Thank you, Rex. My father built every house we ever lived in, replaced toilets and bus engines, built a swimming pool in the garage for my mom (then a new garage), created furniture and built Navy Jet ejection seats. I was always by his side, even with the ejection seats. Well, there were those times when I was a pest and he sent me to find a tool he didn’t really need. I am also a total egg head (Dad did not quite get it) and I still work as a scientist. But when I relax, it is off to the woodwork shop (I have shop envy BTW). Now I am 71 and I have an 8 yo son and a 10 yo daughter. I try to teach them both all I can because I was taught to teach. Again, my sincere thanks. Cordially W. David McGuinn.
For me, fathers' day was last week. It's almost exactly 19 years since I lost my dad, and in four months I will myself become a father for the first time! Nice project in any case, very useful! One useful addition might be some way of safely storing one or two chisels without a tool roll.
Right on! My dad taught me general mechanic awareness and I treat my 10 year old daughter like I've treated my two older sons, in that regard. Happy father's day to all, big special cheers to Rex, all the way from south Brazil!
Just the nudge this nuge needed. I took your suggestion and bought Joshua A. Klein's book "Worked" and, for good measure, added his book "Joined" to the order. I'm happy I did. In return, I'd like to suggest a book with a very similar (but different) tote based on an old carpenter's tote the author found at an auction around 1960. It has both the sides and ends sloping and, for some reason I never got around to making it. The one you show in this video with the carry close, straight side is just the ticket. I'm fed up with the canvas (Cordura, whatever) one's I have always slamming me in the legs. (Yes, they're always overloaded.) Since I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that, "Its impossible to have too many tools", I'll just have to make more than one to distribute the load amongst the different kinds of jobs I carry them to. The tote I mentioned, one of four, is to be found on page 226 of the second edition of "Making Wood Tools with John Wilson", Home Shop Books. He covers not just hand planes but other wooden hand tools like the adze and scraper, etc. and how to make, from shaping to hardening and tempering, their O1 Tool Steel blades and their adjustment hardware, where appropriate, as well. Enjoy.
Thank you Rex for helping us understand the joy of woodworking with handtools! i started watching your videos 2 years ago and kickstarted my will to create things
I'd like to see you design and make rolling stacking tool boxes like the big tool brands. Except made of wood, with joinery, as a fun high end project to test skills.
Plenty of challenge to this "little" project. I like it! Knowing mechanical stuff is a way to learn more about our world in general. It's priceless! Happy Father's day :)
Thanks for the video and free plans! Never had kids and my father passed away when I was 15. I was always willing to jump into things feet first in car projects when I was younger, but I do wish my father had taken the time to teach me more about how things work like woodwoorking, home repair, plumbing, etc... at 54 I'm still figuring that stuff out on my own. My wife gets dragged along, usually begrudgingly, with me when I work on something I understand, or even when I don't. I have her join in on the fun so she'll learn something new and so she won't be taken advantage of if I'm not around. She doesn't always appreciate it, but I feel she should know since her father never taught her how to do those things. I say all that to say, I think it's awesome you are taking the time to teach your daughter. Keep up the good work!
I love how every trade has deas and principles that are applicable to every othe trade. This would be pretty simple to make this out of sheet metal. And just as useful.
That looks really nice. I have a smaller, plastic tote with a similar-ish overall design, and it's really handy for projects around the house. I use it as a "shopping basket" in the garage to gather up what I need for a project elsewhere in the house, or I use it to haul all the crap back to the garage after a "simple project" ends up with a huge pile of tools on the floor when I'm done. I'll have to build one of these.
Many thanks you to you, Rex, for this. I inherited a tool tote from my Great Grandfather nearly identical to this when my Father, his oldest grandson, passed several years ago. It was made from 1/2 " cherry from over a century ago and has stored my most precious vintage tools since then. This summer I will be apprenticing two young men to hand tools with this as one of their earliest projects after some Everyday Woodworking Projects from your book of the same name. Again, thanks for helping keep these traditions alive to those who follow us through our lives here.
