Garden Tool Caddy

My wife spends hours in her garden, and requested a nicer tool caddy to replace the cheap plastic one she was using. I had originally planned on using compound angles for some visual interest, and even went so far as to make a quick mockup to test my angles. As soon as she saw it she didn’t like how the slope of the sides reduced the size of the bottom, so I stuck with straight sides. Of course she is always right in these matters…well, all matters actually. If you’re married you know what I mean.

I chose Mahogany since it offers some protection from moisture, and I have never used it before. The mitered corners are reinforced with 1/4” dowels which had to be cut down in length to about 5/8”. I used my Dowelmax with the 45 degree adapter. The center divider/handle is also attached with dowels. I made a template from 1/2” MDF for the oval cutout, as I have a feeling I might be making another one of these for a neighbor. Even for such a simple project the glue up was somewhat complicated with lots of small dowels and the bottom fit in a groove, so I used epoxy with a one hour work time. It makes things much less stressful. And I have a feeling, although not backed up by any testing, that epoxy might be stronger than PVA glue for end grain to end grain joints. I finished with 2 coats of Osmo PolyX.

My wife is happy, so more brownie points for me. Thanks for looking.