While building “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” for the book, I debated on whether to add a tool rack to one of the inside walls of the carcase.
In the end, I decided against it because tool racks were in the minority of the chests I studied for the book. Today, however, I entered the minority.
During the last 12 months, I’ve been trying out a rack that is mounted to the rear wall of the traveling version of this chest, which I have been carting from town to town in my hatchback. I have come to appreciate the rack quite a bit, even though it limits the movement of the sliding trays just a bit.
The rack I installed on my chest is 1” x 1-1/4” pine that was left over from a DVD shoot – hence the small bead moulding on the corner. I laid out the holes from the centerpoint of the rack. Most of the holes are 1/2” in diameter and on 1-1/4” centers. The exceptional holes are off to the left. These were sized to handle my bench chisels.
I installed the rack using two No. 8 x 1-1/2” screws – no glue. I want to be able to easily remove the rack and modify it in future years. On some of the racks I studied, there were also some smaller holes between the 1/2” holes so you could sneak a tool or two more into the rack.
On Monday, I’ll put the new rack to the test when I teach a class on building this chest at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky. As always, I am looking forward to my week at Kelly’s. It’s a well-equipped shop and peaceful place to work – a dream shop, really.
— Christopher Schwarz
