Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

John Stegall

>I saw both of those and liked both of them. I think Derek Cohen (who posts in this board) had some good looking one in his shop.

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>Plenty of ideas from the one I'm building at the moment. I'll post a "work-in-progress" photo later, when I get home from work.

regards

Angus Barclay

Wall Hung Tool Cabinets - Photo 1

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>Hello Jim,

here's my take on a wall hung tool cabinet.

1 - make it out of plywood edged with solid hardwood. It's shop furniture, not a fine piece done on commission for a paying customer.

2 - make the top shelf about as high as you can conmfortably reach and use it for storing things that don't get a lot of use. In my case, that's molding planes.

3 - pigeonholes are the most space-efficient way of storing "short" planes (scrubs, smoothers, etc). But this means you'll need to make the cabinet about a foot deep overall.

4 - I've been advised to put in plenty of shallow drawers. This one will have four drawers in a 2 x 2 arrangement in the spce between the No7 jointer and the molding planes and four more in the same arrangement above the gallery of pigeonholes. There'll be another drawer built in to the pigeonhole plane gallery and a full-width drawer at the bottom (below where the hammers and mallets are sitting at the moment).

More photos follow.

regards

Angus Barclay

Sorry, I can't get the photos to work . . .

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>despit the one I attached to this message being only 27.5kb.

I'll email photos to you off-forum.

regards

Angus Barclay

Bob Key's wall cabinet *LINK*

Ian (in Sydney, Australia)

>Although Bob Key has decommissioned his site, some of the info is available via a web archive

if this link doesn't work email me and I'll post some pictures

Ian


Bob Key's take

Did you do a preview?

Dan Donaldson

>Just click on the browse button and find your picture. Make sure it is actually the picture (name should end in .jpg or .gif). Either do not do a preview, or if you do, make sure you hit the back button to get back to the original entry page. Many times if you do a preview, it will lose the picture.

My version. . . *LINK*

Tony Sade (Charleston, WV)

>Jim:

Here is a link to a post from Sawmill Creek showing the version I built a couple of years ago. (Ellis-if this cross post isn't allowed, please delete.) If I had to do it over again, I might consider a wall or open shelving system. I think the pigeon hole system is a bit limiting if you're still in the midst of acquiring/thinning out your tool assortment. I've since moved a bunch of my tools to the drawer box in the bench I built afterwards.

I'm sure whatever you put together will look a zillion times better.

Cheers,

Tony




My cabinet on Sawmill Creek

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Mike Fitterling

>Here's my wall hanging plane storage. It is not exactly a "cabinet"; just a flat piece of plywood with various hold-downs. I guess it would be a cabinet if you made a box surrounding it and perhaps added doors. It works well for me, nothing real fancy. Very handy to be able to move it around the shop walls. I might upgrade it one of these days with nice hardwood "sides" surrounding it.

Cheers,

Mike

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Darrell in Oakville

>Hey Mike, looks a lot like my shop! But I've gone one step further (lazier?) in that I just hang my bench planes by their knobs from loops of rope. I try to put all my tools in a thin layer over the walls of the shop, one tool deep. No digging or searching, a near zero rummage factor. I know my limits, and so I know that if the tool isn't really easy to put away it won't be.

Jim's seen my shop, which is probably why he's asking for ideas for tool cabinets instead of, um, whatever you call the mess I have.

Darrell

Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

Here's mine...  *LINK*

Christopher Fitch@Memphis

>


http://home.midsouth.rr.com/cfitch/furniture_record/workshop/HandToolCabinet1.html

Tool cabinet - Photo 1 

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>

Tool Cabinet - Photo 2 

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>

Tool Cabinet - Photo 3 

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets - see photos above

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>Hello Jim,

here's my take on a wall hung tool cabinet.

1 - make it out of plywood edged with solid hardwood. It's shop furniture, not a fine piece done on commission for a paying customer.

2 - make it 25% to 50% bigger than you think you'll need. Hand tools have a way of beeding, especially if their owner spends any time on the WoodCentral hand tools forum!

