Advise On A New Tool Rack

[CGish]

I saw this post by Cattle Hide and redesigned the pictured tool holder to meet my current needs. I intend to build it out of unfinished poplar, as I have plenty left over from other projects. Anyone have any advice or see any major problems with this design before I start gluing wood together?

Thank You,

Cody

[Ferg]

Cody,

I realize everyone doesn't have a chunk of 4" pine 10" wide laying around but,,, that is what I used. My work table is 6' plus long so I made the tool holder the same length. Drilled a number of different sized holes in it to about 2" deep. This yielded space for 350 stamps and swivel knives plus my collection of shaped punches.

Your design looks good, just a little more complicated than mine. I raised the back edge off the work table and attached a couple angle brackets to the ends and into the 3/4" panel I have for other tools on the back edge of the table.

ferg

I saw this post by Cattle Hide and redesigned the pictured tool holder to meet my current needs. I intend to build it out of unfinished poplar, as I have plenty left over from other projects. Anyone have any advice or see any major problems with this design before I start gluing wood together?

Thank You,

Cody

[CGish]

Cody,

I realize everyone doesn't have a chunk of 4" pine 10" wide laying around but,,, that is what I used. My work table is 6' plus long so I made the tool holder the same length. Drilled a number of different sized holes in it to about 2" deep. This yielded space for 350 stamps and swivel knives plus my collection of shaped punches.

Your design looks good, just a little more complicated than mine. I raised the back edge off the work table and attached a couple angle brackets to the ends and into the 3/4" panel I have for other tools on the back edge of the table.

ferg

ferg,

I like the idea of a solid piece to fit the back of a worktable, and I have some rough cut oak I could plane down and use, but I am still in the beginning of my learning process. I have several options for making a work area and want to keep things portable until I have a some experience and ideas on how I would like things laid out permanently. I appreciate the answer and the suggestion.

Thank You,

Cody

[Dwight]

I made a tool holder (250+ holes) by drilling holes in I think, pine lumber some years ago. It was for a widow lady in our church.

I decided I didn't need that hassle when i did mine.

I sharpened the inside edge of a piece of 3/8 inch copper tubing, . . . put it in my battery drill, . . . "drilled" a couple hundred holes in a block of foam.

Personally, . . . I like it better, . . . but that is just me. Foam drills a whole lot easier, . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited January 6, 2012 by Dwight

[electrathon]

Overall I like what you have drawn up. I would loose the gap along the rear row, it will just let stuff fall sideways and get stuck. I have made a few of these and the last one I used larger holes and all bevelers went togeather and so on. It saved a lot of spread out space and also worked better when locating tools. What you have drawn up is going to be something to be proud of in your work area. This is so much nicer than is you just use a big chunk of wood with holes in it.

Aaron

[CGish]

I made a tool holder (250+ holes) by drilling holes in I think, pine lumber some years ago. It was for a widow lady in our church.

I decided I didn't need that hassle when i did mine.

I sharpened the inside edge of a piece of 3/8 inch copper tubing, . . . put it in my battery drill, . . . "drilled" a couple hundred holes in a block of foam.

Personally, . . . I like it better, . . . but that is just me. Foam drills a whole lot easier, . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

Dwight,

This does seem easier! Never thought of using a tube to drill in soft material. Thank you for a great idea.

Cody

Overall I like what you have drawn up. I would loose the gap along the rear row, it will just let stuff fall sideways and get stuck. I have made a few of these and the last one I used larger holes and all bevelers went togeather and so on. It saved a lot of spread out space and also worked better when locating tools. What you have drawn up is going to be something to be proud of in your work area. This is so much nicer than is you just use a big chunk of wood with holes in it.

Aaron

Aaron,

An excellent suggestion. I thought of boxing it in with 1/4" material, but not just making it a block. This makes the front troughs more accessible as well.

Thank You,

Cody

[King's X]

I really like the design overall especially for the beginner and weekend home depot personal. Just a word of caution from something I learn when I made my block. Be careful to allow enough space between the tools especially the smaller size shafts. When you get better at your tooling and faster, you will go to retrieve a tool or put a tool back and the neighboring tools may teach you a lesson for ignoring them. A pinched, gouge or pricked finger. I have learned that this comes from having the tools too close together. If you haven't seen Peter Main's tool block or Bob Park's stamp block.......they have seemed to got it together and worked these issues out.

Either way, I applaud you for coming up with this design for everyone on here.

Good luck.

I really like the design overall especially for the beginner and weekend home depot personal. Just a word of caution from something I learn when I made my block. Be careful to allow enough space between the tools especially the smaller size shafts. When you get better at your tooling and faster, you will go to retrieve a tool or put a tool back and the neighboring tools may teach you a lesson for ignoring them. A pinched, gouged or pricked finger maybe a result. I have learned that this comes from having the tools too close together.  If you haven't seen Peter Main's tool block or Bob Park's stamp block.......they have seemed to have worked it out in their designs.

Either way, I applaud you for coming up with this design for everyone on here.

Good luck

[CGish]

I really like the design overall especially for the beginner and weekend home depot personal. Just a word of caution from something I learn when I made my block. Be careful to allow enough space between the tools especially the smaller size shafts. When you get better at your tooling and faster, you will go to retrieve a tool or put a tool back and the neighboring tools may teach you a lesson for ignoring them. A pinched, gouge or pricked finger. I have learned that this comes from having the tools too close together. If you haven't seen Peter Main's tool block or Bob Park's stamp block.......they have seemed to got it together and worked these issues out.

