MY NEW TOOL CHEST FOR MY MACHINIST TOOLS

**wizard69** · Jan 20, 2019, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

Can produce woodwork, but I'm no cabinet maker. Looking up sheet goods today, as I've no sufficient or proper material for the project. I figure good cabinet ply throughout and the case of that 11 layer stuff. Veneer isn't a detraction and storing heavy tools in large drawers of solid wood sounds iffy. Haven't worded a good search for plans yet. Been sketching mentally, high-boy sized, on a riser with slots for pallet jack, flat-topped like a piano keyboard lid. Not up to doors yet. Have plenty of room to use effectively. Seems it'll be similar to map/ blueprint cabinet, just not so deep.
Are there any woodworker sites you like?

There are a lot of plans and different approaches to machinist chests and tool boxes out there. Shopsmith magazine has featured designs over the years. I pretty sure other wood working magazines have also covered this but Shopsmith is the only wood working magazine that I have a long history with. There are books dedicated to toolboxes, one is by Iim Tolpin called The Toolbox Book.

Gerstner style toolboxes are a lot of work, something I can’t consider until retirement. If then! You mentioned dressers which in fact can be good storage solutions for the lighter bulky shop materials. The good thing here is that they can be had either free or cheap second hand. You can’t put 200 pound vises or rotary tables in them but if one is reasonable a lot of shop tools and materials can go into one.

I’ve actually have considered a toolbox with metal drawers upon which are fastened wood faces. I don’t have the tools for the sheet metal work at the moment but the idea here is that you gain a bit of area and end up with more rugged drawers. It would also expand my sheetmetal skills. I’ve even considered cast aluminum for the same skills building challenge. In either case they would run on plain runners just like a wood chest.

Currently my steel tool boxes are overflowing with several decades of tool accumulation plus stuff from my fathers passing. I really question where to put it all.

**wizard69** · Jan 20, 2019, 08:26 AM

Hey Duke, fantastic work!!!!! As one that sometimes struggles to get the results I want in the wood shop I can relate to the amount of work that goes into something like this.

**DUKESALLEY** · Jan 20, 2019, 02:50 PM

Thank you for the kind words Wizard69

**DUKESALLEY** · Jan 20, 2019, 02:47 PM

Hi Toolmaker51 the "map/blueprint" cabinet configuration is basically the way to go other wise as you say tools will get plied on top of one another. The deepest drawer in my tool chest is 3.5" and that's for items that are large because of their cases for instance a set of 64 round hole gauges that that are in a drill index. I'm a little anal about keeping my tools in an exact order in one layer. My wife says I treat my tools as if I am displaying a butterfly collection. Even more common tools like combination wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers pliers etc. which incidentally I keep in stand up rolling metal tool chests are kept in order by size, first off it saves lots of time not having to look for something and secondly, I automatically know if one of my tools grew feet and took a walk. That's the reason for the doors on my instrument case.
Nothing wrong with multi ply plywood we call it Baltic Birch, it's stronger and much less likely to warp. I used solid oak because I had a lot of it and I wanted to make something of a higher quality than a Gerstner chest.
I don't visit woodworking sites much, most of them are geared towards the guy who just does woodworking on the weekends, that sounds like I'm thumbing my nose at that and seriously I'm not. The fact remains I'm 71 years old, I've been doing woodwork since I was 16 when I started serving an apprenticeship in a furniture shop with old time craftsmen who by the way were afraid to teach a new kid anything for fear they would take their job. I'm really a better woodworker than machinist so I do spend time on machinist sites and I do learn a lot on them. For ideas, I browse Pintrest or I search Google images. Well good luck with your tool box project
Best regards, Dukes

**Toolmaker51** · Jan 21, 2019, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by DUKESALLEY

Hi Toolmaker51 the "map/blueprint" cabinet configuration is basically the way to go.....I don't visit woodworking sites much, most of them are geared towards the guy who just does woodworking on the weekends, that sounds like I'm thumbing my nose at that and seriously I'm not. The fact remains I'm 71 years old, I've been doing woodwork since I was 16 when I started serving an apprenticeship in a furniture shop with old time craftsmen who by the way were afraid to teach a new kid anything for fear they would take their job. I'm really a better woodworker than machinist so I do spend time on machinist sites and I do learn a lot on them. For ideas, I browse Pintrest or I search Google images. Well good luck with your tool box project
Best regards, Dukes

Long range mentoring is possible, [Hello, HMT.net!] and this ups planning by several levels. If not restricted by winter, there'd be fresh Baltic Panels next to my saw, right now. Meanwhile,time to register on Pinterest. I gave up them for content interrupted by the blocking window, long ago.
Come on Spring!

**shopandmath** · Jun 28, 2019, 05:54 PM

I love this
I have been looking for one to put on my desk the kind that British apprentices would make
it has one drawer in the center that is made of sheet metal in the inside (horizontal)
it was used to hold the machinist handbook
Ray

**Toolmaker51** · Jun 28, 2019, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by shopandmath

I love this
I have been looking for one to put on my desk the kind that British apprentices would make
it has one drawer in the center that is made of sheet metal in the inside (horizontal)
it was used to hold the machinist handbook
Ray

Machinist boxes are distinct for the Machinist Handbook compartment. For what ever reason, typically wood boxes [ie Gerstner] the drawer is vertical, depth is half height of Machinists Handbook for easy retrieval, and close fitting in length and width.
Metal boxes are primarily oriented horizontally and just as close fitting. It looks very hard to get it out though; unless one of the chosen few with a third eye and a degree of flair.
There is a hole, about an inch in diameter in the drawer bottom. You poke a finger through, book raises high enough to get spine above edge of drawer to grasp normally.
We always had a lot of fun about that with the 'new guy'. No matter how his question was phrased, there were ready TINS answers.
Then he learned, are 2 kinds of stories. TINS and fairy tales, only one difference; one starts "Once upon a time. . ."