New Toolbox

[Ollie78]

This is a toolbox I recently finished to go with my chisel rack thingy. (see photo)

It is Hard Maple and American black Walnut.

I did the dovetails by hand which took ages.

Looked at a few metal handles but decided to make my own.

Finished in OSMO oil. Really shows the grain off.

Made all drawer fronts from one wide board for nice grain match.

Final action pic.

Hope you like it

Ollie

 

[monkeybiter]

If I were to make something as nice as that it would be going in the house! Beautiful, the dovetails look very crisp.

 

[adidat]

maple and walnut is an excellent combination and the handles really tie in the piece. shame about the runners but they probably are more suitable.

altogether a beautiful piece

adidat

 

[Dodge]

Well done - very attractive that and nicely executed =D> =D>

 

[woodbloke]

maple and walnut is an excellent combination and the handles really tie in the piece. shame about the runners but they probably are more suitable.

altogether a beautiful piece

adidat

Nice job, but spoilt in my view by those hideous metal runners - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

maple and walnut is an excellent combination and the handles really tie in the piece. shame about the runners but they probably are more suitable.

altogether a beautiful piece

adidat

Nice job, but spoilt in my view by those hideous metal runners - Rob

It's a tool box not a piece of furniture for the lounge. Nothing wrong with metal runners for a tool box - in fact the most suitable solution for the purpose, IMHO.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

PS Lovely job.

 

[paul-c]

hi ollie
your toolbox looks absolutely fantastic.
thanks for sharing
paul-c

 

[woodbloke]

It's a tool box not a piece of furniture for the lounge

Then why has it been made as a piece of furniture that would grace anyone's lounge...if it's a toolbox? :? The OP clearly has the time, skills and dedication to make a piece like this, then he ought to have the time, skills and dedication to make and fit the drawers properly. To make a good, crisp piece like this and then fit those ghastly metal runner things :evil: is for me at least a complete 'cop out'...when I saw the last pic I lost whatever interest had been generated by the first few.
As a matter of some interest, I've seen lots of Japanese toolboxes with sliding lids where the material is little better that stuff from packing cases and the whole thing's been held together with screws and nails. They're toolboxes designed to be toted on the shoulder to the site and if the thing breaks it'll take around 15minutes to make a new one.
The OP's piece has been made as a precision piece, quite different from the Japanese ones, but just spoilt in my view by those metal runners...keep then where they belong on utilitarian, run-of-the-mill jobs and not on a decent project like this - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

It's a tool box not a piece of furniture for the lounge

Then why has it been made as a piece of furniture that would grace anyone's lounge...if it's a toolbox? :?

Probably because he wanted to practice and improve his skills with things like dovetails (which have been done very well).

Tool boxes tend to carry a lot of weight in the drawers so over the long term I feel metal runners are the better choice.

We'll just have to agree to disagree :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

It's a tool box not a piece of furniture for the lounge

Then why has it been made as a piece of furniture that would grace anyone's lounge...if it's a toolbox? :?

Probably because he wanted to practice and improve his skills with things like dovetails (which have been done very well).

Tool boxes tend to carry a lot of weight in the drawers so over the long term I feel metal runners are the better choice.

We'll just have to agree to disagree :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

I think we can agree to disagree Paul :wink: ...except that, if, as you correctly say, toolboxes are designed to carry heavy weights, why have the dovetails been made the wrong way round? To carry weight (and therefore resist coming apart) tails should be on the sides, not on the top and bottom - Rob

 

[SurreyHills]

Very beautiful toolbox. Really nicely executed piece of work - very crisp dovetails.

 

[Paul Chapman]

why have the dovetails been made the wrong way round?

Well, if they have, some of those Japanese nails you keep on about will hold it together :lol:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[monkeybiter]

The weight in the drawers transferred to the runners will hold the sides/pins firmly into the joints at the base. Any weight on the top will hold the joints together. The orientation will hold the ends in against the drawers surely.

 

[Modernist]

There are no handles so nothing to pull out the dovetails. I assume it is meant to stand on a surface. I would have put the tails the other way round but it is purely an aesthetic consideration here.

I agree with Paul re the runners, the weight of tools (usually increasing with time way over the original intention) will overcome normal drawer construction and metal runners are the ideal way of dealing with the problem.

Another vote for Maple/Walnut and nicely made throughout. The quality if construction combined with the design is what gives pleasure in use which is what it is all about.

 

[Noel]

Ollie, great job, lovely looking piece, and just ignore the grumpy old moaners.

 

[woodbloke]

Ollie, great job, lovely looking piece, and just ignore the grumpy old moaners.

If it's me your'e referring to, I'll ignore that.

Dovetails. Yep, the job is probably designed to sit on a surface and so won't be lifted. However, imagine that it was a toolbox (with a handle on the top) that was designed to be toted around from place to place (as lots of toolboxes are) then the weight of the tools inside will tend to pull the joints apart (as shown in the pics) because there's no 'wedge' action to keep it in place. All that's resisting a downward force at the moment is the glue, there's no mechanical 'wedge' to hold the thing in place...if the glue failed, the job would fall apart! It's something I used to demonstrate to the kids when I was teaching many moons ago...the idea of a d/t is to resist force in one direction, so that if an attempt is made to pull the joint apart against the dovetail it will simply get tighter, it won't come apart. What I used to do was to get the biggest and ugliest student to try and pull a correctly made, dry (no glue) single dovetail apart...it never happened, even with soft mushy pine - Rob

 

[monkeybiter]

Agreed. If you imagine a different toolbox with a handle on top then the dovetails would obviously be wrong. But I was going by the pictures.

 

[Modernist]

Ollie, great job, lovely looking piece, and just ignore the grumpy old moaners.

If it's me your'e referring to, I'll ignore that.

Dovetails. Yep, the job is probably designed to sit on a surface and so won't be lifted. However, imagine that it was a toolbox (with a handle on the top) that was designed to be toted around from place to place (as lots of toolboxes are) then the weight of the tools inside will tend to pull the joints apart (as shown in the pics) because there's no 'wedge' action to keep it in place. All that's resisting a downward force at the moment is the glue, there's no mechanical 'wedge' to hold the thing in place...if the glue failed, the job would fall apart! It's something I used to demonstrate to the kids when I was teaching many moons ago...the idea of a d/t is to resist force in one direction, so that if an attempt is made to pull the joint apart against the dovetail it will simply get tighter, it won't come apart. What I used to do was to get the biggest and ugliest student to try and pull a correctly made, dry (no glue) single dovetail apart...it never happened, even with soft mushy pine - Rob

But it hasn't got a handle on top :roll:

 

[Corset]

Good looking tool chest. The advantage with the runner i guess is that you can pull the drawers fully out to get at the chisels without wasting space. Sensible.
I wonder how much force would be required to break those dovetails even the wrong way round. I am always surprised how much force it takes to pull apart a nailed and butt jointed carcass. I think sometimes we tend to over engineer things and worry to much. Look at all the antiques that despite poor jointe etc do fine for a couple of hundred years!
However i tend to over engineer all the time so what do i know. :lol: :lol:
owen

 

[CHJ]

There's a very good reason why metal ball runners were not used on older workshop tool chests, they were not readily available.

I for one would do likewise to maintain consistent and easy flowing draw slides that provide weight support when extended on a tool draw rather than risk a sagging draw and risk of sticking every time the humidity levels altered.

Just wish I had developed my hand skills with wood to do a set of dovetails that good.