I have been sharpening my tools in the laundry room in my basement for far too long. Every time a chisel needs honing I need to walk out of my shop in the garage and into the house downstairs and pull out my stones, get them wet and start sharpening. And as every wood worker knows, if sharpening isn’t convenient then we just neglect it until it is grossly necessary.

So for a long time I have tried to think of ways to bring my sharpening stones in the shop with me. Although my main concern with this has been protecting the stones from dust and providing a way to contain/minimize water and mess. I also want the system to be flexible; meaning that as I gain new stones and sharpening mediums I do not need to make an entirely new system to hold them.

I have recently come up with an idea I think might solve my main problems. The idea is to build a chest that is similar to the tool chest I have just built, just scaled down to hold my sharpening stones. This would keep the stones safe from dust and also be flexible enough to accommodate new tools. Below I have included a few pictures of two different variations of the chest.

The lighter colour represents pine and the darker represents white oak. Each chest is about 20” long, 12” deep and 8”-12” tall.

The first variation has one sliding till.

The second variation has a second till which slides left to right and would contain some water for soaking a stone. The darker till would be made from a water tight material.

I have a few water stones in the till for scale. Each stone measures 8”x3”x1”.

The bottom of the chest and till would be a white oak grid which would allow for air flow and prevent water from settling and rotting the wood. In the second variation I have another till for holding a stone in water. The idea with this is that I can have my finer grit stone in the water always ready for use during the day. I wouldn’t keep the stone in there for good, only when I am spending a full day in the shop would I fill the second till with water and soak the stone.

Let me know what you guys think of both variations and if you see any problems or improvements that can be made.

It has been a few months now since I began using my chest and I have made some small changes and upgrades. I will begin with one of the more recent upgrades which was to install two Blum Blumotion plungers to the front wall of my chest, so that when the lid (which is fairly heavy) is closed abruptly they absorb the impact. I happened to have these laying around from when I use to work for a professional kitchen cabinetry shop. It is actually a lot of fun just holding the lid about 6 inches from closed and letting it drop.

The other significant change I made was to the saw till. I removed it and made a till for my drawknives in it’s place. I am starting a process of making windsor chairs and I have accumulated a few drawknives that won’t fit in any of the sliding tills. I didn’t want to put the knives on the lid because I use them a lot and wanted them closer and easier to access. So since they replace the hand saws, I will probably make a till to hold the saws on the lid.

The till can hold up to 6 knives, so I still have room for two more.

The rest of the changes I made were simply which tools go in which till. So here are a few pictures of my chest filled with tools.

The top till holds my frequently used layout tools. block plane, drill and brace.

The middle till holds my spokeshaves, dowel plate and chisels. I currently do not have a full set of bench chisels, but when I do I will make a tool roll for them.

I am thinking about getting the Ashley Iles MKII Bench Chisels

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/dept/TBBC/item/IL-100-40.XX/Mk2_Beveled_Edge_Bench_Chisels_by_Ashley_Iles

If anyone has any comments about those chisels, or recommendations for other good bench chisels please let me know.

The bottom till holds my scorp, reamer, carving tools, and various other tools.

The bottom front of my chest has my drawknives, and hand planes. I also have my drill bits on the front wall.

The back of the chest is for moulding/joinery planes, but since I only have two currently I have bags of nails.

This is my carving tool roll I made that I keep in the bottom till.

That is how my chest is organized currently, though I still need to make the saw till on the lid and perhaps a few other things.

When I left off the chest was built and ready for the tool storage inside. After giving tool storage some thought I decided on having 3 sliding tills, rear moulding plane storage, front saw till, and tool rolls hanging on the front wall. Nothing really new, but I think my tool roll idea is.

When trying to come up with ways to store drill bits and/or chisels on the front wall of my chest I came up with an idea involving canvas tool rolls.

What I have is nails driving into the front wall of the chest every 3”. Then I made tool rolls for auger bits and twist bits with holes every 3”. Now I can hang my drills where I have easy access, but I can also take the rolls off the wall and roll them up for storage.

Once I get a full set of bench chisels I will make a roll for them as well, so I can have quick access to them. Being able to quickly and conveniently move tools on and off the front wall makes the chest a lot more user friendly. If I am doing a project involving a lot of drilling (ex. windsor chairs) then I can have my augers accessible. If I am doing cabinet work I can have my bench chisels accessible.

I also made a tool roll for my carving gouges, but I did not make holes to hang it up (whenever I carve I prefer to have the tool roll on the bench in front of me anyways).

Of course this idea can be used to hold all sorts of other tools as well. I think you could also have tool rolls on the inside of the lid, as long as they were held on by nails at both ends of the roll to keep it from folding.

I think the only downside to this storage idea is that you have to know how to sew, or know someone that will do it for you.

With the front wall of the chest sorted out I began making the sliding tills. The top two tills are about 2 3/4” deep and the bottom is 4 1/4”. They are all about 9” wide. The sides are 1/2” thick with 1/4” thick oak bottoms on the top two tills and 1/2” bottom on the lower till.

I would have posted pictures of the drawer construction, but my computer was refreshed and all the pictures are gone. But here is what the finished tills look like in the chest.

The bottom of each till is made from two pieces of white oak with a ship lap joint in the middle to allow for wood movement. The bottoms are nailed on.

At the bottom rear of the chest I have a space for moulding/joinery planes.

And at the front I have a saw till for three hand saws.

For now at least, that is all there is to the tool storage inside my chest. Once I get a tenon and carcase saw I will make a space in the front right of the saw till to hold them. I also plan on storing a framing square, turning saw, and perhaps drawknives on the inside of the lid. That is why the top till is 1 3/4” lower than the top edge of the chest, to allow for tools hanging on the lid. When those changes are made to the chest I will write about them. But for now the chest is done and ready to be filled with tools.

With the lid finished, bottom in place and skirts glued on I can begin installing the hinges and the lock. All the hardware (excluding casters and lid chain) were bought from http://www.horton-brasses.com/ which is where Chris Schwarz got his hardware as well.

So first off I began by installing the hinges. I placed the lid on the chest and got it into position and marked one side of each hinge on both the lid and top edge of the chest.