Happy Father’s Day Rex. So glad you had that special experience with your father and now sharing that with your daughter. Reminds me of when my daughter was a teen, she worked with me on Habitat for Humanity builds.
Fantastic video Rex!! I never realized that my wooden tote saw so complex. Your video gave me a new appreciation of it. I am going to have to change that handle on mine though 😅
Great project. I know I'll make one in the future. If someone wanted to add some details to it, dovetailing the sides and ends together would give it a more interesting look instead of screws, plus adding through mortises to attach the center handle would be cool too. Yes, doing all those more complicated joints ( especially with all the angles in this project ) might be a headache, but I think it would be worth all the extra time and effort. Since this is just a tool tote, if the joints didn't turn out perfect it wouldn't matter, but it would be a way to practice hand cutting those joints. Always enjoy your videos.
Great project, easy but complex enough to be interesting for a beginner. And useful for other applications like gardening tools..so maybe if Mom is a gardener make one for her too. it would be easy to make shorter if desired. Got to admit the tribute to your Father got me tear eyed thinking of mine who we lost twelve years ago.
If my dad was still alive i'd totally build that for him, it would have been perfect for his job. The slim design is nice to put it on the scaffolding next to you while still leaving enough space for someone else to walk past
Nice project. I've always shied away from compound angles...maybe I should give this a try. If I leave out the center board, it would make a nice window planter box for bushy or spreading plants, like pothos. Happy Father's Day, Rex. Thanks for sharing.
I read an article in a magazine once about compound angles and how to figure them out for real. I made this funky upside down truncated pyramid looking box from it too. Which was always a massive pain to have around. I finally lost it someplace. I'm sure it's still around, I just haven't seen it in a while now. It's buried in some pile of crap somewhere.
Nice plans amd good design. As a side note, removing the handle section will make this a nice planter that will sit flush with a wall. Super value for free plans. Thanks Rex.
I too like to involve my kids in my hobbies and the household chores. Some of it is not being so helpless when something breaks. My wife can't even put on a spare tire. Oftentimes I would hate helping my dad as a kid. He mostly did wood working, but also a lot of his own car maintenance - e.g. I helped him change the transmission in our jeep. But as an adult, it's nice to be handy. I know people that are afraid to even change a light switch. It's not that hard.
I looked at that and immediately said "BARBEQUE"! That is ideal to hold all the essential BBQ tools - brushes, knives. skewers, spatulas, Q'ing forks, paper towels (mounted on the slanted side), sauces, elixers, and spices. Everything but the ribs and steaks. Not just a tool hauler (unless you consider your BBQ kit as tools like I do). And it is so retro cool. Thanks, Rex. I really enjoy your odd jobs like this. I have just one niggly. The plans are not truely free. The cost is my email address and that is worth a lot to me and it is worth a lot to internet marketers. I know because I worked for them before I retired. I'd rather give out my social security number than my email address :). Still love your channel, though!
Thanks Rex, that's an interesting variation on the basic design, and well explained, what a great little project despite all the angles to master ! Nice ending too, totally agree with the sentiment, all my kids are high academic achievers and yet they can and do have a go at most things practical too !
I love this tote, however, it is way above my comprehension at this point of my life. Thanks for sharing it...Happy Father's Day if that applies to you...:))
I only use torx screws. My fave it a T25 (the green bit). For some reason the T20s I have used seem to slip (like a Philips) sometimes. I'm usually completely happy with a T15 or T25.
Hello, Mr. Crandall; I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. I know what you mean. I'm 69, Pa died in 2012 & I still miss him. I wish I had told him how much he meant to me & how much I appreciate his trying to help me be a better man. Have a GREAT day, Neighbor! PS I will cry like a baby when 'death will be no more'.-Revelation 21:4.
I tried to make a tote with my father once. It was horrible. All the screaming, so much blood, and my mother has refused to speak to me since. I recommend making one with wood instead.
