Tool Chest

After the twelve week class at Rosewood I was enrolled in the Chris Schwarz Anarchist Tool Chest Class.  That was a heck of experience, the class was action packed, lots to learn, and lots to build in five days.

Chris was an awesome guy, fun to share a pint with, with lots of information to share.

Laying out the pins

The majority of the week was spent cutting dovetails, everything is dovetailed; carcass, skirts, till, dust seal.  So after five days laying out, sawing and CHOPPING dovetails is almost second nature which is a great skill to have.

Watch this video to see me assemble my tool chest.

Fitting the bottom boards of the chest

I wasn't able to finish the chest in the five days.  I manage to get the carcass assembled and the skirts installed.  The following week with no class running in the school I finished off the lid and got all the interior storage completed.

The chest is now complete and I love it.  I like that all my tools now have a solid home.  The tills on the inside mean everything has a place to go, which helps with my work flow during the day.  Once I am done with a tool I find that I put it right away back where it belongs which helps keep my bench top clear.

The chest now sits behind me at my bench which makes everything I need in arms reach which is fantastic.

The saw till is screwed straight to the lid and holds my backs saws.  A saw till in the chest holds to hand saws and a coping saw, with more space if I want to add more saws.

The three tills in the chest hold everything from joinery planes to pencils, callipers to braces.  I may add some dividers to the tills to keep some items from banging around, but I don't want to limit storage flexibility in the tills.

Added a tool rack to the chest, the rack sits on a french cleat so it can be pulled out and hung on a wall if it wanted to.  Right now the rack holds my chisels, marking knives and marking gauges, but has space to hold more.

A wonderful project, and a very fun class to participate in.  A huge shout out to Chris and many thanks.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

Back And With A New Spin

Alright I have been gone from blogging for a few months now.  And I was doing so well with the regular posting.  Truth is, aside from losing Internet connection for a long period of time, I have not wanted to blog.  Right on Hans no one cares (Internet troll voice).  Yea why would you care.  However why I haven't been wanting to blog I think is a good conversation.  When I started this blog I did it to show fellow woodworkers in the online community what I was working on and how I was doing it.  After a while the idea of sharing my experience turned into thought (bad thoughts) of educating people on how to work wood.  I thought I knew all and people should listen to me.  Now that I have completed the Rosewood Studio twelve week I realised how little I did know and how much I still have to learn.  So now blogging shall again be about sharing my work with others...At least in part.

 Working on my tool chest in my new bench space

The other change I want to make to the blog is expanding the horizon of what I blog about.  I want to share more about to other big topics close to my heart; architecture and sustainability.  Even before I had a college degree in architecture I loved architectural design and environmentally friendly design.

Since my last post in march I have completed the twelve week program at Rosewood.  WOW what an experience.  I learnt so much in a short time and enjoyed every minute of it.  And thankfully it has not stopped.  Ron, the teacher and owner of the school has invited me to stay on at the school as the new resident craftsmen (shop tech, shop rat if you wanna be less fancy about it).  I get to use the shop to work on my own projects, attend all the class that get run and absorb even more knowledge, this is an incredible experience and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

The view from my new bench space

So keep checking back and see what is getting done.

Cheers
Hans Christopher