Then I used the hinge itself to mark the width of the hinge.

Then I set my marking gauge to the width of each leaf on the hinge…

...and then set my marking gauge to the thickness of the leaf.

With all my lay out lines marked I just used a chisel to carefully pare away the recesses for the hinges. If you have a router plane you can use that to easily get all the recesses to an even depth.

Turned out nice with a small even gap along the back edge.

Now I can work on fitting the lock. I began by setting a marking gauge to the distance from the pin on the lock to it’s top edge. Then scribe that line onto the front of the chest (make sure to reference the fence of the gauge off of the top edge of the chest, not the skirt).

I then drilled a guide block with a hole the same diameter as the hole in the escutcheon. I centered this guide block on the cross hairs and drilled through the skirt and shell of the chest.

I then set my marking gauge to both dimensions of the lock and scribed those onto the top edge and inside face of the chest. I also used a pencil to mark where the chamber of the lock is.

First I used a backsaw to make kerfs in the recess for the chamber of the lock to help with chiseling it out.

Then I chiseled out the rest of the recess. The depth of these were all done by eye and test fits, but again if you have a router plane now would be the perfect place to use it.

And lastly I used a coping saw and some files to shape the rest of the key hole which was traced directly from the escutcheon.

To install the upper half of the lock I put it onto the bottom portion of the lock and pressed the lid down onto it. You will notice in the picture that the top piece of the lock has two prongs which indent the wood marking the location of it.

I then used a marking knife to scribe along the outside of the upper piece and chiseled the recess out.

I also chiseled out a little recess in the lid’s skirt to act as a handle to open the lid.

At this point I have a fully functional box. All that is left to make it a tool chest is the guts inside the box. But before I make the entrails of the chest I decided to finish it. I had not yet figured out exactly how I want to organize the chest so in the meantime I began painting.

To paint the chest I am using milk paint from Old Fashion Milk Paint http://www.milkpaint.com/. Unlike Chris Schwarz I decided to do a black over yellow finish. My reasoning was 1. I like the look of yellow under black and 2. I think it will help blend in any bare wood that will show over the years. When the chest gets dinged up and bare pine shows through the paint, it won’t be so obvious with a yellow undercoat as it would with red. Plus I just want my chest to have a different look.

So after I removed the lid and hinges I sanded all the surfaces to be painted and began the first coat of yellow (Marigold Yellow technically). After the paint dried I used some wood filler and filled any major tear out and some of the large gaps that I had in the bottom skirt. Then I gave the chest a light sanding to remove the filler and raised grain. Take note that you want to remove all the filler that is not literally filling gaps, otherwise it may show through the paint.

Then with the chest sanded I did my last coats of yellow. I managed to get 2-3 coats on the chest. I had already used some of my yellow paint on a previous project so I was only able to get 3 coats on the skirts.

You can see the small recess in the front of the lid to act as a handle.

I then gave the chest another very light sanding and painted the chest black. I managed to get up to 4, even 5 coats, of black on some parts of the chest. Just make sure that the colour is consistent. You do not want some parts being a lot weaker than others.

(These two pictures were after only one coat of black, that is why the colour is uneven. You can also see some filler blotches coming through the paint. After a couple more coats the filler was no longer noticeable, but it was a reminded as to how important it is to sand that filler away.)

At this point you can leave the chest painted black, but the finish is very flat and chalky in appearance (if you have ever used milk paint you know what I mean). By rubbing the finish down with fine steel wool and oiling the finish you can give the paint a beautiful satin sheen that is soft to the touch. But before I do that I want to distress the finish a little bit. One of the reason I wanted the yellow under black was so I could rub through the black strategically and give the chest a worn look. So I used fine sand paper and maroon Scotch-Brite to rub through the black around the edges and corners. I also wore through around the key hole so that when I nail on the escutcheon it will stand out a little more. After I reached a balanced level of distress I used 0000 steel wool to buff the finish and followed that with a few coats of linseed oil.

(Remember to time those screws.)

While I was finishing the chest I was contemplating the interior design of the chest and figured out exactly which tools will go where. I want a turning saw and carpenter’s square to hang on the inside of the lid with my handsaws/back saws along the bottom front of the chest. I also want my auger bits, drill bits, and chisel on the inside front wall so they are organized and easy to access. The only downside I thought about putting tools into dedicated slots on the front of the chest was that there is no way to quickly reorganize them if I get more/new chisels and drill bits.

So I came up with an idea involving custom canvas tool rolls…

With the shell and lid of the chest complete the next task on the agenda is building the skirts. The skirts are essentially moldings that protect the shell of the chest from damage and help seal the lid off from dust. Though unlike normal moldings and skirts on many other chests, the tool chest Chris describes has skirts which are dovetailed at the corners. This creates a skirt that will not open up due to seasonal humidity changes. The dovetails are also oriented so that the tails are on the short sides of the chest, not the long sides like the shell. So not only do the skirts protect the shell from damage, they help hold it together by creating a chest that cannot open in any direction (without complete joint/glue failure).

Before I show you the work on the skirts though I will show how the bottom of the chest was built.

When I had first got all the wood for my chest and rough cut all my parts, I selected the bottom boards last. The bottom boards will hardly be seen, and besides the length, the size of the parts can vary. I ended up with 4 boards to create my bottom. So after I had the bottom boards thicknessed, I made sure the edges were straight and parallel to each other. Then I laid the boards out and marked each edge for either a tongue or groove. I used a plow plane to make 1/4” grooves…

...and a rabbet plane to make the tongues.

I don’t have a great rabbet plane, its too short to handle easily. So I made a longer wooden front for better reference. I used marking gauges first to mark along the boards the depth and width of the cuts.

I attached the bottom boards to the shell with the parts still longer then needed. After I nailed the boards to the shell I cut and planed them flush

I used dimes to space out the bottom boards.

I then also added three extra strips to the bottom, which are suppose to be the first defences against rot.

Before you begin on the skirts you want to make sure the lid sits flush on the top of the shell and all the lid’s edges are sticking past the shell by a 1/64” or so. Do not make the lid edges perfectly flush with the shell, otherwise there is little chance the skirt around the lid will slip over the shell.

