Tool Cabinet Storage

I posted my finished tool cabinet last week and decided to post how it finished out with the tools. This in itself was a project which took work every day of the past week to get it finished.

It went from this:

To this:

One of my main concerns after I finished the cabinet was the plywood back panel; it just didn’t fit with the rest of the cabinet. I thought of covering it with some pine boards. But I got a couple of suggestions by some people who said not to worry about it, once it is covered with tools, it will not be an issue. They were absolutely correct. The eyes focus on the tools and not the plywood.

I used the interior cabinet space to mount the tools that I use the most. The doors got the big saws with the smaller ones on a cabinet wall. The rest is filled with planes, marking gauges, spokeshaves, etc. I used drawer space for chisels, measuring tools, and miscellaneous tools. While fitting everything in there, I came to really enjoy the plane till. As I pointed out in the cabinet project, I used to hang my planes on hooks with some cord. I found that using the planes with the plane till is much more convenient. They easy to remove and put back in place. I tend to return tools after every use and all of the tools are mounted and placed in a manner that they are easily accessible and easy to return.

Additionally, the cabinet gave me the opportunity to mass my most frequently used tools all in one place. Previously, I had the same tools in different locations, which was frustrating at times. I had chisels located in three different places. I had saws in two places. Marking and measuring tools all over the shop. Planes also all over the place. Now I have all the workhorses in one place. The tools I only use every now and then, will move into the places left open from the rest. This cabinet opened the door for me to organize and work more efficiently.

Here are some more pics.

The chisel drawer has all of my chisels. This makes it easy when I need one. Underneath the blue handled chisels (my so called “beaters”) are some gouges and specialty chisels that don’t see a lot of use. The beaters sit in a tray that slides forward for access to the others below. Making the rack for the users was a challenge. The dividers sit in grooves (ten total) that were all cut with my Stanley 45. As you can see, the far right Japanese chisel slot was too small for the handle. Not sure how that happened, but I made it fit by removing some of the inside of the drawer. Oops.

Here is the grooving process for the chisel drawer.

I put all of my measuring tools in one drawer and made a tray for the ones that I use a lot. Here it is:

The chisels and measuring tools are in the top two drawers. The bottom two have misc. tools in one and the other has my mortise chisels. I am going to organize these somewhat better. But for now, they will suffice.

This has been a project that was a lot of fun and it serves a need that I had in my shop. If you have been thinking of making something similar, I say go for it. My shop now has a cabinet that holds the hardest working tools and is directly behind my workbench. Working in my shop just got a little bit easier!

-- Mike