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Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

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Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#1

Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

Dominic Greco in Richboro PA

>Good evening all,

I guess we all reach this point. I have enough hand tools that they are stored in several different locations all over my shop. It can get to be a real pain to gather up the ones needed for a job. I want to design a wall hung cabinet that will hold them all (or most of them) comfortably, safely, and securely. The basic design is easy. There have been scores of articles and books written on the subject. I think I want to base mine on a combination of the features shown in a recent FWW mag, and those shown in Jim Tolplin's "The Toolbox Book".

The problem is laying out the tools so that I fit them all efficiently. I like to design all my shop fixtures and furniture in CAD. Most likely AutoCAD. It makes coming up with the most efficient design easier. You can easily move items around, save different configurations, mess with dimensions. All that good stuff.

I was wondering of there was a source for CAD "blocks" (drawings) of handtools. Something like very simple 3 view drawings (plan, elevation, and side views) of handplanes, saws, and such. I mean, I can't be the only one who has wanted to design their tool cabinet using CAD, right? They have to be to scale, and be drawings, NOT images.

Thanks in advance.

See ya around,

My ugly mug


Dominic

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#2

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

steve knight

>but would they be your tools? there is such a huge varity of tools. you can take a picture with a ruler beside it and do a tracing of the tool.

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#3

Images won't work

Dominic Greco in Richboro PA

>Steve,

We're talking very generic tools here. Stanley Bailey Hand planes and that sort. The kind just about every wood worker has (or has had).

Images are OK, but not for CAD layouts. Tracing the outline of an image is almost just as much work as measuring it and then drawing it. I need these to be to scale.

Thank you,

Dominic

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#4

How about using approximations?

Wendell @ Murphy, Tx

>Could you just a use cube to approximate the space a tool takes up? For a wall hung cabinet, you're probably not trying to use every cubic inch of space available within the cabinet. Most articles I've seen on laying out a tool chest only look at the length and width but ignore the depth/thickness of the tools.

Wendell

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#5

Re: How about using approximations?

steve knight

>it's nto that bad to do it. well in autocad it is not I have done it around totes and knobs but if you don't need super accuracy it could be pretty fast.

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#6

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>Don't know of any existing files of bailey planes or anything like that. What worked for me was to lay out the tools on a piece of ply and then figure my cabinet size from there. I spent quite a bit of time calculating my layout. If you look at the index of "Classic Hand Tools" which I think is a Garret Hack book, you can see the various groups of hand tools you will need. I took these groupings then sorted through my tools to figure out which tools I wanted in the box. I then organized them according to the groupings; saws in one area, marking and layout in another, and so on.

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#7

Re: layout of tools

George in Lowell Mich.

>I did something similar to Moses but went a step farther by marking holes on the plywood for pegs to hang the tools. I then laid the ply on the doors ( this is where the tools were going) of the wall cabinet. I clamped the ply in place and used it as a drill pattern for the pegs to hang the tools. This worked perfect!!!

Just my additional $.02

Work safe

George in cold & snowy Lowell, Mich.

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#8

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

Ernie Miller

>Ha Dom nice seeing you here. as you can see we are a hand tool board and none of us have thought about using a power tool to lay out our cabinets. Imagine that we all do it with a pencil and paper. I bet about now you are thinking we are a bunch of backward hicks. Now that you brought it up makes me want to go out and draw a plane in sketchup just for giggles. I don't recall seeing what you are looking for any where. are all the power tool files some where for people wanting to lay out a shop?

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#9

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>That's an interesting perspective, Ernie. The best advice Dominic got here was to use a piece of plywood. I seem to have a mental block against learning CAD programs. Mind you, I spent 34 years developing software and prided myself on being able to pick up a new application's paradigm in about 10 minutes, find the user interface problems in the same 10 minutes, including all sorts of graphics and business applications, and generally leap tall buildings in a single bound. But when it comes to CAD, which require much more than 10 minutes to learn, I just can't seem to make myself use them, even Sketchup, which is about as natural an interface as it gets. It's a beautiful program. Yet I just don't use it. Like that beautiful new hand tool that I never pick up. Go figure.

I wonder how much the lack of woodworking/timberframing templates affects this.

Pam

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#10

Shelping around the quies side eh Dom...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Actual tools in 2D or 3D? I've been comtimplating this myself...

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc?

#11

Re: Cad files for handplanes,saws, etc? *LINK*

mikew

>Hi Dominic,

I cannot help you with the AutoCad files, but Alf has a SketchUp file of a single handsaw sitting in a till she started to design.

Her blog is at the link below. Scroll down to the entry:

Monday, January 08, 2007

Show-Off Gland

I don't know if you know someone with the full SketchUp which can convert it for you.

Take care, Mike


Alf's Blog

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