To begin the skirts I got my material and planed it on both faces and edges. Like the rest of the chest so far I want the parts to be as thick as I can keep them. At this point I squared one end of each part, but left them longer then needed.

The bottom skirt is 6” wide, the lid skirt is 1 1/2” and the middle skirt is 3 3/4” (Chris’ chest had a middle skirt width of 2 3/4”, but I think the extra width looks better). I began with the bottom skirt first.

Start by dovetailing one corner like you would any normal dovetail joint. Make sure to offset the dovetails from one edge so that there is space to create the chamfer that will be on top of the skirt. This joint has 3 tails.

With the joint made, place the L-shape assembly in place against the shell. Then with a marking knife, mark on the short piece where the end of the shell is on the skirt.

Then wrap those marks around the board with a try square to create the base line of that joint. You can also cut the board to length at this point. Now you can cut the dovetails to attach the other long side.

At this point I have a U-shape assembly made up of one short piece and the two long pieces.

Now I stood the chest on end to layout for the final piece of the bottom skirt. With the U-shape assembly in place I can mark the baseline of each of the long pieces. I can also lay the final short piece on the shell and mark it’s length and the baselines.

(You can see here that I had actually fit the bottom skirt before I nailed the bottom to the chest.)

Then just cut the dovetails on the last two corners. The middle skirt is done the exact same way.

And before assembly, take time to roughly shape the chamfers. It it much easier to do it now while the skirts are not attached to the shell.

The lid for the skirt is built the same as the others, except that there is only one long side.

At this point I can glue the bottom skirt to the shell and the upper skirt to the lid.

That sure didn’t turn out pretty. But it is nothing some wood filler and paint won’t conceal.

Now you can use a chisel and block plane to touch up the chamfer on the bottom skirt and the protruding joinery. At this point you want to plane the bottom edges of the lid skirt to make sure they are flush and true. Test the skirt’s bottom edge against a flat surface to make sure it is perfectly flat. If you do this now then you may not need any fussing with fitting the lid later. You will also want to dry assembly the middle skirt off of the chest and check that it’s top edges are flush and true as well.

With the skirt on the lid ready, place the lid into position on the chest and double check that it fits. When all is good, use a pencil to mark the bottom edge of the lid’s skirt along the shell of the chest. Now we are ready to glue on the middle skirt.

This part of the job is crucial. A middle skirt glued into the wrong position will create a gap between it and the lid’s skirt or demand a lot of extra time to trim it until it does fit. But because we drew the bottom edge of the lid’s skirt onto the shell we just have to make sure the top edge of the middle skirt is along that line.

After the glue is dry all that is left is to trim the joints up and sand it (that is, if the lid sits flush against the middle skirt).

Next up will be fitting the hinges and the lock.

Since my last entry I have made the tongue and groove joints for the bottom, but since I have yet to get the nails to attach the bottom, I will post about the bottom later. I have made the lid for the chest though. A friend had let me borrow his mortise chisels so I could make the mortises for the lid joinery. So once I planed the rails and stiles to size I began laying out for the joinery.

The lid for the chest is a special kind of frame and panel where the panel itself has a groove in it as well as the frame.

I made this little diagram when I was working on the lid so that I wouldn’t mess up the dimensions. You can see the rails and stiles of the frame have a 5/16” groove with the “upper tongue” above the groove being a 1/4” thick. The panel has a groove a 1/4” wide to slide over the “upper tongue” of the frame, and therefore the “lower tongue” on the panel is 5/16” to fit in the frame groove.

To make sure I got the dimensions laid out properly I used plow plane irons to set my marking gauges. Since I don’t have a mortise gauge to mark out the groove in the frame I set the marking gauge twice for either side of the groove. (Note that you do not need to lay out the groove, since the plow plane is guided by the fence. Although you do have to layout for the mortise and tenons of course. But it doesn’t hurt to lay out for the groove, because if you happen to be planing against the grain then the knife lines will keep the groove from tearing out.)

First I set the gauge to a 1/4” for the first side of the mortise.

Make sure to register the fence of the marking gauge on the reference face of the parts and scribe for the groove on the reference edge. The reference face will become the top of the lid.

Then I set the gauge with both the 1/4” and 5/16” blades to mark the other side of the groove. Using plow plane blades or chisels to set the gauge is a lot more accurate than using a ruler.

If I had a mortise gauge I could have made both these lines with one setting.

I will mention now that while I had each gauge set I marked every part of the frame that required those settings. So before I marked the rails that will have the tenons I cut them to length (leaving about an 1/8” to trim later) so that I could mark on the end grain for the tenons. I had also marked the length of the rails and stiles with a marking knife and marked the width of the mortises on each edge receiving a mortise so that I could use the marking gauge to mark both ends of the mortise.

Here you can see the rails with the marking gauge lines down the end grain for the tenon.

Here is the rails with the shoulders of the tenons marked 4” from the ends.

On the stiles you can see the location of the mortise (hopefully). The pencil line is the length of the stiles, and 5/16” from the end is the one side of the mortise and and 3 5/8” for the end is the other side of the mortise.

This is the opposite edge of the stiles with the location of the mortise marked. These are through tenons, so you will need to mark for the mortise on both edges.

Hopefully that all made sense.

So after the frame parts were all laid out I began to chop out the mortises. I mount the piece on the bench so that I am looking down the length of the stile. This way I can judge whether or not the chisel is plumb. To chop through mortises I start on one side and chop at least half way through, then flip the piece over and finish the mortise from the other side.

The pencil line on the end of the stile is the final length of the stile. Whenever you cut mortise by hand (or with machines for that matter) it is wise to leave extra length on the part so that as you chop the mortise the piece doesn’t split at the end. This extra length is usually referred to as the “horns”.

After I chopped the mortises I cut the tenons on the rails.

Work diagonally from both corners so that you can see the layout lines on both the end and edge of the tenon.

I also cut the tenon to width, making sure to leave a 3/8” haunch to fill in the groove which will be plowed through the stiles. If you are not familiar with what a haunch is I will explain it later.

Now the rails and stiles are ready to plow the groove, 5/16” wide and 3/8” deep.

