I decided to upgrade the tool rack in my Dutch tool chest. I’m an avid reader of Chris Schwarz Lost Art Press blog and a while back he posted this blog entry – The One in Which I am Slapped by Someone. In this blog post, he details how this design allows a more flexible tool storage. I created a double layered version to hold both tools and saws.
The chisels I have stored in the chest aren’t my regular chisels, but a few specialty chisels that I have. When I travel, I’ll replace these with my daily use chisels. This arrangement also freed up some space to allow more roomy storage.
I posted about copper riveting here: Copper Nail Resources The rivets I put in the lid are really just decorative, but here’s how installed them.
Drilled a pilot hole and hammered in the nail.
Hammered on the rove using the rove tool.
Sniped off the nail just above the rove.
Mushroomed the nail to hold down the rove.
Just make sure you have something hard to press the nail head into to avoid banging out the nail when you mushroom the cut off nail. Oh and I used a metal file to smooth things off a bit and get the mushrooming started.
I added the final details to the chest. It didn’t take as long as it might have appeared. The chest really came together quite quickly, but work really got in the way of this project. If I had used Home Depot pre-milled lumber instead of wide rough popular the project would have been very fast.
One of my favorite details are the hinges. They went in really easily and I thoroughly enjoyed doing business with John Switzer over at Blackbear Forge. My only regret was that I didn’t take pictures because I squeezed the installation in here and there.
I also used nails instead of screws for the joinery and the handles (more cinched nails). But the hinges are screwed as well as the chisel rack. I also made some of the dividers adjustable. The moulding was cut by hand using my newly acquired moulding skills from Mr. Bickford and my really awesome moulding planes from Philly Planes.
I decided against the saw till under the lid because my most used saw didn’t fit without complicated angles and spacing to avoid the tools below. I might put one in later. I’m really happy to have all those tools under cover.
Here are the rest of the details.
Chest dimensions: 27″ long x 25 1/4″ high x 16 1/4″ wide
