Can anyone offer suggestions for making portable wrench display frames?
What works well and what does not work so well?
Ideally, they could be broken down and moved relatively easily.
48" x 48" panels?
What works well?
Thanks

hello from Monson, Massachusetts.  I will try to explain what I have made to display my adjustable wrenches at a few old engine & tractor shows.
I take 4'x8' peg board and cut it length ways to make 2'x8' panels. then make a frame on the rear with 1"x3" wood.  on the sides, I use 10' long pieces that gives me 2' off the groung for easy viewing. these I mount with
1/4" T-nuts on the rear  of the wood strips. drill holes thru the strips using the peg board panel holes as a guide.  by useing t-nuts, you can change tthe legs anytime if you break one.  Also, I put another 1"x3" leg
in the rear center mounted with a hinge to let the displat stand freely.  I use eye hooks and a chain between
the rear center leg and the bottom of the display board to keep it steady.
where the rear leg meets the botton rear board, I drill a hole and put a bolt thru it with a wing nut to keep it out of the way for storage.
I have found some white plastic peg board that I will try when spring arrives.

I fasten my tools with ty-wraps, you can buy bags of them cheaply, that way, if you want to remove a tool, just
cut the plastic ty-wrap. 
you can also use peg hooks to hang items, or use shelf peg hooks if you want shelfs.

I hope that I have not bored you with my comments, and hope to hear how you have decided to make your display.
as I get older, I have been thinking about makeing my next ones 2'x4' with 6' legs as some of these tools get heavier with age.   

By the time a collection gets past a few hundred items, it becomes too unwieldy for portable display unless mounted on its own trailer. 
Portability usually implies small examples or specialized emphasis.  Dad never wanted a COES Key Model for his collection because they were just too heavy. 
Framed 2' x 4' pegboard panels can be moved without needing a truck box, and can be connected with screw eyes & clips into free standing "zigzag" displays that will sit on a table top.
Carl Bolt's museum in Oroville, CA uses 4 x 8 plywood panels and conduit clamps to mount the tools, but that is not a portable display.  You could cut the plywood  down to get 3 32" x 48" panels from a 4'X8' sheet, and go with the conduit clamp mounting (works well for implement wrenches, etc -- not so well for small wrenches).

Thanks guys for the suggestions.
I like the smaller sized panels as I envision permanently mounted tools.

Yes, thanks for the suggestions. I have been thinking about how to best display my tools also, and this gives me a few ideas.

Came across this while looking for something else...

Pegboard in picture frames, not all that bad...

http://clarkauctions.com/page11.html

(The giant black zipties are ugly tho)

Nice, those are a lot like the ones Carl Wagner showed us here:  http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=10054


Hmmm, at the hardware store they sell these packages of little round rare earth magnets. They are incredibly strong, and don't cost much. I bet they would look better holding wrenches than the tie straps. The back of the box would have to be sheet metal though.

Our Ace hardware has metal peg boards.  I bought a couple & I am playing around with them.

I have also used the rare earth magnets.  Woodworkers supply has holders for the magnets. They look real good, but I had to cover the magnet with a little cloth because they would sometimes scratch.  For my hammers I ended up getting magnet strips, the heavy duty kind.  Mrs. Chilly covered them in cloth and they work nicely for all my smaller metal working hammers.

Chilly

I am playing around with the idea of making a case with 2'x2' or 4'x4' plywood for the back, then a 1x4 or 1x6 ripped in half to use as the sides around the perimeter of the plywood back. Then put the 2 together  facing in with hinges on one side and a latch opposite them, and a handle on top. Then place tools on bothsides  inside, and open up to display, may be self supporting if set open at an angle. Haven't decided on how to attach toolsinside, either attach wrenches/tools directly to plywood or to pegboard the attach pegboard to plywwod. Still in the design phase in my head. Some may say like an old salesmans sample case.

I built a similar design for display at shows, but didn't make it to house the wrenches. It would be too heavy to move easily. The panels I built are on the wall in the shop for now.

Yes weight would definately be an issue, so smaller 2'x2' may the first trial unit. I was thinking could use to display at home then take on the road. Also with limited display area in my garage could rotate displays at home.

A guy I know from the shows has something similar to display corn huskers and related items, not as much weight involved ther

I found this a couple of months ago at an estate sale:



It is 25" tall, and 36" wide (closed.)  1"×3" frames.

I took off the regular hinges and added piano hinges. I have added 1 of 4 or 5 magnetic bars outside for holding hammers:



It was pretty heavy empty, I agree with the others. Even 2'×2' might weigh too much. 

This should take on a lot of miscellaneous bench tools and a chunk of my smaller hammers when I get it done.

Chilly

Yes that is the idea, Chilly, so it may be to heavy then, the idea is still in my head so weight isn't an issue yet. haha   I have a  1962 Snapon KRA-300B toolbox I bought from the estate sale of I guy worked with at a small Ford dealership. He bought it new and used it till the dealership closed and he retired in 1998, then used it at home till he passed away. I use it to store my vintage wrenches, ratchets, socket sets, automotive specific tools, etc in. works good for storeage and display in the garage but too heavy to take anywhere. Plus right now it is packed too full to be a nice display. Gee I wonder why it is too full, hmmmm?

I also have been playing with the idea of builing either an English or Danish tool chest to store/display some antique tools I have. Again weight for transportation is an issue, but would be somewhat correct as far as how used in the day.

perhaps you could make a wood frame that would match your box, and put wheels on it, also add a removeable handle to wheel it around.
just a thought. good luck with what you decide to do.

I don't move my tools around like that but I was a show once and the man that we were next to had tools displayed on a 3 x3  plywood and 2x4 frame. It leaned back on a leg and had 2 wheels on the bottom. There was a simple handle at the top.

At the end of the show he wheeled them to his truck in a quit manner he was loaded. He has six of them.  It was a slick operation.