Honestly, if you leave the fourth piece wide, you could carve out the center leaving two feet on either end and once you glue a small block to the center of the opposite long piece, you would have a three foot box. Keeps it out of the dirt a little and makes sure it always sits stable
Hey Rex. I've noticed a prodlem with your plans, the board size of 5 1/2'' and 6'' are both marked as 140mm. But still those plans are amazing and free so it's not a big deal
Timely video, Rex. my sister has asked me to make her a planter based on an old garden tote she found in a book. All four corners are splayed. I have been puzzling over how tommake this. My spidey sense tells me the answers can be found by contemplating this video.
A very good project!!!!! Thank you for explaining reality building math. Watching me do such things drove my baby brother, the nuclear engineer, absolutely nuts. " But but but how do you know what to cut?" LMAO
Again I was like "Oh, it's Fathers Day already, Mothers Day was just?!", then I remember that we have it in November. Phew... I hate these mini-heart attacks and panics :D
I think doing that with joinery would be a long and drawn out project. Nothing you'd get done in a leisurely afternoon. The only reason they did joinery in the past was because fasteners were expensive. Not because joinery is actually any better. If they could have bought boxes of screws you'd better believe they would have.
Only kind of amps I have. Both mid '60's, one's a Super Reverb I pulled the four 10" Fender Jensen's out of, replaced the crappy speaker board with 5/8" thick marine grade Finnish birch plywood and mounted a 15" Gauss guitar speaker in it . The other one is a Band Master that I use with an Alembic B-12 speaker cabinet with two 12" Gauss guitar speakers. (The cabinet is made out of 13 ply, 3/4" marine grade Finnish birch plywood with a 5/8" thick speaker board of the same material.) P.S.: While James B. Lansing and Altec Lansing speakers are great sounding and rated for 100 watts with a 25% iffy cushion for headroom, if you hit them with 126 watts they usually blow out. The Gauss speakers, besides sounding great, are rated for 200 watts with another 100 watts of headroom. I don't think either of my 45 watt Fenders (with 2 6L6's) will harm them at all - even if I run them at full volume. (I installed a master gain, or volume, in each. They give Twin Reverb's [with 4 6L6's] a run for their money.)
7:57 Rex whyyyy all the extra work? With the angle of the end pieces making them appear beveled, just continue that bevel on up. You'd only have to trim two little corners and that little bit of extra wood shouldn't hurt a thing.
I wonder if the handle would be simpler with thick dowel rods coming from the sides to a smaller handle board in the middle. (I say while looking at spare thick dowel rods in my garage)
I'm sad that because of a broken family law system in Australia, I won't get to teach my sons the mechanical and life skills my Dad taught me, nor will I get to celebrate Father's Day with them, especially if they have children
So why is your drill/impact driver the exception for the classic hand tools. You may have gone over this in the past. If so can someone just give me a link to that?
Poplar is a little lighter than oak too. Another plus. Having carried a couple of different totes around that were unevenly loaded I think I'd modify this one slightly to make the hand hole about twice as long. The idea being that we can shift our hand as needed to make up for any off center loading. And yeah, a nice big and well rounded hole to make it easy to put our hands in place and more comfy to carry. And a very enthusiastic DITTO ! ! ! to your mechanical awareness message. Far too many folks can barely change a light bulb. We can't all be mechanical wizards but some basic grounding in the approach and understanding of some basics makes our lives a lot easier.
Great project. I've got three daughters and one son. I've taught them all basic mechanical stuff. They can all change a tire, change their oil, and do basic repairs on most stuff. They've all gone on mission trips with World Changers and Mission Serve where they repaired people's homes, built wheelchair ramps, etc. My oldest just graduated with a degree in civil engineering and started a great job. When she was 18, I sent her and her little brother to Lowe's to get a thermocouple for our water heater. She asked for help finding it. She told a 20 something male employee that she needed a thermocouple for a gas water heater. He walked them to the water heater parts, grabbed an element and handed it to her. She said, "That's an element for an electric water heater. I need a thermocouple for a gas water heater." Then she grabbed the right part and checked out. I was more annoyed than she was that the employee thought he knew more than her because she's a female. I kind of pulled a Karen and called the manager, but I was calm and polite. I just told him what happened I said, "Your employee, who works in a hardware store, just got schooled on hardware by an 18 year old girl. He needs to turn in his man card." Which made him laugh. I can only imagine the hazing that poor kid got once the story circulated in the break room. I hope he used it as a learning opportunity.
