Tool Chest Odyssey
I purchased this classic tool chest at a yard sale in Maine, while on vacation. The case had only two drawers remaining, and no handle. The seller said he had every intention of restoring it, but [...]
Tommy Mac’s Toolbox
Combine power and hand tools to improve your joinery skills Building a toolbox much like this one was a real turning point in my woodworking career. It was 1999 and I had begun classes at [...]
Making an Adventure Chest with Shaper Origin and Workstation
Sponsored by Shaper Tools. Cutting dovetails with Shaper Origin and Workstation is a very precise and adaptable process you can use on all kinds of casework, drawers, boxes and more. See how we [...]
Authentic Sloyd Tool Cabinet
This reproduction is a fun build and a great gift for a budding woodworker. Project #1922 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 days • Cost: $200 “Hand and heart lead to life.” was an early motto [...]
Truck-Building Tool Box
Back in the early 1920’s, my grandfather, John Rudzki, built wooden truck bodies in Pittsburgh, PA. Customers would order the chassis for a refrigerated truck, a moving van or some other kind of [...]
12 Rules for Tool Chests
Don’t reinvent the wheel when storing your tools. A proper chest is still the best. When I tell people that I’ve worked out of a traditional tool chest for 15 years, they look at me as if I’m [...]
Tool Chest as Art
An embellished lid is your woodworking calling card. Embellished tool chests are perhaps the quintessential calling card of the cabinetmaker. From Benjamin Seaton’s mahogany and tulipwood [...]
Traveling Tool Chest
Historic proportions and details are still the best. Since I started woodworking in about 1993, I’ve stored my tools in almost every way imaginable – from plastic buckets to wall cabinets, racks [...]
Cabinetmaker’s Tool Chest
Store all the tools you need in easy reach If I were to make three lists – the tools I want, the tools I own and the tools I need – the last would be the shortest. When I …
One for the Road
When I think of a tool chest, I think of a carpenter’s box, usually open and inviting, a little rough perhaps but clearly made by the hand. Think of Roy Underhill merrily skipping over the stream [...]
Gent’s Chest
A simple box for basic household tools. Common in the 19th-century, a “Gentleman’s Tool Chest” typically contained a set of fancy household tools including the first “multi-tools” – a handsome [...]
A Craftsman’s Tool Chest
Machinists and mechanics keep their small tools in a chest with shallow drawers. I do, too—except mine is custom-built, sized to exactly fit what I want to keep close at hand. And it’s more [...]
