Studley Tool Chest

[johnsironsanctuary]

This is an amazing piece of work!

http://www.wimp.com/toolchest/

[benjy]

oho i just fell in love,,,,,,,with a tool chest

[johnsironsanctuary]

Sorry Benjy, the line forms at the end and there's a lot of guys ahead of you.

[Branson]

I'm close to the front of the line.  I read about it about 20 years ago in an article with lots of pictures.  The cubby hole for the Stanley #1 is just ...  It's amazing.

[johnsironsanctuary]

For those who can't live without it, here is a link to buy a poster from Fine Woodworking Magazine. They ran an article about it in 1988. They recently re-issued the poster.

http://www.tauntonstore.com/the-studley-tool-chest-poster-011083.html

article:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/PlansAndProjects/PlansAndProjectsArticle.aspx?id=27038

[scottg]

Thanks for reminding me guys. There will only ever be one, Studley!!
The thing sure makes the rounds, doesn't it? Everybody get a turn with it.  I think I first saw it in Popular Mechanics long before FWW was conceived, and now PWW too.
  I am glad its still in private hands myself. Museums tend to lock things up in the basement and nobody ever sees it again. The Studley chest was loaned to the Smithsonian for years but, like everything else, eventually got stuffed in the basement to make way for Mrs Snootworth Bucksbottom's tea cozy collection, who happened to be a major benefactor of the museum. Museums have to go where the money is. Always the problem. 

My own fantasy is to build a smaller version similar to Studley's chest.
The smallest tools still capable of full sized work, and packed for portable.
  I am still rounding up and refurbishing old ones, and building new tools from scratch. 
  I'll probably never finish, but I do hang onto the thought. 

My homemade brace (5" swing), was actually made as the toolbox's handle. I wanted a nice handle and a detachable brace for small drills and driving screws, etc.
The head snaps off and with a stub in the socket, it locks into brackets to make the top handle for the chest.

here is the rest of the story.
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/Brace11.htm

If you further poke around my little webpage, you will find other small fancy tools. (not the miniatures, just smaller than average).
All for the box ........ someday.
  yours Scott

[Stoney]

ScottG that is Beautiful.  Thanks, now I know how to replace a missing hand piece on an old brace.  Of course I'll have to replace my keyboard after drooling all over it and shorting it out while looking at your website.

[johnsironsanctuary]

ScottG, I envy your skills. You do make wonderful tools that the rest of us only fantasize about. I thought that it was ironic that Noaum, (Boston pronunciation) was the one showing the fabulous, hand made, tool chest to the world. He has no conception of what anyone would do with a tool that is not powered by electricity or why anyone would use hand tools when a powered one is available. Craftsmanship comes from hand tools, workmanship is the best you can do with power tools.

[kxxr]

I toured your website and enjoyed it very much. I am curious to know what kind of tools you have for shaping the heavier metal parts. Can you post some pictures of any? And, thanks.

[scottg]

Hi John
Surprisingly Norm Abrams does own and use hand tools.
Just not on TV.

  But, uh, Bob Villa, we don't know about -that- guy! heeheheheheheheheehe

   On TV, Porter Cable and Rockwell pay Norm to show tools. Everything he uses for everything, is a paid advertizement.  The company logos are always just barely visible if you look, and sometimes glaringly obvious.

  Stanley pays him zip for using antique hand tools, to say nothing of Sandusky or Spiers!! heh.
He's got 'em at home. Several guys I know, know him personally.

  But TV is strictly business.
Big, boxy, plain, fast to make, and all power tools,
         that's what they pay for, under the bright lights.
  yours Scott
   

[scottg]

I toured your website and enjoyed it very much. I am curious to know what kind of tools you have for shaping the heavier metal parts. Can you post some pictures of any? And, thanks.