3 - make the top shelf about as high as you can conmfortably reach and use it for storing things that don't get a lot of use. In my case, that's molding planes. (Photo 1)

4 - pigeonholes are the most space-efficient way of storing "short" planes (scrubs, smoothers, etc). But this means you'll need to make the cabinet about a foot deep overall. (Photo 1)

5 - I've been advised to put in plenty of shallow drawers. This one will have four drawers in a 2 x 2 arrangement in the spce between the No7 jointer and the molding planes and four more in the same arrangement above the gallery of pigeonholes. There'll be another small single drawer built in to the pigeonhole plane gallery and a full-width drawer at the bottom (below where the hammers and mallets are sitting at the moment). (Photo 1)

6 - In some places, you might consider a pullout shelf like in Photo 2 (i.e. a drawer without front, back or sides). Most times I should be able to just grab a block-plane straight off this without sliding it out of its slot. But when I need a spokeshave or whatever ends up stored behind the block planes, then I can slide the shelf half way out to easily reach the item. The space above this pullout shelf will be a drawer sized to hold full-size sheets of sandpaper (separated into the appropriate grit sizes with plastic filing dividers that have the filing tabs marked with the grit size). (Photo 2)

7 - be generous with the width of the cabinet. This one is sized so that the bottom drawer can hold all of my back-saws. I plan to the build this drawer with a rack to hold half a dozen backsaws, including this long mitre-box saw. (Photo 3)

Good luck with whatever design you end up choosing. Remember, you don't have to copy the one Chris Schwarz built and wrote about or the one in FWW. Use whatever of their ideas suit you along with any ideas other people provide.

regards

Angus Barclay

Re: Photos above are of a work in progress...

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>. . . I will post photos of the finished cabinet in a few more weeks / months time (depending on family and work commitments).

I just have to finish edging the ply, finish the dividers and drawer runners, make all the drawers, make and hang the doors, fit tool racks and holders and slap on a bit of shellac.

regards

Angus Barclay

I Like It

Mike Fitterling

>Problem around here with our two rugrats is all the door slamming they do as the go in and out of the shop. Don't know if my planes would take all that bouncing. :)

You're right, too, one layer so you don't have to dig is an important consideration. Little layered cubby holes and such look cool, but are not very convenient.

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hey Darrell,

I would never call your shop a mess my friend...your storage idea has always been one I have kept in mind, but you know me, I "have to Build" something with doors etc etc etc.

:-)

take care,

Jim

Another Thing

Mike Fitterling

>It may not be very visible in the picture, but in my molding plane cabinet I have left a little space in each plane's cubby for a small sample piece of molding cut by that plane. It is very handy to easily see the positive profile cut by each plane; so if you have molding planes, you might want to include a space for samples.

Cheers,

Mike

Re: Racks

ThomD

>I prefer racks. They are more mobile and configureable and I think they can look better, though mine are pretty plain. I can organize them by subject, and take them offsite for a workshop, store them on a special saw horse I have than a pair of racks will hang from.

It would be great, at times, to have them like those store displays where you can slide them around and expose new racks at will.

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, Any Ideas?

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>Hi Jim,

I have had both open and closed type cabinets

and I much prefer cabinets with doors on them.

I retrofitted doors to all my shop cabinets since.

Dust, condensation and theft are all issues addressed by

cabinets with doors.

A couple of examples below of plane cabinets.

These hand plane cabinets have cherry dividers, but the carcases

are plywood with solid wood frame door.

I do have one open, tilted plane cabinet on another wall

that I built for an excess of hand planes. It also

works well, but because it is exposed it becomes a dust magnet.

I only keep wooden planes on that particualr one.

Re: Wall Hung Tool Cabinets, 2nd pic.. 

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>

found the picture  *LINK*

Ian (in Sydney, Australia)

>


http://web.archive.org/web/20041212140201/http://www.terraclavis.com/bws/tools.htm#S8