# Chisel rack musing



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

I'm home today from work because I fell flat on my face last night. So now my back is messed up again. Frustrating. Looks like I'll be returned to reading books, etc. for a while. The good thing is that the hand tools I've been playing with I can use while sitting and so I can still fiddle a bit. No power tools for Betsy - medication = no power tools for you!

I fell because my leg gave way - I have bad joints and sometimes one just gives out and I can't catch myself. I'd feel sorry for myself except I've been learning to see past the present and have had the privilege of knowing people who have had much worse to deal with and have learned from their grace and power.

I'm quite thankful that I've been learning hand tools so I can still do some woodworking during these "down" times.

ok - now back to my musing. I've been searching the various sites for a plan for a chisel rack. I must not be using the right key words because I've not found much. Any help with ideas on a good rack would be appreciated. I have been thinking that I'd lke to make a rack for the area around my bench and maybe a box/rack for travel to my sofa/work spot to use when I can't sit at my bench. I'm not much on designing things. I could just do the old fostener bit and slit on a 2×4, but I think I want something a little more than that. And of course a box is a box but I really want to see other woodworker's ideas.

Above all, please keep me in your prayers. And certainly don't forget those folks, espcecially our fellow LJ's, in California.

thanks all.


----------



## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

Betsy, take a look at the photos of my shop. I have a chisel case right under the plane tills. It works for me.


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Thanks Thomas!

By the way, I googled Owyhee Design, Oregon - you sure are way out there!


----------



## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

Yeah, Betsy, we drive 62 miles to the grocery store. Jordan Valley is the town. Owyhee Design is my business. this is the land of the Buckaroo and the mustang. Lots more cows than people. This is the American Outback; the ION country where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada meet in the high desert. 4 of the biggest counties in the US are here. Owyhee in Idaho, Malhuer and Harney in Oregon and Elko in Nevada. Those 4 counties are bigger than a lot of eastern states. We have to drive 120 miles to the county seat. We like it that way.


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

You ought to consider having a LJ party. We could get a handful of us to come out your way and push up the population a little for a short time anyway. It really does sound nice. I remember going up in Ohio and where we were at it was 35 miles to a grocery until another opened up only 11 miles from home. So, in comparison to you, we had it easy. You should be getting ready for the approaching winter. Lots of work to do with horses this time of year.


----------



## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

Here's an interesting article on one.

Portable Chisel Rack


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

thanks Red. This looks promising. Since I may be chair bound for a while I'm looking for a chisel box that I can carry to the living room yet, put on or by the workbench when I'm in the shop. I'm not a good designer so this is a good start.

thanks again.


----------



## Sawdust2 (Mar 18, 2007)

Chiseling in the living room! Sounds like my kind of person (don't want to be sexist). LOL

When we were in college my housemate and I were going to rebuild his motorcycle in the living room until our girlfriends dissuaded us.

We married them. They divorced us.


----------



## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

Gosh, Lee, what a life you've had!!!


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Ok - so this is what I've come up with and how I did it. I decided to make this out of MDF since it's cheap and I probably will tweak this as I use it and decide I like this or that or I'd rather have this or that.

The back is 1/2×23 x 6, the end spacer is 3 inches high, the individual (between chisel) spacers are 3/4" wide by 4" high, the front is 3 inches high. I made the spacers taller than the front so I would have no troulbe finding the space to put the chisel into. Each between-spacer distance was taken from my hodge podge collection of chisels plus about 1/16" additional space. I used 3/4" spacers as I am looking at limited space to store the rack (hopefully on my in-living room small bench) and I have smurf hands so I was not worried about getting sausage-sized fingers between the chisel handles. So I was more concerned with the size of the chisels bodies themselves. The spacers are glued in. I think on the final rack (or this one if I finally decide I like it) I will put screws through the back into each spacer to deal with any chance that my glue joint breaks.

So here are my pictures. (It took longer to get this 9 pictures than it did to make the rack!)









For giggles and practice, I used my bench hook to cut a few of the spacers. I managed to get them square!







Then I took some time to practice making a dado with a chisel from my new rack!



I have not decided how to hang the rack. I may just go with the simple drilled holes and hang it on screws or I may opt for a cleat. Not sure yet.

Any ideas on improvement are welcome.

Thanks for your help and for looking.


----------



## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

Looks good, Betsy! As long as you use a good amount of glue, I don't think the screws would even be necessary for all the stresses a chisel rack has to withstand.

Did you get both of the razor saws from Lee Valley or just the thin one? I picked up both after a review by Chris Schwarz, and I've had chance to use each for various tasks - a well-spent $14, I must say…


----------



## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

OK, Betsy, I think we got that one took care of. Good going.


----------



## Dekker (Oct 11, 2007)

If you want a showpiece of a rack, check out Woodsmith issue 168 (Dec 2006?)


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Wow-- that would be hard to use. Would be afraid to knick it up. Might be on the par of the cutting board no one wants to use because it's to pretty.

Someday I'll be that good!


----------



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Redhead. Nope the razor saw came from the Center for Essential Education's school's store. It's the same saw in both photos - I think the angle makes them look different. It's also the same saw you can get at Rockler or Woodcraft. It does a great job. I've done a couple of miter cuts and crosscuts with it and it's amazingly smooth.


----------

