|
Whenever you move into a new shop, there always is something you have to build before you can work wood. In my seventh shop, the microshop, I needed some place to keep my tools handy while I worked at the bench. Having spent the previous several years doing mostly construction and renovation work, as a job and later on after work and on weekends, I had been used to working out of a collection of tool bags. This is not an efficient way to do any fine woodworking.
As I began to set up the microshop, in a ten by ten garden shed, I realized that not only did I need my tools handy, but I had a real space problem, the like of which I had never dealt with before. With the obvious floor space restrictions, I also had to deal with a very low, sloped ceiling.
I began the design stage of the project and looked in every book and on every website I could think of, including all the popular ones like Ellis Walentine's Woodcentral, where there is an extensive collection of woodshop photos and links to al the old Badger Pond stuff. I was already looking forward to shop number eight, therefore hoping to begin work on a lovely big tool cabinet; one similar to Andy Rae's cabinet as shown in the book Setting up Shop, by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. There wasn't room and I needed something fast.
For several weeks after I exhausted all the ideas in my woodworking library, and after pages and pages of sketches of potential candidates, I stumbled upon a photo of a tool rack on the Google Book Search. I had searched tool chest, tool cabinet, tool box, and every possible combination I could think of for weeks, but I had never tried searching "hand tool rack". On the first page of search terms, I found a photo of Hank Gilpin's tool rack in his Rhode Island woodshop, and it stuck in my head.
I made an Excel spreadsheet with all the tools I had to have on the rack and began measuring them up. I went on to measure the ceiling height in the shop, the angle of the slope, the length of my bench, and I made an estimate of the maximum depth of the tool till before it would seriously impact movement in my tiny space. After that I mocked up the angle using some scrap wood to determine how far from vertical the tool tray would have to be to keep my tools safely on the rack.
I discovered I could not use the tool till for hand saws or my #7 jointer because I didn't have enough headroom. This was disappointing, but I got around it by making a very simple saw till and placing my jointer plane on its own little shelf beneath the tool till. Once I knew the approximate measurements, I sketched the layout. After a few tries, I was ready to begin construction.
One thing is certain with a project of this type; you usually need the finished product in too much of a hurry to be bothered with making it a furniture showpiece. I envy the woodworkers who have been in their shops long enough to rebuild their fixtures and do a beautiful job of it. I, unfortunately, have never been in a shop long enough to do so. When I built the tool till, most of my tools, other than my renovator's tools, were squirreled away in sheds and my sea can so I needed to keep the construction simple and quick, and use materials at hand.
I decided to use up a sheet of ¾ inch Baltic birch that I had carried from place to place and was starting to mould. After removing the light covering of mould by scraping and sanding, I cut out four frames that were the ribs of the skeleton of my rack. Here is a shot of the frame with the dimensions on it. If I were to do it again, I would not have the tools stand up as much but, being hampered by a lack of space, the tool till works very well and the tools lay solidly on the tray. A notch was cut in the back of each frame to accept a two inch nailing strip which was necessary to attach the assembly to the wall.
Once I had my frames complete, I cut the two inch nailer strip of the same plywood, sixty inches long, using my circular saw and a jigsaw. This served as the backbone on which I fastened the frames. I placed an even, but generous, coating of glue inside the notch of one of the end frames, and stapled the nailer into the notch from the back using narrow crown pneumatic flooring staples - because they were handy. I continued with the other end frame, then the two intermediate frames, spaced evenly, to complete the skeleton.
To provide added rigidity and storage, of course, I glued and stapled a shelf onto the bottom with a simple butt joint. It wasn't pretty but it is very strong and very fast. The shelf also helped to keep the frames aligned before installation.
At this stage, the skeleton of my tool till was fastened to the wall with some very long deck screws. I took great care to see that the screws were deeply embedded in the centre of the wall studs as the last thing I want is for all my tools to come crashing down on the floor.
I cut a 14 ¾" by 60" panel out of the same ¾" sheet of Baltic birch. This served as the actual tray upon which the tools would rest. To fasten it to the tool till skeleton, I placed two clamps on the frames right at the transition between the vertical from of the shelf, and the slanted tool tray section. These clamps held the tray in place while I fastened it. An even, generous bead of yellow carpenter's glue was placed on the leading edge of the angled portion of each frame, then the tray was set on the skeleton and stapled into place using the same flooring staples. I used five staples per frame.
I then cut a 1 ¾" strip of the plywood, 60" long, and glued and stapled it to the bottom of the tray. This strip acts as a stop against which the tools rest so they don't slide off the tool till. Here is a shot of my #4 Bedrock resting on the tray.
This whole process, the building part and not the conceptualization, took less than an hour and a half. The next step took considerably longer - several days - but it was the most fun I've had with woodworking in a long time. I suppose it's because you can see instant progress.
Each tool needed to be separated from its neighbours with wooden strips. To make the strips, I cut a 3/8" strip off of a 14" section of two by six framing lumber. I did this with my rip saw, all by hand. Then I further ripped each strip into three sticks, 3/8" wide, and planed them smooth and flat by clamping a smoother into my workbench. I didn't do all the sticks at one time; rather I made six at a time, then mounted them on the tool tray. To stick them to the tray I used hot hide glue. I love this stuff because there is no need for clamping, you just make a rub joint and hold the stick finger tight for 30 to 40 seconds and you're done.
By placing a stick flush with the end, I covered all the staple heads, then I spaced my tools out so that I covered all the staple heads over the intermediate framed of the backbone. Once the first frame was in place, I set a tool on the tray, used a combination square to mark where the next stick would go, glue the next stick in place, and keep going. I followed my diagram quite closely, but part of the fun is testing and fitting everything so you get all the tools on the rack that you want, still trying to cover the staple heads and keep everything straight and organized. I would have taken more photos, but I was having too much fun.
In this shot, you can see that I have placed leather under the hand planes, with a cut out under the blade so I don't have to retract them or worry about dulling them. You can also see the details of all the little sticks I had to glue on to separate all of my tools.
There are several tools that were more convenient to hang off the top, I added dowels for the spokeshaves, and I even hung a couple off of the side of the till. The shelves provide plenty of storage and tall items simply stand up behind the tray. I hope to further organize the shelves later but, for the present, I would rather make something else.
In closing, this was one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever made. It didn't take very long, there were no finishes involved, and it is something I sue constantly while I'm in the shop, so the value is really there. After having made it, I am re-evaluating my tool storage plans for workshop number 8, which should be in the works before long. The most interesting aspect of this project is that it was never one of the methods of tool storage I would ever have considered, but it has become a real favourite in my little microshop. Happy woodworking!
|