Hi
I use a cutting torch and grinders mostly. Lots of kinds and sizes of grinders.
  I forge a little, but I don't own a "real" anvil or a forge either one.
So I heat with various things, from a little knife forge I built out of safety kickplate you put under hand railings,  and a woodstove / barbecue with a hair drier for wind.   Plus torch heat for smaller parts.

I weld with an old totally unglamorous ac arc welder,  but I do have some experience having worked at the mine for a decade and a 1/2, and welding something or other most everyday.

And files....
I am confessed file junkie. A good sharp file is a miracle on this earth.
  The files made today are "safety" files. This means the teeth are cut much blunter. Each tooth wider and fatter. What this means is, they never chip teeth no matter how bad you abuse them (old files are more fragile).
  But it also means they cut like molasses.

  Fortunately, the masses are wedded to the big box warehouse stores all over the country. So they all buy their files there like lemmings. They buy everything there like lemmings (thank God ! )
  This leaves plenty of NOS really great files available for those of us who know the score.  I keep many dozens on hand myself. Dull ones for crude work and better for better,
and really crisp new old stock best-ever-made files for when "the money is on the table".

When you take a crisp high grade file and lay it gently on the work and stroke true and sure?
      About a spoonful of metal rolls away.  Its amazing.
    yours Scott
 

[rusty]

I always used to get a kick out of the editing, it was like, "OK, now I'm going to trim this table top on my [shiny Rockwell] saw....fade to new scene...of completed , stained, varnished table. Wow, what a table saw , it cuts, assembles , stains and varnishes -P

>that's what they pay for, under the bright lights

Yeah, at least he doesn't stand there repeating the name of the manufacturer 50 times during the show like some other show I watched once ;P (no, I mean , I watched it exactly one time and never again P)

Do you suppose there is a router attachment he doesn't have in that workshop?

As to Bob, well, just as a wild guess, how many times do you suppose he has sawzalled through a active water pipe in a wall?

[Branson]

Scott, I've already praised that bit stock, but I'm up to praising it again.  And again.  It's a work of great beauty.  Just now, though, I'm enjoying the romp through the TV offerings.  I'm chuckling at the acid remarks.  Yeah, Noaum does know his way around hand tools.  They just don't make it with the sponsors of his show.  Bob Villa? Ack!

Thing is, Scott, people made wonderful and beautiful things like you do, and using tools and techniques not much different (sometimes more primitive!) for centuries.  I've seen 'em do it, too.  Everything in the mountains of Laos is done by hand and primitive technology, but some of their stuff is as fine as has ever been made.  Has to be -- there isn't a WalMart down the block to buy a cheap replacement.

[scottg]

Thing is, Scott, people made wonderful and beautiful things using tools and techniques not much different (sometimes more primitive!) for centuries.  I've seen 'em do it, too.

I got this from a Chinaman living in Vietnam now, named Tony.  He was from Pearl Town,  Keoshung City, in Taiwan. But, Saigon (nowTianan) is also a long established pearl center and the rent was cheaper. 
Really sweet guy too. Goes by inlaidartist on ebay.

All this inlay is genuine pearl and abalone shell.
They do it sitting on a stool, the floor might be covered or it might be dirt,  with what looks for all the world like a pair of knitting needles about 14" long. They are very fast. Its incredible.
There are a few people doing better inlay (Tony can do better when he wants),
but nobody faster for any particle of the price. 
I had to pay a lot in postage, but I got this guitar for 10 dollars.  Just one of those days, nobody bid.

I would have felt awful taking advantage like that, except I have tried to help Tony since he came online about what Americans prefer, and pay the most for, in musical instruments. Not entirely sure how much it helped, but I did try and he is still in business, so it couldn't have all been bad.

PS The picture looks like hammered crap compared to the real thing.
  The fretboard is inlaid with a scene from space. Moons, stars, odd planet surfaces etc.
  yours Scott 
 

[Branson]

That's some really beautiful work!  I'm familiar with the style.  It was very popular in Viet-Nam.  Well, not so much popular as a very traditional art form.