When making frame and panels with hand tools you need to consider carefully the order of the process. If I had plowed the groove before chopping the mortises then I would remove the lay out lines and it might be more difficult to cut the mortise to it’s proper size. Also with the rails, if I had made the groove first then it would become very difficult to properly cut out the tenon because the saw would want to track inside the groove. Though you cannot cut the shoulders of the tenons, thereby removing the cheeks entirely from piece. Without the cheeks of the tenons still on the rails, there would be no place for the fence of the plow plane to register against at both ends.

Now that the groove is plowed in the rails I can cut the shoulders of the tenons and remove the cheeks.

There will probably be a little bit of wood that the plow plane missed so you will need to use a knife or chisel and clean it up.

To clean up the shoulder I use a chisel and pare down with the edge of the blade directly in my scribe line.

Then I plowed the groove in the stiles. With the mortises so wide in this frame you need to hold the plane carefully so that it doesn’t dip into them.

With all the joints cut I put the frame together and planed any surfaces that were perfectly flush to one another. I also numbered each joint while I was fitting them.

With the frame done I went to work on the panel. I had already flattened and thickness my panel so at this point all I had to do was cut it to length and width. I thought I would post a picture of how I cross cut the panel, only because I just realized a new way I can use my bench to do this.

With the gap in the middle of my bench I can easily cross cut a part and have both sides of the cut supported. The only downside is I have to get on top of my bench so that I can get over the cut. But it works great.

When it comes to plowing on all 4 edges of a board you always plow the end grain first so that when you plow the long grain you remove any spelching that will occur on the far corner. It is also a good idea to use a saw and define both sides of the groove on the far corner and chisel it out to prevent tear out.

Remember when plowing this groove to have the fence against the reference face, which will become the inside of the chest. For the groove I have a 1/4” blade and set the fence 5/16” from the blade.

It may help when plowing the groove to define each side with a marking gauge incase you are plowing against the grain. This will keep the edge of the groove nice and crisp. The same reason I marked the groove on the frame parts as well.

With the groove plowed you can check the fit in the frame…

...and realize you burnt an inch with the measuring tape when you cut the panel to length.

So at this point I went inside for the night and the next day I glued up a new panel and made it to the proper length.

While I was waiting for the glue to dry on the new panel I drilled for the draw boring in the mortise and tenons. In the book, The Anarchist Tool Chest, Chris Schwarz did not draw bore his joints, which I find kind of surprising because he has been a big user/supporter of draw boring. He never even mentioned it. But I like draw boring and didn’t see any reason why not to.

I began by drilling through the mortise pieces with a 3/8” auger bit. I clamped a piece of scrap to the underside to prevent tear out. I didn’t bother putting a false tenon in the mortise to prevent tear out in the mortise, the auger bit cuts pretty clean anyways.

Then I put each tenon in its corresponding mortise and used the same auger bit to mark the center of the hole.

Next I marked about a 1/16” from the centre point towards the shoulder of the tenon. If you are not familiar with draw boring, this is what makes this joint superior to just simply doweling the joint. By drilling the hole through the tenon closer to the shoulder, when you hammer the peg through the joint it pulls the joint tighter than normal.

Then I used my dowel plate and used some very dry/straight oak to make eight pegs.

Now I got everything complete to put the chest lid together.

I sanded the top of the panel because it will be painted, and I chamfered the top edge. The panel width is a 1/2” wider then the shoulder to shoulder distance of the frame, leaving a 1/8” of room to expand on either side. The panel is 5/8” longer, leaving 1/16” on either end.

I also sanded the top faces of the frame and used a black marker to draw along the edge of the frame. This is just incase the panel shrinks in the dry months and exposes wood that isn’t painted. At least now you won’t see bare wood but the black marker instead.

With lots of hammering and squeezing I got the frame and panel together nicely. With the piece dry I cut the pegs flush and cut the horns and protruding tenons off.

Here you can see the haunch. What the haunch does is fill the gap created at the end of the stile due to the groove that was plowed.

With the lid complete I will start work on the skirts and put the bottom in place (once I get my nails).

Its been 6 months since I finished my bench and I have spent over 1000 hours on it. Now that I have gotten a good feel for how the bench works and its ups and downs I thought I would write an update on it.

To start I’ll mention the modifications I made. The first was to add leather to the pads on the hold fasts. With leather I no longer need to place scrap wood between the work pieces and the hold fasts to prevent denting. If you have hold fasts (which you should) I would recommend using contact cement to glue leather to them. I used some rough sand paper to scuff up the hold fast where I was going to glue the leather to help it adhere better. I don’t think it changes the grip at all, for better or worse.

I also made a new bench dog in slot number 11 so that the dog dropped down lower.

This is the original. Because of the tail vise guide block this bench dog didn’t stick down below the bench, which made it slightly annoying when popping it up.

Now the new bench dog sticks down about an inch like the rest.

The only other update I have made to the bench was to make two bench dogs for holding turnings. These are both 12” long and have screws with tips I have ground to a point. The only problem with these are that they do not stay at whatever height you place them because they do not have the little hickory springs my other bench dogs have. The only idea I have to solve it would be to put a few bullet catches every inch or two so there will also be one or two applying pressure, no matter what height they are set at.

I do have plans on making a new screw for my tail vise. At the time I made the one I have now I could only fit 14 inches on my lathe. Because of that, when the vise is fully extended there is only about an inch of screw grabbing the nut, which isn’t ideal. Also because of the short length, the hub is too short and makes it awkward because the handle is too close to the vise. With the handle so close I sometimes hit my knuckles on the vise, again, not ideal. So I will eventually make a longer screw now that my lathe can handle about 3’.

Because I knew I planned on making a new screw I made the one “nub” on the end of the handle removable by not glueing it in place. This way when I make a new screw I can reuse the handle. It turns out its handy having the handle removable because it can get in the way while planing large boards. So even when I make a new screw I will keep the “nub” removable.

When I built the bench and drilled the hold fast holes in the one leg I made a lucky move. I didn’t think about it the minute I was drilling the holes, but you want your hold fasts able to hang in the holes without hitting each other. It’s no big deal if they do, it just looks nicer and you won’t have them ding each other every time you put them there.

