Another option may be something like this tool tote that will hold my planes but go mobile if I need a lightweight minimal kit for something without lugging the big heavy box aroundI'll look forward to whatever you come up with. I made a posh pencil case in that style (but not trying to make it as rough and ready as they would traditionally be - I used Wenge "trenails" and some through tenons rather than metal nails). It was a fun little project:
Obviously being a pencil case it was far smaller than the sort of thing you'd stick tools in (250 mm long and 60 mm high).
-
Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
WIP - my version of Dr Al’s travel tool chest and workbench
- Thread starter SteveMP
- Start date
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Happy anniversary Steve
Thank you!
Slapped together a poor man’s sticking board real quick out of some scraps and decided to tune up a japanese plow plane i bought a while back and hadn’t used yet. Took me about an hour to sharpen it and tune it, shavings got jammed and I had to open the mouth a bit. But now that its tuned it works 10x better thany old Stanley 50. Only problem is its only 6mm, cant change blades or anything, thats it. Does have a moveable fence but its basically limited to drawer botttoms (technically its made for Japanese Shoji screen doors the middle solid wood section is typically a 6mm panel)
Almost done with all the drawer parts for the lower left section:
Almost done with all the drawer parts for the lower left section:
Interesting that it has a pair of cutters to score the sides before the main cutter planes out the centre. That's a rare feature on UK designs.
For an amateur woodworker not too pressed for time, it would be possible to cut a wider groove in two or more passes, of course.
For an amateur woodworker not too pressed for time, it would be possible to cut a wider groove in two or more passes, of course.
And they are the typical laminated japanese steel so they are nice and sharp. My Stanley 50 has the little "knickers" but those tend to just scrape the wood, wheras these slice cleanly. The 50 I always had to use a marking gauge first to score a line on both sides or it came out scruffy. The downside is there is no depth stop. I have seen people glue/wedge in a block, but I just kept checking after every couple passes with a scrap of drawer bottom with a pencil mark.
Yeah I do have an old British dado plane for making shelves. You are right, it does resemble it a lot. What is interesting is the British plane has a single front cutter kind of shaped like bat ears.
Last edited:
Small progress update on the build. 3 drawers are now complete and mounted. Question, do you guys leave wooden drawer side rails unfinished or finished? I think on my other travel chest i finished them and put paste wax over the finish, but not sure if that was best.
I just finish each drawer front, including its ends and upper edge. That's what I have observed on the few nice old pieces we own.
(Where drawers hold clothes, there can be problems with smells from some finishes.)
(Where drawers hold clothes, there can be problems with smells from some finishes.)
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I put finish on everything when I did my tool chest, but I doubt it was really necessary.
For what it's worth, here's the post where I asked exactly the same question you just did (at the end of the post): https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/page-13#post-152209
and here's @AndyT's answer
: https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/page-13#post-152213
For what it's worth, here's the post where I asked exactly the same question you just did (at the end of the post): https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/page-13#post-152209
and here's @AndyT's answer
: https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/page-13#post-152213Thanks, makes sense, and the answer there makes sense on this one since the drawers will most likely be removed to use as "trays" out in the field.I put finish on everything when I did my tool chest, but I doubt it was really necessary.
For what it's worth, here's the post where I asked exactly the same question you just did (at the end of the post): https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/page-13#post-152209
and here's @AndyT's answer
Thanks, yeah that is what i have seen on antiques as well.
Woodbloke
Sequoia
Regarding finishes on drawers, I just do as AndyT has suggested, that's to polish the front, top, bottom and sides (joints only) having masked off the dovetails. If the drawer interiors are to be finished a couple of coats of Lemon Oil usually suffice but I never do the bottoms, especially if made from Cedar of Lebanon - Rob
Sorry, I guess I phrased my actual question wrong. What I was meaning to ask was about the "runners" I guess they may be called. As the drawers have a groove on the sides that some wooden runners screwed onto the case run along.
You might need to rub a bit of an old candle along the runners. If you don't already have a candle in the workshop to put a scribble of wax onto the sole of a metal plane, get one and try it - it makes a big difference.
I do not have a travelling box per se but a candle is a vital part of my workshop and tool box. A quick rub on a metal screw, likewise on the wooden vice screw as well as for drawer runners and plane soles.
