Good ol' yarn

Fingalian

http://supertool.com/etcetera/pchest/pattern.htm

boysie39

hi, fingallan that was a really good story thanks for giving me the chance to read it. It's like something you would like to happen to yourself. I suppose there are many more cases like that. A brother of mine who was a cabinet maker by tradewho died 17yrs ago at 53 and had a wonderful tool box which he made himself and i'm sure had only the best hand tools available at the time.I rember when he was going to serve his time and my father scrapeing together the money to buy the bare essentials to get him started. after a couple of years he made some lovely stuff for the house which is still there I believe.I asked one of his sons none of which followed in his footsteps, what became of his tool box and he vaguely rembered somebody seeing it in the shed 10 or 12 yrs after his death and asking for it and he was given it to take away.How i'd love to see what was in that. Anyway thanks again for the story at least it keeps things turning over.I dont know enough about woodworking to post questions to whip a bit of life into the forum where I thought I was going to learn wonderful things about woodworking that I may or may not be able to use but at least give them a lash but I shall live in hope Regds Finn boysie39

Fingalian

Hi boysie39,
Yeah pity you couldn't have got your hands on it. You could always have a bash at making your own one though or a copy of it? A basic cabinet should be quite easy to build and would be a good project too. I building a new workshop at the moment and I've been thinking about tool storage and I'm torn between having all my stuff in a cabinet like this one:-
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/subscription/index.aspx

see it under 'Project Plans ,Quick to make Tool cabinet

or having it hanging on the walls with some sort of French cleat system.

Decisions decisions.

take it easy,and keep making sawdust
F

boysie39

I've seen that one in the magizne It look a nice piece of work, I've also seen one Norm build one in NYW iy was very simalier it only took him a half hour:D .Idont think at this stage I'll be needing any thing like that but for someone has lots of tools it would be a lovely project. I just make bits for the garden and an " odd " bookcase and things like that but I have enough tools to make a cathedral if I could. That is my problem Ilove getting all these new gismos and then dont know what to do with them,but it keeps me going and The bloke in the timber yard down the road looks after me very well. I really envy thoes that have the nohow to make things with timber and have them turn out as they are supposed to , but I love what I can do and will keep plugging away. A friend of mine always said IT'S BETTER TO TRAVEL IN HOPE THAN ARRIVE IN DISPAIR. BEST OF luck and what ever you make send in a pic. boysie39

MT

Great story. I've read other bits and pieces by that guy Leech. He has a website detailing all of the planes Stanley produced in its heyday. The superior works, Patricks blood and gore or something. Can't link to it here as this is a library computer with the right mouse button disabled. But he is incredibly knowledgeable and funny too so not too much of an anorak.

I've been think of creating new storage for my small but growing collection of hand tools. I think I prefer a metod of wall mounting to a tool chest - I'm not going anywhere with my tools and I like the idea of seeing everything without having to open doors or pull out drawers. Fingalian, could you expand on the French cleat system?

Fingalian

Hi MT,
The cleat system was in 'American Woodworker' sometime last year. I'll dig it up tonight and do a post tomorrow with dimensions , bitmaps etc.
F.

Fingalian

MT/Boysie39
I had better credit the guy who wrote the article before I describe it. The article was called 'Hyperorganize your shop' by Jock Holden of Mendota, Minnesota, and was published in the November 2006 issue (#125) of American Woodworker.
I was wrong to call it a French cleat system because whilst it does have some similarities his version is more versatile. I have used French cleats to mount cabinets on walls, basically you rip a 45 bevel up the middle of a say 3'' by 3/4'' board. Fix one piece to the wall (level it of course!)and fix the other half to the back of the cabinet. Hang the cabinet on the cleat, job done and it’s a one man job too.
He calls his system 'Hook and Slat’ it consists of a strip of 3/4'' ply with an offset strip of 1/4''.This is the slat and you fix this to the wall. Before you fix it you must shave off a 1/32'' off the inside of the slat so the hook can easily slip in and out. A router table would be the best way to do this. The hook is another piece of 3/4'' ply with a 1/4 '' offset. He fixed rows of the slats to his shop wall (using a 6'' piece of ply as a spacer jig) and then devised different types of holders for different types of tools but all using the standard hook. The slats could be as long as you want.
He also built a roll around cart on castors with the same system so if you were working away from the bench you could have all your tools nice and handy. I guess you could use MDF instead of ply and rip up a 2x4'' for the offset if you didn't want to use plywood. The beauty of it is its versatility; you could tailor the system to whatever project you are working on. I have attached a few bitmaps that will explain it better.

Fingalian

Oops 100kb limit on bitmaps, had to change them to jpg.

Fingalian

Sorry lads can't seem to attach them , PM me if you want and I'll send them to ya.