Hello all,
I stumbled on this site while googling for a traveling tool chest for my hand tools. I live in Southern California, but my wife's family, our daughter and grandchild all live in Northern California. Even though its the same state, its about a 10 hour drive (can be 12 if you hit LA traffic). The last couple times i have gone up to do projects, I was either missing some of my hand tools, or had them smashed into a cheap canvas tool bag. So i wanted to build something more portable but that could function as a makeshift bench with some type of work holding. That's when I stumbled onto Dr Al's amazing travel tool chest here https://www.thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/. It was actually better than I had imagined in my mind. He suggested I join this site to share my build journey as I try to replicate it the best I can ( i lack the metalworking skills so will have to improvise some things)
As for me, I have been woodworking since the early 90s. Funny enough I bought a hand plane probably in 1991-92 from Home Depot, the guy working in the store didn't say anything about sharpening and there was no internet back then. So I took it home to put it use, basically tearing out chunks of wood from my fish tank stand build, ruining the wood, and extracting some curse words from me. I shoved it in a drawer of my toolbox and left it there for decades, while I slowly added more and more power tools to my tool collection starting with a table saw. It wasn't until Covid lockdowns that I started watching a bunch of hand tool videos and started doing more and more hand tool work and collecting hand tools. So while I still do the donkey work with machines and use power tools where it makes sense for me, I have been trying to do the joinery with hand tools. So I guess if you had to put a label on me I would say I am a hybrid woodworker. Though for this tool chest build I have been trying to use hand tools for the majority of tasks.
Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself and say hi, and will start a build log for this soon!
Cheers,
Steve
I stumbled on this site while googling for a traveling tool chest for my hand tools. I live in Southern California, but my wife's family, our daughter and grandchild all live in Northern California. Even though its the same state, its about a 10 hour drive (can be 12 if you hit LA traffic). The last couple times i have gone up to do projects, I was either missing some of my hand tools, or had them smashed into a cheap canvas tool bag. So i wanted to build something more portable but that could function as a makeshift bench with some type of work holding. That's when I stumbled onto Dr Al's amazing travel tool chest here https://www.thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/holiday-toolchest.7477/. It was actually better than I had imagined in my mind. He suggested I join this site to share my build journey as I try to replicate it the best I can ( i lack the metalworking skills so will have to improvise some things)
As for me, I have been woodworking since the early 90s. Funny enough I bought a hand plane probably in 1991-92 from Home Depot, the guy working in the store didn't say anything about sharpening and there was no internet back then. So I took it home to put it use, basically tearing out chunks of wood from my fish tank stand build, ruining the wood, and extracting some curse words from me. I shoved it in a drawer of my toolbox and left it there for decades, while I slowly added more and more power tools to my tool collection starting with a table saw. It wasn't until Covid lockdowns that I started watching a bunch of hand tool videos and started doing more and more hand tool work and collecting hand tools. So while I still do the donkey work with machines and use power tools where it makes sense for me, I have been trying to do the joinery with hand tools. So I guess if you had to put a label on me I would say I am a hybrid woodworker. Though for this tool chest build I have been trying to use hand tools for the majority of tasks.
Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself and say hi, and will start a build log for this soon!
Cheers,
Steve