Not a candle per se. But I bought a 1 lb block of pure paraffin wax probably 30 years ago and use it for my snow skis, zippers, plane soles, etc and I still have probably 1/4 of it. It basically this (stock photo)
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Lovely! It feels slightly surreal seeing it come together as I'm sitting a couple of metres away from my version.
Thanks. Was going to ask you. Do you feel you need all 3 planing stops? Or could i get away with 2?
Started on the planing stops just now. Got a scrap cutoff of some aluminum tube that seemed a good size. Chopped off a 1 1/2” section, then split it in 2, filed all the dges and sanded and filed in a bevel on the underside. Popped it in my vise and planed a chunk of some hard 5/4 oak, and the thing didn’t flex at all. Aluminum is much easier to work that your stanliess ones, especially with my limited metal tools:
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Two would be fine. I put the third one there to get one in a better place for supporting the shooting board, but with some scraps of wood to bridge the gap, the middle one is arguably unnecessary.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Yes.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Some hastily taken photos to illustrate my thinking:
Narrow stuff gets planed like this (I'm using a doe's foot to hold the back) & only needs the closest stop:
For wider stuff that isn't wide enough to reach the far stop, just bridge the gap with a narrow plank (here the board is too long for a doe's foot, so having a wide stop is beneficial):
The far stop is in the right sort of place to support the shooting board near the plane track:
Narrow stuff gets planed like this (I'm using a doe's foot to hold the back) & only needs the closest stop:
For wider stuff that isn't wide enough to reach the far stop, just bridge the gap with a narrow plank (here the board is too long for a doe's foot, so having a wide stop is beneficial):
The far stop is in the right sort of place to support the shooting board near the plane track:
Excellent, thank you so much!
Little bits of metalwork todaty, but not much. Way too hot and muggy in the shop today. Got the threaded rod cut in half, figuring out the placement for the planing stops and drilled the holes and then cut between them with a coping saw with metal blade, filed down and tested that some temporary screws will slide in the groove.
Last edited:
Trying to figure out the support for the planing stops. I don’t want to rely only on a threaded insert as the force is directly pushing the dovetail out. So thinking of some L brackets inside the corner mounted to the top with screws to resist that force, then a hammer-in threaded insert from the back that will go through the steel bracket and into the side.
Last edited:
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I don't suppose you've got (or would like to buy) some rivnuts? You can make your own insertion tool out of a screw & a nut & they'd be nice & strong inserted into a hole drilled in each of those brackets.
I agree that a threaded insert in the wood wouldn't last long.
Interesting, looked them up and have never seen anything like that! Kind of pricey from what I seen. I did also consider buying what the store called brad nail t-nuts, kind of like the clawed version of t-nuts but no claws and instead little pin holes around the rim of the flange. Also considered tack welding those onto the bracket.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I'm surprised you call them pricey. How much were the ones you looked at? Over here (on ebay.co.uk) you can get 25 steel M6 rivnuts delivered for about £6 (and like I said, you don't need the insertion tool, just a screw & a nut). As the packs get smaller the delivery cost starts to dominate, so a pack of 10 is £4. Direct from a fastener supplier the M6 steel ones are £0.12 each (plus delivery of course).
They're really easy to use & very strong. For your job, you'd drill a hole in the bracket, put a nut on a screw & then the rivnut onto the screw, push the rivnut into the hole & then hold the screw steady while tightening the nut. That's it: remove the screw & you're done.
I'd probably leave the body of the rivnut on the inside of the L-shape of the bracket (i.e. insert from the outside).
Of course if you've got a welder (you mentioned tack welding) then another option is so-called "cylindrical coupling nuts" (something like this). With those, you drill a hole, insert the nut & weld it all together. That'll be stronger but you'll have to get rid of the black finish on the bracket for a good weld & then it may need recoating to stop it rusting.
My bad, the first one I searched came up at $33 but that had the tool. Yeah similar here, for 1/4'-20 I can get a 25 pack for about $6.99, so similar pricing. What is interesting is some have obvious "slits" where you can see where they are going to mushroom. However, others just have some serrations around the shaft, which I thought were just press fit and the serrations would keep it from spinning. I wonder if I have come across that type without realizing they could mushroom like that.
