sides connected to a front, I tested the fit in the corresponding opening. The offset in the joints raises the front, so I planed the top edge of the drawer fronts to leave a slight gap.
I cut the drawer backs to length, matching the distance from side to side of the dry-fit sides and fronts. The drawer bottoms fit in -deep rabbets to maximize space in the drawer, so the width of the backs is less than the sides. The backs and sides join with through-dovetails.
After cutting the back joints, each drawer was dry-fitted and inserted into its openings. Then I cut the rabbets at my router table. The rabbet should be as narrow as possible because the drawers slide on what remains beyond the rabbet. After routing, I cleaned up the corners with a chisel.
Get A Grip
Heres the scoop. This blank will be used to make a dozen pulls. Once you have laid them out, the Forstner bit will make an angled cut on each end to create a pull that is finger-friendly.
Instead of spending money on drawer pulls, I made my own. I played around with the concept of a shaped wood pull in a shallow hole. After settling on a design that looked and felt good, I needed to come up with a way to efficiently and safely make 14 pulls. I prepared a few pieces of maple thick x wide.
Mark the target. Mark the face of the drawer’s drawer front directly with the fingers on the dry-assembled drawer.
I laid out the pulls on the blank stock, leaving a couple of inches extra on each end. I set up the drill press to hold the blanks below an angle of 1 inch Forstner bit. Then, I lowered the bit so that the center of each pull was scooped.
I took the blanks to the table saw (where the -wide box-joint cutter setup was still in place) and cut notches at the end of each pull. The band saw was used to cut the arcs along the opposite edge of the blanks. I then separated the pulls. I refined the edges of the scoops with a gouge, rounded off the curved surfaces, then drilled a -deep x 1 -diameter hole in the center of the narrow drawer fronts. The holes in the wide drawer fronts line up with the holes in the short ones.
Hit the target. With a file, the edges are rounded to match the pencil line. The file also cleans up the saw marks of the end grain.
With the drawer fronts and sides dry-fit together, I marked the location of the drawer fronts on the fingers of the sides. I took the sides off and finished rounding the edges with a plastic laminate tool. After that, I glued the drawers together, cleaned them up and made sure they still fit.
The Tools I Need & Where They Live
Hand tools have much in common with the medical profession. You will see many professionals and a few tools that can handle most tasks in a hand tool catalog or online. The problem is that without experience, you cant tell which specialized tools you need (or want), or if problems are the fault of you or the tool.
Too many tools, too early on, cause more problems than they solve. One saw will get you started. When you learn how to control it, youll be able to assess its shortcomings and make an informed decision about what might suit you better. Its the same with chisels and planes. Start with one tool, learn how to sharpen and set it up then put it to work.
If your goal is to make attractive and useful things, either as a hobbyist or a professional, you need to be familiar with all your options, both hand and power. If you are new to woodworking, stick with it and you will eventually learn a lot about them. But the key is to know what each tool does and how it works. That takes experience.
I started out with just a few tools, and added more as my skills and budget permitted. These are the tools I consider indispensable. They suit my work style and budget. Dont blindly follow my list think about what makes sense for you and where you want to go with woodworking.
In my tool chest, marking, measurement and layout tools are the most visible for good reason. And buying good tools for those tasks was the first investment I made. My combination squares and marking gauge, calipers, plot the route before work starts, and then check it once it is complete. What matters is that the parts are the right size and in the right place not what tool made them. A quality combination square would be my first tool if I was just starting out. I also rely on a pair of fractional dial calipers, a 15 cm precision rule, a marking gauge and a sliding bevel. Do not try to save money on your layout tools.
Chisels can be used for more than just dovetails. They can also trim bits left over from machine work and reach places that power tools cannot. Inexpensive chisels will teach you how to grind and sharpen (you wont have to worry about ruining the good ones), and the jobs that these cant easily tackle will let you know what specialized chisels to buy when you need them.
It is more complicated than you may think to pound things. To pound nails you need something metallic, but something that can be used to beat down things that a hammer could damage. A claw hammer and a dead-blow mallet are essentials, although I can justify the others in the photo and the other half-dozen I have tucked away.
Many woodworkers get by without a handsaw, but there are times when pieces are too small, too close to something else or inconveniently located to cut by machine. Sometimes the machine is being used for another purpose and only one cut must be made. A middle-of the-road saw will be the best for your needs. It may also help you find situations in which cutting by hand is better, more efficient, or gives better results. You can learn more from practicing with one tool than by wondering which one to buy.
There are many handplanes I own, and they are used to fine-tune the machine’s grunt work. My smoother is faster than a belt or random-orbit sander and my shoulder and the rabbet plans tweak and refine joints that my router and table saw can’t get close to. I began with a block plane, and it is still the plane I use most often. It’s versatile, easy to use, and I learned from its limitations which of its more complex brethren I should add. If you’re building a collection, one of each will be necessary. If youre building furniture, experience will lead you to the tool kit that is best for you.
– RWL
A Happy Home
I organized the tools on the doors in logical groups. My framing square is located in the upper-left corner. I have my combination squares nestled within the legs. The holders for the small squares have a rabbet in the top edge. That leaves a ledge to keep the stocks in place, and a notch in the end holds the blades. The curved shapes reflect the shapes of the stocks of the squares.
To the right of my squares, there is a block that can hold smaller tools. The front and back are thick, separated by x squares. The end at the far right extends over the front and ends in an arc. This end is secured to the door stile by a screw at the top. A screw is located at the opposite end and goes through the block to the middle door stile.
Reflection. The shape of the square is used to hold the holder. The slot holds the square securely when the door opens and closes.
In the lower half of the door is a rack for chisels, placed high enough to clear the drawer pulls. The rack measures 1 cm in width and has 3 cm-diameter holes that are drilled at 1 centers. The centers of the holes are back from the edge. To make it possible to insert chisels from the front, I made saw cuts. The rack is held in place by two screws running around the outside of it. All screws are covered with plugs.
The gap. The 15 cm space between the front and back of this simple rack provides flexible storage for tools I might need in a hurry.
I cut thin pieces of walnut into the shape of my planes’ backs and attached them to the ramp. To make space for the smaller planes below, I placed the smooth and jack planes as high as possible on the ramp.
On the left side of the case is an open area; saws and hammers fit on walnut holders at the sides and back, leaving room for small power tools or my mug.
And Swing It
Router base. The router base is protected from tipping by a scrap of wood inside the door. The fence also defines the back edge for the hinge mortises.
The door itself is very heavy, but the tools within it add more. I decided to go with three 1 x 8 cm brass butt hinges. I centered the middle hinge vertically, and centered the top and bottom hinges on the top shelf and lowest web frame.
I routed the gains for the hinges deep. The hinges were not swaged, so I used a chisel and cut the outer edges of the gains deeper to leave the smallest possible gap when the door is closed.
The lock is a full-mortise piano lock let into the door halfway up. The strike is protected by two wings.
Shellac was used for the final coat. The first coat was amber to warm the color, followed by two coats of clear. After letting the color cure for a week, I removed the sheen with an abrasive and applied a coat paste wax.
The cabinet is secured to the back with screws. It hangs from a French cleat made of two pieces of plywood each 4 x 4 inches wide. One long edge has a 45-degree bevel. The cabinet side of a cleat is attached to the shelf below top drawers and vertical divider. The other part of the cleat is screwed to the wall studs.
Im not the most organized person, but I like the tools I use the most hanging near my bench. If I cannot find the tool I need, I turn around and find it empty. This is when I know it’s time to clean up.
