Drawers for my hand tools

I’ve decided now that I want most of my hand-tools within easy reach of the bench, so set to yesterday and today building some new drawers…

First I built the drawers themselves so they could have time to dry whilst I built the sides. I set these out on the bench and fitted all of the hardware before assembling the case.

The case is a little strange in that it has no lid or base – it will sit on the bottom rails of the bench and I’ll fix it in place, so these extra pieces were superfluous (and I wanted to maximise the space I had for tools).

The last photo shows the drawers in place. I have some lovely Iroko that I’m going to use to face the drawers. That probably won’t happen for a while!

Christmas Pressies

I was a very lucky chap this year…

The paper is some 40, 30 and 5 micron stuff from www.workshopheaven.co.uk which I’ve used to make the chisels ‘scary sharp’. And they are superb!

A vice!

I’ve had this vice for many years (I’d reckon about 10) but never really had a place to put it. I’m really glad to be able to use it now – it was a present from my folks and as they’re no longer around it gives me pleasure to use the things they gave to me.

It’s a quick release vice from Axminster, mounted with some massive bolts I also had lying around. I had to do some work on the vice in order to get the bolts to fit as they were just a little too large, so out came the files and a bit later the bolts fitted.

You might wonder why the vice is flush with the top of the door and not with the top of the MDF – I’ll be putting wooden jaws on the vice to save my tools, so a gap is necessary.

A drawer

To add some mass to the bench I’m adding a drawer to one end. Not sure what I’ll put it in as yet but I have some MDF left over from the top so I might as well use that up…

The handle is also something I’ve had lying around, so thus far this bench has cost me one sheet of 18mm MDF.

The new bench progresses

This evening I did a load more work on the bench, such that it now resembles one fairly convincingly…

As the floor isn’t level I was in two minds as to whether to build a bench that would need levelling, or one with uneven legs so it was level. I eventually chose the latter option as my bench will be so heavy I won’t want to move it anyway.

I’m using a simple MDF top as I can then replace it when necessary – a bench is there to be used so screwing into it is very likely to happen, as is scoring it with blades etc. Having something that is replaceable seems like a good idea to me.

A new bench

I’ve been wanting a larger bench for some time and today I decided it was time to start building it. I had a load of wood already hanging around so didn’t need to buy much for this project – the top is a 7’ door that’s been here since I bought the place, so I decided to use it at last (and a load of other wood that was part of the garage door I took down).

This evening I built the first trestle and also removed all of the mouldings from this side of the door. It’s a bit rough and ready but will serve it’s purpose. Next I need to complete the other end and join the two ends together.