Another thing to keep in mind if you build a sliding dead man is to have the holes in the leg line up level with two of the holes in the dead man. I didn’t think about this when I made mine so the holes aren’t perfectly level.

Again, its no big deal, but there are times when you can rest a work piece on a hold fast in a leg and on the sliding deadman, so its nice to have the board level. If for whatever reason I make a new sliding dead man I will make sure to have the holes line up.

When I had first built the bench I had it running parallel with my shop. This set up was OK, but I found myself always walking around the bench to get to the tools on the other side. So about a month ago I turned the bench so that it runs across the middle of my shop. This way I can get to the tools on the wall from either side of the bench fairly quickly. I left a little space between the bench and wall so that I can move through there to reach farther without walking all the way around. Opposite to the wall, by the tail vise is where I will have my tool chest when it is done. So again, I can get to the tools in the tool chest without walking around the bench.

The only downside to this set up is that if I have to edge plane a piece over 5 feet long in the leg vise there is little room to move close to the wall. I usually don’t work with very long boards so I havn’t run into that problem yet. If I do I can simply rotate the bench for the time to make more space, no big deal.

(At the end of the tail vise is where my tool chest will go.)

I have most of my commonly used tools on the wall here, for now at least. When my chest is done my nice hand tools will go in there. I also have moved a light directly above the end of the bench so that no matter where I am around the bench, there will always be light.

Shortly after I built my bench I thought I might plug the centre of the bench with a strip to keep things from falling down. I haven’t done it yet because I don’t drop things through it (besides a few pencils). The gap is handing for holding chisels and other tools so I don’t know if I would want to plug it.

I haven’t built a shelf under the bench either, just because I haven’t felt the need to. If I do ever build a shelf I will plug the gap in the top to keep dust/shavings from falling onto it. I do keep a few appliances, like shooting boards and bench hooks under the bench, but they just rest against a stretcher.

The bench has been holding up fine in general. I flattened the top a couple months ago, because it developed a slight hump in the middle, but only very slight. After I resurfaced the bench I put some more oil on it. (Note: try not to get oil in the hold fast holes, otherwise it will take about a week for it to dry, so the hold fasts won’t grip). The shoulder vise and the tail vise have had no problems. The tail vise has broken in now so it runs smoother than at first, but it is not sagging at all.

Every month or two I loosen the bolts in the end caps and the threaded rod through the shoulder vise. I do this just to release any tension that there might be and retighten them again.

I don’t worry if glue gets on my bench, I usually grab a handful of shavings and rub the glue dry, and then scrap any goo off with a dull card scraper. I try not to get any finishes or stains on the bench though (besides oil) just to keep the bench from looking too crummy. If I have to finish over the bench I put a drop sheet or sheet of crummy plywood over top.

A little rough and dirty, but kept clean for the most part. I am still considering using a toothing plane to texture the top but haven’t decided yet.

The leather on the vises and bench dogs have been holding up pretty good as well. I try not to clamp small or sharp objects without wrapping them in another piece of leather, to keep the vise leather from unnecessary marks.

I have also considered making a crochet by the leg vise, but I don’t think there is much advantage in doing so. If anything it keeps you from having boards extend further past the vise. With a bench only about 6 foot long it is nice to extend long boards a little further past the leg vise sometimes.

I have also considered adding a planing stop near the tail vise like many Roubo and Nicholson benches have. I sometimes have to plane a short piece that cannot be clamped between the two nearest bench dogs, and planing against a bench dog is less than ideal because its fairly narrow. Besides the work involved in mortising and making the stop, is there any downside to having this feature?

People have asked me about how long to make a leg vise screw. My screw is only 14” long including the hub, so there is only about 9 inches of thread. There is more than enough. I don’t think I have clamped anything over 3” thick so far, so having 9 inches of thread is enough. One disadvantage to having a longer screw is it takes longer to unscrew when removing the vise. There have been many times where the leg vise was in the way so I removed it, and with a shorter screw it takes less time then with a long one. Only a small consideration though.

I haven’t thought about building a sliding leg vise much, since the sliding dead man and holdfasts work quicker and probably just as good.

My thoughts in general about the bench after 6 months are very good. Each of the three vises has it’s advantages and although I could do without having all three, it sure is nice having them there. Since I use the tail vise more then anything else I would say it is the most useful of the three. Its the only vise of the three that can hold work securely for face planing and with the traditional L-block style vise you can even clamp work between the jaws like a face vise too (of course the grip is side to side, not front to back). I also use it to pry things apart. I do furniture repairing and there have been many times where I used my tail vise to pull chairs apart. The leg vise would be the next most versatile vise. Unlike the shoulder vise it will not pivot so it can clamp small parts. And because the legs are flush to the bench, it is better at edge planing and holding wide boards firmly. Although the shoulder vise is quicker to use than the leg vise and doesn’t have a screw in the way of clamping.

The weight of the bench keeps it from moving while doing anything. I have never had it move while working on it. The height is also very nice for planing and when sitting on a stool it is a good height for chiseling and detailed work. I can’t say I would give it up for another other bench yet, except for a longer one if a had the space, although 6 feet really has been just fine.

If there are any other questions about how my bench has been holding up leave a comment and ask.

So at this point the shell parts are all dimensioned and ready for joinery. So I began by marking each board to orient them: front, back, left, right.

Then I set my marking gauge to the thickness of the shell parts, then scribed with that setting across each board’s end (make sure to scribe the edges of the tail board, but not on the pin board).

Next I set my dividers to lay out the tail spacing. After a few tries I got them set to produce 12 tails with just a hair over an 1/8” left for the pins.

If you are not familiar with using a divider to layout dovetails then now is the time to learn. Using dividers are quicker and more accurate then measuring out with a ruler. By trial and error, set the dividers until you can pace off the number of tails you want on the board, minus your pin spacing. As you can see in the picture above, I have just over an 1/8” left on the end. This will be the spacing between each tail. So once you get the dividers set, pace of from both the left and the right side of the board to mark each side of the tails.

