Glass Workers Tool Box

   Some people are doers, and some people are watchers.  My wife is a doer, she is always busy on some sort of project, except when she is surfing the net looking for the next great deal on a trip. So on the doing side she knits and bakes, I once made her wooden knitting needles because she couldn't find the size that she needed for that project, I've also make wooden spoons and spatulas for the kitchen. Recently she had taken up stained glass and so needed a box to hold her tools, glass and projects.  She had been hauling stuff around in a big shopping bag, okay for groceries but terrible for tools.
  
   I have always believed that an organized and portable tool box is the first step in doing good work and so since I am a wood worker I made her a Stained Glass Tool Box.  As I reward she made me a whole bunch of oatmeal cookies.

    
   This is the box filled with the gear that she hauls with her to the Centre where she has her stained glass class.  You know that you are a woodworker when you can go down stairs to your shop and whip a tool box like this up out of stray bits and pieces of wood.

    The handle is a piece of broom handle that I kept from years ago, you never know when you will need a bit of heavy, semi straight dowel. So there, its makes a good job with only a little bit of sanding.

   The sides are reclaimed wainscoting from a bundle that I picked up at the Re-Store a few years ago.  I didn't get enough wainscoting to do a big project but...it has come in handy when I wanted some thin stock, for example to made the sides of a tool box.

   I used my router table to plow two dadoes into which I slid a couple more pieces of the wainscoting to provide two compartments   You can see that is where the glass and the current projects are carried, while the tools sit in the middle section.

  The ends, which are painted in that lovely contrasting white are made from the last cupboard door that I kept when we replaced my Mother's kitchen cabinets two years ago.  I hate to buy sheet stock so I hoard it when I find it for free.  The bottom that you can't see is made from some really nice pine that was a futon frame once upon a time.  

   The moral of the story is the entire project cost ZERO dollars in materials and maybe an hour of time.  And, it is the right tool for the job, no more carrying glass around in a shopping bag worrying about the whole thing falling over and your work crashing to the ground.

as a PS.

another wonderful carving from the Niagara Wood Carvers Association Show.

Tool Box Saw

cut down hand saw, about 19inches in length.

   A couple of months ago I was into the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and spent a few bucks on paint for base coats and some miscellaneous hardware, and this $3.00 saw.  When it got home the saw went onto a shelf and was promptly forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.


   I like to drop into the Re-Store when I am in the neighbourhood or when we are working on a project that needs good materials that don't really have to match. The light fixtures in my work shop are a classic example of something from the Re-Store as well as the beige paint that I   splashed around the garage when we bought this house. I think the Re-Store is a good organization and I have always got what I paid for from them.


   Anyway, I saw this funny little saw while I was shopping and for $3.00 I figured even if it was useless one of my crafty friends could paint a picture on it and I could hang it on the work shop wall.  The other day I was cleaning up in the shop and found the saw where it had been stashed. It is not useless, and will not have a picture of chickens or cows painted on it, it is a very good little cross cut saw. It appears that it was a full sized saw that was broken off or cut down to fit in a tool box and maybe even had its own mitre box. Now on my list of to-does is to polish the little saw up and give it a spot in my working collection of hand saws.   It will fill the roll of a tenon saw very nicely. 

Hand Saws for Sale at thetoolstore.ca

  I learned to  saw with European saws, and as much as I admire the Japanese pull saw, of which I have several,  I find myself reaching for European saws first now days.  In fact I am using hand saws more often now days than ever,  the raw, roaring power of the sliding mitre or table saw is just not necessary to comfortably get all my jobs done.  I can't ever imagine life without power saws, but...who knows what the future holds. 



   It is an extra kick when I get something like the $3.00 saw, that gives added value for my money or effort.  The possibility of finding something like that is what takes me into flea markets and places like the Re-Store.