Toolbox Build Update

In making my toolbox design I have made two side by side. The mahogany one is made from a vintage dining table that would not be suitable for any home for a few reasons and not the least of which was user damage resulting in broken joints. The wood in this one is simply superb to work. The cost at the charity shop was so minimal I had no choice but to buy. I have done this several times and actively pursue such pieces for the wood alone. Two or three tables like this can make a fairly sizeable project and indeed an unstained dining table with a more trendy look if wanted.

Buying secondhand wood is a matter of choice. I am building a new project over the winter ready for the spring and I will build it in sectional units to transport it when done.

Here you can see 3" x 3" eight-footers and then 3"x 3" four-footers. Standing by a skip filled with 1/2" plasterboard, this pallet was homeless. Over the months I have reused abandoned pallets for my outdoor work as you may have seen. In a given week a hundred pallets can be had for the taking. I hear constantly that you need special equipment to take them apart and that they are a beast to dismantle. That is not the case at all. Most pallets can be dismantled easily and in my view should be a part of the DIY process. It is nothing to do with money or time, it is to do with the process of living. I do visit a recycling center periodically because they occasionally have some woods in stock that I might want or need in the future or for a project I am working on. Most of this wood comes from them simply dismantling unwanted furniture. This for me then is just another element of DIY so I look for my own way to make that happen.

The bandsaw features highly in resizing my stock. It speeds up the process and especially when I want to thin down a 10" wide board down to 3/4" from 1". Each of the toolboxes has 25 pieces so 50 resized pieces in this case would prohibitive time wise. It is also a lot of physical work to rip widths and thicknesses.

I have really enjoyed making the toolboxes, as I always do and always will. I can't believe how my mind went back to the first one I made all those years ago, the one in pine in the middle, but then too, especially, the one Joseph and I made In Tulsa, Oklahoma when the woodworking show used to visit there in the early months of the year. Even without ripping the wood to size it is still a workout to hand plane the thicknesses to dead size and to raise the panels. One thingI took notice of is just how many times I found myself breathing hard, as though I had just been running for half an hour. I have learned to treasure this and especially so with my diabetes levels at a near perfect 6.2 and a BMI at the same levels. I have no aches and pains, feel limber all the time and of course have total flex throughout my body. In January I will be 71 years old remember!

So recessing the hinges and filming the making has yet again been pure joy. It's been like this for 55 years of my making. I have worked in just about every western wood there is and spending a third of my lived life in Texas gave me Osage orange and Mesquite, Pecan, Live oak and Ashe juniper to say nothing of Texas ebony and a few others. To the man who asked my why I didn't repeat the box in pine for the lighter weight I say this. I already have one in pine, my audience is perfectly capable of choosing their wood for their use and oak gave me the joy of making in an alternative beautiful wood. Ash would be very nice as would cherry. This is the joy of woodworking, choices!