After marking with the dividers I placed the two tail boards together and drew the divider marks square across the end of the boards. Then I drew the about 12 degree dovetail splay down the board (I do not know the angle, I copied it from the large dovetail on the shoulder vise of my bench. Might be a 1:6). By joining the two tail boards together I can cut both boards at the same time, effectively splitting the time it takes to cut the joint in half. Just make sure that the reference faces are against each other and the reference edges are on the same side.

(You can see here how handy having a workbench with the legs flush to the bench top is.)

Then I just cut the tails along the layout lines. Then flip the board end for end and layout, mark, and cut the tails on the other side. Simple.

Then just chisel out the waste.

With the tails cut I began laying out for the pins. So I clamped the pin board to the bench side so the end of the board was flush to the bench top, then placed the tail board over top and used a sharp pencil to transfer the tails. Make sure the pin board is not bowed and the reference edges are perfectly aligned.

Then transfer the lines square down the board’s side and cut out the waste. I used a coping saw to remove most of the waste and then followed up with the chisel.

After all the pin boards were done I test fit each joint. They all went together straight off the saw nice and tight. Probably too tight if it was hardwood, but because the pine is so soft the joints went together fine. After testing the joints I prepared for glueing up the shell. Because there are so many tails per corner, I got my sister to help with the glue up. She would spread glue on one half of the joint and I would do the other (make sure not to put too much glued on the face of the tails, otherwise the glue can keep the joint from fully seating). Having some help wasn’t too crucial for the first two joints (attaching the short sides to the front) but when it came time to putting the back on you will probably need help as you are glueing up two joints at once.

So once the shell was glued up I made sure each tail was fully seated in place and used some clamps where some extra pressure was needed. Now, before the glue sets, is the time to check for square by measuring diagonally.

The next day with the shell all glued up, I unclamped it and planed the joints flush. Because the outside of the chest is getting painted, and I didn’t want to see any tool marks through the finish, I also sanded the outside of the shell with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper.

To work on the long faces of the chest I just laid the shell down on the floor, but to do the short sides I was able to clamp the shell in my shoulder vise.

Pretty, if I do say so myself.

Next on the agenda will be making the bottom, then the skirts and lid. It may be a little while though as I am waiting for some tools and nails to come in the mail. Now is a good time to also think about hardware if you have not (which I have not).

In the last post I left off with the shell sides glued up and flat on one face. Yesterday and today I had some time to finish sizing those parts.

I started off by thicknessing. If you are not a wood worker that has become comfortable with hand planing, then you will regret it with this project. The only way for most of us to flatten and thickness a board about 2’ wide is with hand planes. So if you do not have the knowledge or skills yet to dimension lumber by hand, this project will show you why it is a good idea to learn how.

To begin, I use a marking gauge to scribe the thickness around each board.

Then I can start planing. Because some boards needed about a 1/16” to be taking off in places, I used my scrub plane across the grain. To keep the far edge from spelching I planed into the center from either side.

The nice thing about using a marking gauge to scribe the thickness instead of just an adjustable square and pencil, is the knife line it leaves behind. When you plane down to that scribed line you can see it and know exactly when to stop.

After that, I could use a try plane with the grain to flatten the scallops, then give the board a smoothing. I didn’t bother smoothing the boards immaculately since after assembly this face will be planed when leveling out the dovetails.

All the sides and the bottom boards planed to about 3/4” thick. I would have liked them closer to 7/8”, but 3/4” was the thickest I could make them all. Although at 3/4” the chest will be a little lighter.

With the boards all an even thickness I could go on to trimming the width of the parts. I started by jointing the best edge on each board.

Mark this as a reference face.

I then measured across each board and took note of what the maximum width was I could make all the boards. The thinnest piece measured at 23 1/4”, so that is what I marked each board at. This would be the perfect time to have a panel gauge so I could quickly mark the width on all the parts. (The panel gauge, for those that do not know, is a very large marking gauge.) Instead I measured 23 1/4” up each side and connected the marks with a knife line. Since I only had a 1/4” at the most to remove from the edge, I used my scrub plane to remove most of the wood. (As a side note, you could get away with not even planing the boards to width now. As long as you have one straight edge for reference, and layout your dovetailing for a 23 1/4” wide board, you can plane the edge away after the shell is glued up.)

Here you can see the knife line peeling up as I get close to the finished width.

With the parts trimmed to width I laid out the final length of each part. The front and back are 38” long, and the sides are 22”. Using a hand saw I cut along the lines, and using a block plane I trimmed the edge to ensure it was square and straight.

Just like when thicknessing the boards, to keep the far edge from spelching I planed from both ends into the center.

Now I have all the case sides ready for joinery. Next will be cutting the 48 dovetails.

PS//After all that work, especially in resin filled pine, take your hand planes apart and give them a good cleaning.

I happened to have little work today, so I had time to do some work on the tool chest.

A few weeks ago I had skip planed all the parts for the shell, and some of the oak. Skip planing is simply using a heavy set plane to remove the twist and warpage in a board. Thats all. You do not use a try plane or smoother at this point. By skip planing the lumber before hand, the lumber has a second chance to warp if it has to, since there was fresh wood removed from both faces.

Now a couple weeks after I have skip planed, the lumber has done its final “morphing”, if it needed to.

Today I finished planing the parts to have them glued up.

First I laid out all the shell parts on the bench, and picked which pieces would be glued together to create each side of the chest. I marked on each board which direction to plane, so that I could match the boards according the grain direction.

These four parts will create the two long sides of the chest. I also matched the short sides up the same way.

I then began flattening one face of each board. Since I had skip planed previously to remove the warping, it was little work now to get each face flat. Because the pine is so soft you can get away with a slight twist or bend in a board. As long as you make sure the board is held straight when you lay out the dovetails, the joinery will pull any small bend out of the boards.

Use winding sticks to check for twist.

The far right is a tiny bit high, though the picture hardly shows it. Since it was so little, I didn’t bother spending the time to remove it. (I have a strip of green tape on the stick in the back. My winding sticks are each 4’ long, and can connect together to create a 8’ straight edge. A very useful tool.)

I next jointed each edge that was going to get glued. I first used a scrub plane to remove the rough edge on each board, and get past any splintering that might have occured when I skip planed.

