Hi Folks,

I am in the process of designing a tool cabinet to hold my most
precious hand tools. I figure it will be approximately 4' wide by 3'
tall by 8 to 12" deep, with two doors. It will hold hand planes from a
24" jointer to my smallest block plane and many in between. It will
also hold marking tools, chisels, measuring tools, screw drivers etc.

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

Joe....
www.srww.com

"Chiefwoodworker" wrote:

I am in the process of designing a tool cabinet to hold my most
precious hand tools. I figure it will be approximately 4' wide by 3'
tall by 8 to 12" deep, with two doors. It will hold hand planes from
a
24" jointer to my smallest block plane and many in between. It will
also hold marking tools, chisels, measuring tools, screw drivers
etc.

This is a project that cries out for some old time industrial
engineering utilizing plant layout skills.

This time, the right software program will be to die for, and no I not
qualified to comment on such programs, only the end result of what
they can produce.

If it were me, I'd make a detail file of each tool as well as a
suggested drawer size.

Layout a drawer fitting all the tool details required to go into that
drawer, then play "putty/takey" until you get the drawer size and
internal configuration for that group of tools that you like.

Repeat as required for addditional drawers until tool cabinet design
is complete.

My guess is that the engineering time will approach the construction
time, but what the heck..............

Have fun.

Lew

I'd start by laying all of the tools out on the floor/bench and
arranging them in the same way you envision them sitting in the
cabinet. Then you can move, shift and re-arrange until you figure out
shelf / drawer sizes, shapes and how you want the tools grouped. If
you want cutouts for your tools to fit in, you could even try getting
some stryofoam and cutting it. That should give you a template for
making the real thing.

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:02:26 -0700 (PDT), Chiefwoodworker
wrote:

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

Maybe you can find some inspiration here.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/toolbox/

If you haven't seen the Henry O. Studley chest before, it's worth a
look. The longer you look the more stuff you find in that thing.

Very cool!


Mike O.

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:02:26 -0700 (PDT), Chiefwoodworker
wrote:

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

Maybe you can find some inspiration here.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/toolbox/

If you haven't seen the Henry O. Studley chest before, it's worth a
look. The longer you look, the more stuff you find in that thing.

Very cool!


Mike O.

On Mar 28, 11:02 am, Chiefwoodworker wrote:
Hi Folks,

I am in the process of designing a tool cabinet to hold my most
precious hand tools. I figure it will be approximately 4' wide by 3'
tall by 8 to 12" deep, with two doors. It will hold hand planes from a
24" jointer to my smallest block plane and many in between. It will
also hold marking tools, chisels, measuring tools, screw drivers etc.

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

Joe....www.srww.com

Considered a standing chest? My plane box
is a large steamer trunk someone left by the
curb. Raised it up on legs to 34-1/2", placed it
between my bench and my saw, where it doubles
as an infeed table.

No dividers inside, just a piece of carpet to keep
the tools comfortable. Tools are very easy to
get to and put back. My plane collection is
large, and keeps growing. Any dedicated plane
storage unit would be rendered obsolete every
time I went to the flea market.

Chiefwoodworker wrote:
Hi Folks,

I am in the process of designing a tool cabinet to hold my most
precious hand tools. I figure it will be approximately 4' wide by 3'
tall by 8 to 12" deep, with two doors. It will hold hand planes from
a
24" jointer to my smallest block plane and many in between. It will
also hold marking tools, chisels, measuring tools, screw drivers
etc.

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model
and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

For a one-shot, find an area that you can work in that's big enough to
encompass the area of the cabinet and the open doors. Draw an outline
of the cabinet and doors. Now start fitting stuff. When you think
you've got it all fitted, you might want to mock it up with partitions
using foamcore and hot melt (the reason you do that is that with
foamcore and hot melt it's easy to change things if it turns out that
something doesn't quite work). Then you can take dimensions off the
mockup and if you didn't screw up along the way everything should fit.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Thanks guys for the feedback. rest assured I will use bits and pieces
of all. I have seen the Studley tool chest. It makes me dizzy just
trying to locate the one out of 300 tools I may be reaching for. But
the workmanship is unbelievable. I keep you posted as I proceed and
make progress.

Joe
www.srww.com



On Mar 29, 8:48 am, "J. Clarke" wrote:
Chiefwoodworker wrote:
Hi Folks,

I am in the process of designing a tool cabinet to hold my most
precious hand tools. I figure it will be approximately 4' wide by 3'
tall by 8 to 12" deep, with two doors. It will hold hand planes from
a
24" jointer to my smallest block plane and many in between. It will
also hold marking tools, chisels, measuring tools, screw drivers
etc.

Do any of you have a SketchUp model or ideas or suggestions or
pictures of one that I might look at? I will share the final model
and
pictures with the group when I have completed it.

For a one-shot, find an area that you can work in that's big enough to
encompass the area of the cabinet and the open doors. Draw an outline
of the cabinet and doors. Now start fitting stuff. When you think
you've got it all fitted, you might want to mock it up with partitions
using foamcore and hot melt (the reason you do that is that with
foamcore and hot melt it's easy to change things if it turns out that
something doesn't quite work). Then you can take dimensions off the
mockup and if you didn't screw up along the way everything should fit.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)