Thanks. Nice work I glued and screwed and then when the glue cured I took out the screws and replaced them with wood dowels. Also wrapped the handle with thin rope I had laying around (would have preferred leather strips but did not have any)
It’s splayed in two directions, Matthias wandell has a great video about calculating this type of angle in a video from the early days of woodworking youtube. He ends up making a bowl so lots of angle joints coming together.
Built - a nice weekend project. Used "Appearance Board" grade pine as its only twice the price of construction grade SPF, but its actually dry and way flatter. Poplar and Red oak are both 5 times the cost of construction grade SPF here on the west coast. One minor thing that didn't work for me - the measurement at 14:54. I don't think you want to measure the end of the bottom board, you actually want to measure the ends of the outside of the toolbox. I think this is because that bottom piece is bevelled on each end so the top of the bottom piece is likely about an inch longer than the bottom. I learned this the hard way - cutting the handle 3 times, cos the first two were an inch or so too short. You might also miss scribe the end angles for the handle, so adding 1.5" extra than what you thing you need will give you wiggle room. But all minor issues. In summary, it is a great project and a superior tool tote. And a darn genius design.
I went out and got an attachment from Lee valley tools for my brace, so that I can use it to drive screws. I even use it for carpentry around the house. The sensitivity you get doing it all by hand is amazing. If you are working in softwood and trying to avoid predrilled you can't beat it. Also, no more sore wrists from standard screwdrivers.
My wife's convinced there's nothing I can't fix. She only has that impression because my dad put a hammer in my hands before I hit kindergarten and because when I said "I can't" he would reply "I can't means I won't. You can do anything you put your mind to." My dad passed several years ago. When he passed I only took one thing, that hammer. One day it'll be my son's. He's about to be eleven and lately he's been sneaking into my shop to see what I'm doing every chance he gets. I cherish those moments every bit as much as I do every memory I have of my dad. If yours is still around don't you dare miss a chance to tell him what he means to you and don't waste a minute with your kids. They'll need every memory of you they can get one day.
Oh, he's a wily devil and always into everyone's scribbling. I call him, "Mr. SpelCzech", as in "He who knows everything we were going to say and how it is spelt".
I'm actually a leather working hobbyist, but I thought I wanted to do wood working before that. This was how I found your channel, and even though I don't do much at all in wood, I enjoyed your channel and stayed. I have been mulling over designs for a portable leather working tool tote, and I think I found the basis for it in this design. I think I'll use a heavy saddle leather for the material, just stitched in this design.
My great uncle had one very similar to this made out of Birch I believe. One big difference is his had a two piece lid that closed from either side. i called it a tool coffin.
Happy Father's Day Mr Rex and all y'all. Nifty project sir. Great of you to put it available for all us out here in RU-vid land. Blessings friend Crawford out 🙏🏻🔥⚒️🧙🏻♂️
To get, even more visually pleasing and also having more to grip to, handles in flat wood, at work we drill four 30mm holes (i guess not far of your 11/4 ") 25 mm center to center so they overlap a bit. The pointy waste wood in between each hole we leave and just take a file to it to make the pointy bit into a nicer curve. Finally to get rid of the square (sharp) edges we take the opening along a quarter round 1/8" router bit on both sides, and hey presto you have a really nice hole that fits the four fingers of a regular guys hand upto not quite ginormous but still big, nicely. That last step is a bit more intricate then for a straight lined handlehole when using handtools and sandpaper, but it is very satisfiing when gripping you own created handle, totally worth the effort.
Reminds me of the "briefcase" Roy Underhill carried in the intro to the Woodwright's Shop. I am going to have to build one now. Thanks for the plans and the video.