I then clamped two boards that were to be glued together, and book matched the edges. By planing the edges together (with a plane that has a straight iron), you do not have to have the edge square to the faces, the joints will still match creating a flat face across both boards.

When I make edge joints I often create a slight hollow in the centre, creating a spring joint. If your edges have that small hollow (paper thin), then when you apply clamps (particularly across the centre of the joint) you will close up the hollow creating a tight joint along the entire edge. No more gaps on either end of a joint.

So after each set of boards were planed try and true, I glued them up.

After each joint dried I cleaned up each face with a smooth plane. This surface will be the inside of the chest. I made sure that this was the prettier side, since the outside will be painted.

I also jointed and thickness the boards for the bottom of the chest, and glued up the panel for the lid.

By the end of the day I had all but one of the case sides glued up with one face smoothed. Tomorrow I will thickness the boards to about a heavy 3/4”.

After recieving a few questions about the previous video I realized I may have left out some details about the cutter. So in this video I better explain how to dimension the cutter and pick the steel.

In the latest video I complete all the work on the Tap. At this point in the series you should have all the knowledge you need to make wooden nuts of whatever size you want. I begin the video by explaining how to locate the mortise for the blade. I continue by showing the entire process involved in making the blade: shaping, hardening, and tempering. I then cut the mortise for the blade and wedge, fit the wedge, and make the “chip clear out” groove in front of the blade.

After this video I will start work on the screw jig (the tool used for making wooden screws).

PS// If anybody uses this information to make their own nuts, I would be glad to hear about it or see some pictures of your work.

In Part Three of the Tap and Screw Jig Tutorial series I finish the work on the guide block for the Tap. I start by laying out and cutting the metal plate which is inserted into the guide block to guide the dowel through the Tap. After work on the metal plate is done I attach two wooden blocks to create the clearance for the blade as it exists the Tap.

The second video is designed to help those who may be confused about laying out the thread pattern on the paper that wraps around the dowel of the Tap.

I have wanted to have a longer lathe for a while, and I could foresee the need for it in some future projects. Then someone wanted me to make something for them that required me to turn a couple things longer than my 14” Jet mini lathe could handle. So I decided to get a bed extension.

I had already tried turning them on my spring pole lathe which is longer, but turning dry hard maple is near impossible on one, particularily going from square to circular. So I looked online to see how much a bed extension for my lathe would be and they were from $100 up, plus shipping. So I decided to make my own.

I used quarter-sawn white oak for the bed surface and some plywood for the rest.The extension works well, and for zero dollars, the price is right. If any one has a small lathe that wants to turn longer stock without buying another lathe or an expensive extension, I recommend just making one. It only took a couple hours to build and I have a much more versitile lathe now. Just make sure the extensions are level with the lathe bed, and they line up laterally and all should be fine.

I have finally put out the second installment of the tutorial. I had to break up the video into two sections in order to fit it onto youtube.

In this part I begin work on the tap by making the guide block. The lumber you want to use for the guide should be a hardwood at least 2” thick. Depending on the size of screw you will be making the block can be 3” – 6” wide. It only needs to be surface on one face and one edge. Then drill the hole for the tap dowel in the centre of the guide block. The hole you drill will be the size of the internal diameter of your screw. For my 1” diameter screws with 4 tpi the internal diameter is 3/4”. Then cut the guide to length at about 5” – 8” long.

After the guide has been drilled and cut to size you can turn the dowel for the tap on the lathe, or buy a dowel of the proper size. Just make sure the dowel you use fits the hole in the guide nicely with little slop.

Then you can lay out the spiral on the dowel. To do this get a piece of paper (preferable grid paper but not at all necessary) and wrap it around the dowel and mark where the first edge meets the paper. The rest of this process may make more sense to see in the video than in explanation, so I won’t bother. Just remember when marking the diagonal lines on the paper make sure to go from bottom left to top right, otherwise you will get a screw that tightens counter clockwise. When making a 4tpi thread pattern go up by 1/4’s, with 2 tpi go up by 1/2’s, and when making 1 1/3 tpi go by 3/4’s.

In the next segment I will finish up the guide and possibly the entire tap with the cutter made. If anyone has any questions just ask. And if anyone wants to be notified of my next videos just go onto youtube, if you have a youtube account, and subscribe to my account.

I have decided to start work on my new chest tool. I am not sure when I will get around to starting the build, but I have got the design and materials ready for when it comes time to begin.

I bought the book by Chris Schwarz “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” back in the early parts of summer http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=67610&cat=1,46096,46109. I have always enjoyed reading his blog and when my friend told me about the premise of the book I thought it would be interesting and helpful. In his book he states that he wanted to write a book that he wished he had when he was 11 years old starting woodworking. He goes over the essential hand tools a starting woodworker will need, some non-essentials that are nice to have, and even the few machines that may be useful to the handtool woodworker. In the last part of his book he goes over the entire build of his new tool chest. He talks about how he came to its final design and construction and why it is built the way it is.

His book has helped me try to limit my selection of tools and stick with the basics. And after reading his book, and having worked in my shop for a few years, I have realized I need a tool chest. I often have a collection of saws, layout tools, and other important tools laying on top of my workbench collecting dust, dings, and chaos. So I recently read through the section of Chris’ book on the tool chest again, to familiar myself with its design and function. I have looked at some other chests aswell, but find the tool chest of an anarchist to suit me best.

The anarchist’s tool chest.

After going through the book again I made up my cut list and went down to my local lumber dealer, Exotic Woods http://www.exotic-woods.com/index.html. I picked up the white pine and white oak needed for the project. I got a great deal on ten 4/4” 12” wide by 6’ long boards of white pine, free of knots and surfaced on two faces.

When I took the lumber back home, I went through laying out the parts for the chest, starting with the largest and most visible parts first. Then I cross cut and ripped the parts to rough size using my newly refurbished panel saws.

Now I have a stack of roughly sized parts awaiting the day I have the time to start the project. Just for kicks I am going to do the entire build using only hand tools. Being white pine even the heavy chores like ripping and thicknessing will be a breeze. The only part I am concerned about is resawing about 9+ feet of 5 1/2” wide white oak by hand. I may give in and use the bandsaw, or perhaps make the newly famous Roubo frame saw to cut it http://logancabinetshoppe.com/blog/2012/01/episode-41-re-sawing-hand-tool-style/. Only time will tell.

