After last weeks chair class, I realized I needed a better place to keep my tools for both myself and for the classes. I have always loved to look at those standing tool chests that house all those great hand tools both in drawers and in the deep doors. It was a perfect time to jump on it and get one for my chair making tools.
I made it out of curly maple (I have a obsession with that wood) plus I had enough wood to make what you see here. I would have liked to make it a bit bigger but with what wood I had on hand I thought I'd see what I could do. I looked through several books on tool chests, a few blogs and web sites, I got several ideas on what looked great but you have to make it to fit you and your tools so with a general idea in my head I just went to it. I wanted something that would give me some drawer storage but not so many I would be months making it. I hand cut the dovetails on front and back of each drawer which is time consuming but if you ask me looks
SO much better than any routed dovetail. I made the doors deep to fit tools I use the most and the drawers will have the french fit tools areas (cut outs the house each individual tool). Here I have just gotten it stained and a coat of oil on it. I love my stuff to have an aged appearance so I'll do a few more steps with glaze and shellac to finish it up.
This is a side view that shows the hand cut dovetails on the doors. This adds a ton of strength to the already heavy doors and once the tools are place inside I won't have to worry about it ever coming apart and tools crashing on the concrete. Instead of staining the interior of the doors and lower cabinet, I decided to hide a few flaws with a coat of Cream Milk Paint. I thought the tools would show up better plus the stain I used was an aniline dye I mixed and didn't have enough to make another batch, I hope I don't regret doing that.
Now on to finish her up.
