There are few things more frustrating than to be on a job and to discover that a tool I own and have an urgent need for is at home. For this reason, I’ve become something of a tool pack rat. I have hundreds of small hand tools that I keep on site. To organize and consolidate these tools, I’ve built the stacking toolboxes shown in the drawing. These boxes are built according to a time-honored design in which a divider running down the middle of the box curves up to serve as a handle. What I’ve done differently, however, is cut a slot in the bottom of the toolbox and cut a curve in the bottom of the handle so that I can stack the boxes. To close off the sides of the arched opening at the bottom of the handle, I’ve nailed on two pieces of 1/4-in. plywood.
I built six of these boxes in the same afternoon, and I’ve organized my tools in them according to crude categories. One box, for example, has wrenches on one side and pincer-type tools, such as pliers, tongs and snips, on the other. Another box is filled with screwdrivers of every imaginable shape, size and tip configuration. When stacked, the six boxes take up a space that is merely 12 in. wide, 24 in. long and 32 in. high, yet these boxes hold hundreds of my tools. These tools gather dust for weeks at a time. But when I need one of them at a job site, it’s there, and I can find it.
John Carroll, Durham, NC
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #137