After the last blog entry, the first task I had to do was plane the underside of the board to fit to the groove in the frame. I just used my scrub plane to roughly flatten and bevel all edges until they fit in the groove.

Then I glued the frame together, smoothed the frame, and started applying the coats of tung oil.

I also added strips inside the carcase for the drawers to slide on. I originally had another plan to make special drawer slides, but later decided to do the drawers more traditionally. Because of the design change there was about 1/4” extra height above the drawers so I added the strips for the drawers to slide on.

Now it was time to attach the posts to the carcase. So I attached cleats to the fillers. I put 2 screws through each cleat into the frame of the false drawer fronts. I could have simply glued the edge of the filler to the false drawer front, although because of wood movement in the carcase, there is a chance that something could crack. So by screwing the flase drawer fronts on through oversized holes, the will be some give if any movement does occur.

After the cleats were attached I could fix the posts to the carcase.

Now I was ready to attach the drawer fronts to the drawers. Before fixing the fronts on I had to plane the edges until they fit with even gaps between the posts and drawer front sides. Once I got good clearnace I just used 2 screws to fix the fronts on.

After the fronts were attached I worked on the drawer pulls. After a little thought, help from a friend, and a prototype I came up with the shape for the pulls. They are shaped to have one or two fingers lift underneath and have your thumb rest on top. I fixed them to the drawer fronts with 3 toothpicks and super glue.

After that all I had to do was screw the top to the carcase and oil and wax some parts.

With the board done I still had to weigh the pieces. So I got a 3/4” diameter steel rod and cut it into 1/2”, 3/4”, and 7/8” sections with an angle grinder. The pawns and bishops have 1/2” weights, the kings have 7/8” weights and the rest have 3/4”. To drill the holes I got a board with 3 sized holes drilled through it which allowed the chess pieces to slide through upside down and have their bottom ring rest around the hole. Then I used the drill press to drill the holes. As a note, the next set I make I will drill the holes before turning the pieces.

I may still put some felt on the bottoms of the pieces if my uncle requests it.

So there is the finished project. I started it over a year ago, but only worked on it sporadically throughout the year. Like I said earlier, I will have some good photos from my aunt fairly soon. I hope you guys learnt something and possibly got inspired to try making your own sets.

The holes are slightly larger than the screws, so they should allow for any wood movement between the carcase and top.

Before glue up I smoothed the inside surfaces.

After the carcase was dry I clamped it to my bench side to plane the edges flush. Here is where having a legvise and sliding deadman working with holdfast is extremely useful.

I use one holdfast to rest the carcase on and the other to clamp it to the bench side. If you have a sliding leg vise that would be just as useful.

After glue up the bottom did not sit flat on the bench top. So I used my scrub plane to flatten the bottom.

(I actually planed a slight hollow in the centre so the edges all sit flat without any chance of rocking)

After the bottom was flat I fit the drawers to the carcase by hand planing the drawer sides until I got a nice fit. I then attached the fillers to the posts with some screws. The fake drawer fronts will go between the posts and attach to these fillers.

The posts are not yet glued to the carcase side.

Next I flattened the board on the show face and only roughly planned the underside, semi-flat. Since the board is a panel going to be inserted in a frame the board did not need to be dead flat underneath. I will make sure that the edges of the board are the same thickness all around so that the panel fits properly into the frame’s groove. After the board was flat I used a raised panel bit around the board. This is the same profile as the drawer fronts.

I think the board is a perfect size for the pieces.

Here is a close up of the corner of the board. You can see now why the squares along the outer edge of the board were about 1 inch longer. With the profile added to the outside of the board, the outer squares became the same size as the inner squares.

Next I will fit the board into the frame and glue it up. I will also make the maple drawer fronts, add steel weights to the chess pieces, and make custom dividers for the pieces in the drawers.

Here is the carcase disassembled with the dowels in place.

You may be able to see in the picture the lines I have drawn by each dowel to mark the location of each dowel for drilling.

After the dowels were all drilled I turned the last three posts. Its very scary turning these because the corners can easy nick your nuckles or your lathe tool can chip them (which I did, and required major repairs to fix).

You can see there is two dowels in each post. These will be joined to the outside of the carcase sides.

During the process of turning and repairing the posts I was glueing up the strips for the board. I also put 3 dowels between each strip to help align them and give greater strength to the joint. I had these strips cut last winter and they have warped since then so the dowels were a great help in aligning the warped strips. Note: do not cut parts and glue them up almost a year later, especially when the long grain is cut short and the piece is very wide.

To summarize where I left off:
-I had the drawer sides dovetailed.
-2 walnut posts made.
-The chess pieces all done.
-The board strips glued up.
-And the walnut drawer fronts made.

To summarize where I am now:
-The drawers are assembled with dividers in place. The bottoms and dividers are a different wood than the outside of the drawers, this is so the pieces contrast against the interior.

-One of the walnut posts are firewood because it cracked too much. So I have one walnut post done and the blanks made up for the other walnut post and the maple posts.

-Chess pieces are all done and buffed nicely.

-The glued up board has been cross cut into strips.

-The joinery for the board’s frame is cut and ready to go. I used bridle joints, like the drawer fronts.

-The bottom, sides, and rails for the carcase are ready for joinery. To make the sides and bottom as wide as I needed them I had to join multiple boards side by side. You can see in the pictures how I used rabbets to join them all together. To glue them together I put wax paper underneath and clamped it to my bench. Also note in the glue ups the sides are all one colour. After I realized I needed each side to have two coloured ends, so I cut each side in half and joined the opposing colours together. This is an instance where having hand plane skills is indespensible. To flatten the bottom and sides would be near impossible with a machine. Since the grain in the sides does not run with the length of the piece it could not be flattened with a jointer or planner (unless you can use those machines with the grain running sideways, I have not tried). Also the bottom is too large to use on any jointer I know and too large for most planners. Also note the bottom is not evenly split into walnut and maple. I did not have enough walnut to do so, but its no visual problem because only the front edge of the bottom is visible.