Tool Cabinet Upgrade (& box for a plumb bob)

I have been working on my shop so far this year. My work focused on this cabinet I built over 25 years ago from a Woodsmith design. It was the first shop project where I put the effort in to have a piece that was good looking for the shop. It is built with solid birch and birch plywood. The handles are cherry.

It started out with some tools mounted in the doors and shelves in both sides of the cabinet. Around 5 years later I removed the shelves on the right side and added a hinged interior panel. Over the years I have added various tool holders – and then removed some and added others.

 

The last month or so was dedicated to a major upgrade. I took the shelves out of the left side and mounted several tools. Some of them had been tucked away in boxes for years.

I still have room to go on the back of inner panel and the wall behind it.

The left door has my layout and measurement tools.

The left cabinet has my hand planes and saw till. I realized that my large hand saws were all old plastic handled crap so I bought a few new ones. There are some tools on the lower shelf that need to find better homes some future day.

My first attempt at building the saw till turned out to be a prototype. It turns out that using construction grade lumber was not the best idea.

The final version was built up from layers of 3/16” plywood with a cherry covering.

 

The outside of the swinging panel has my hammers, mallets, punches and a beam compass. There is room for future tools here. Some may notice that the mallets look a lot like ones that Kiefer had made.

The inside of the right door has my chisels and screwdrivers.

The inside of the swinging panel is currently empty. The right cabinet has plenty of room left. It currently holds my lathe chisels and hacksaw.

The box on the bottom holds a special tool.

This plumb bob belonged to my father in law. I had one of my own but it was nothing special and this one was much nicer. In fact it was so nice it deserved its own box.

The string was wound around the plumb bob so I made a walnut spool to hold it.

Several blocks on the inside made for a tailored fit.

A variety of hardwoods were used for the mounting brackets. After a month or so I find myself putting tools away now that they have a place to live. Now that my tools have a decent home I need to find a place for the stuff that was on the shelves!