Either way, I applaud you for coming up with this design for everyone on here.

Good luck.

Good point. I thought about the space issue, but have no idea what is ideal. I went with 1" staggered from level to level so the stamps would not be stacked on top of each other. Currently it will hold 150 tools plus small items in the troughs. Should I open the spacing up a bit? If so, what would you suggest?

Thank You.

I started this tonight, so here are some beginning pictures. All of the wood is a little long, and I will have to cut the angle on the bottom of the main block after I glue it up and drill the holes on a drill press. All the pieces are rough sanded, and I put biscuits joints 1/2" off of the bottom of both sets to keep the pieces from walking when clamped.

Raw Material. All leftovers from some job in the past.

Rough cut, sanded, and put together dry to make sure it works.

Biscuit joints to prevent movement during gluing.

Cody

[gtwister09]

Cody,

I shared a number of different ones that I have made over the years as well as mosaic photos of past ones. I tried a number of ones from the Craftsman tool box with separate holes, saddlemaker rolls, cups,foam, pipes and many other options including one that was a separate one that allowed you to move blocks around mased on size with standardized block sizes....that one became too big. Some of the foam ones tend to chip out and I tried and epoxy finish for them but wasn't completely happy with the level of finish on those blocks. What I finally settled on was one that had larger holes where you could place all of one type of stamp in a particular hole and each swivel knife in a separate hole. It also allows each block to be carried as well as allowing the block to be set at two different angles so that you can view the tools much like your angled design. These are out of oak and can get heavy when fully loaded with stamps and swivel knifes.

I made a small one one for a friend that was "lightened" up. The handle and angled approach was used but the block was not solid oak this time. I made an open box of oak (1/2" thick except for the final bottom which was 1/4") that had a number of holes drilled in it (1-1/2", 1" and 3/4" these match the ID of the particular pipe sizes). This was the top and the bottom was left open. On the underside of the top there was a slight recess for each size of hole(Forrester bit the same size as the OD of the pipe) that would allow plastic pipe to be glued to the top. Once the glue on the pipe and top was dry then expanding foam was shot into the cavity in between the pipe and filled to the bottom of the open box (it was turned upside down to fill). Once the foam was dry then the excess was hot-knifed even with the bottom and the bottom was then attached to the open box. Then this box was assembled with the handle and ends. It did reduce the weight. However it was a lot of time. He engraved some scenes on the sides of the wooden box.

I don't have any pictures of this one but there are some other posts that show the oak block models.

Sam has some very good points about tool spacing. It was the reason for making one that has larger holes where tools can be bunched together like a saddlemaker's roll.

Regards,

Ben

[CGish]

I really like the design overall especially for the beginner and weekend home depot personal. Just a word of caution from something I learn when I made my block. Be careful to allow enough space between the tools especially the smaller size shafts. When you get better at your tooling and faster, you will go to retrieve a tool or put a tool back and the neighboring tools may teach you a lesson for ignoring them. A pinched, gouge or pricked finger. I have learned that this comes from having the tools too close together. If you haven't seen Peter Main's tool block or Bob Park's stamp block.......they have seemed to got it together and worked these issues out.

Either way, I applaud you for coming up with this design for everyone on here.

Good luck.

Cody,

I shared a number of different ones that I have made over the years as well as mosaic photos of past ones. I tried a number of ones from the Craftsman tool box with separate holes, saddlemaker rolls, cups,foam, pipes and many other options including one that was a separate one that allowed you to move blocks around mased on size with standardized block sizes....that one became too big. Some of the foam ones tend to chip out and I tried and epoxy finish for them but wasn't completely happy with the level of finish on those blocks. What I finally settled on was one that had larger holes where you could place all of one type of stamp in a particular hole and each swivel knife in a separate hole. It also allows each block to be carried as well as allowing the block to be set at two different angles so that you can view the tools much like your angled design. These are out of oak and can get heavy when fully loaded with stamps and swivel knifes.

I made a small one one for a friend that was "lightened" up. The handle and angled approach was used but the block was not solid oak this time. I made an open box of oak (1/2" thick except for the final bottom which was 1/4") that had a number of holes drilled in it (1-1/2", 1" and 3/4" these match the ID of the particular pipe sizes). This was the top and the bottom was left open. On the underside of the top there was a slight recess for each size of hole(Forrester bit the same size as the OD of the pipe) that would allow plastic pipe to be glued to the top. Once the glue on the pipe and top was dry then expanding foam was shot into the cavity in between the pipe and filled to the bottom of the open box (it was turned upside down to fill). Once the foam was dry then the excess was hot-knifed even with the bottom and the bottom was then attached to the open box. Then this box was assembled with the handle and ends. It did reduce the weight. However it was a lot of time. He engraved some scenes on the sides of the wooden box.

I don't have any pictures of this one but there are some other posts that show the oak block models.

Sam has some very good points about tool spacing. It was the reason for making one that has larger holes where tools can be bunched together like a saddlemaker's roll.

Regards,

Ben

Sam & Ben,

Here is a new drawing based on my understanding of your suggestions and from looking at some others on the forum. Opinions, ideas?

All the ideas are appreciated.

Thank you for your input and time.

Cody