A Home For My Planes

Now that my Bastard Tool Cabinets carcass pieces are cut to size, its time to make my plane shelf. Other than the outside dimensions, Im winging it in terms of the design, so I wanted to get the biggest interior item sized and built before assembling the carcass.

Beginning the shelf layout.

Unlike many parts on this project, the plane shelf was sized by measuring. I made it 24" long to accommodate my 22" #7 and somewhat arbitrarily decided 16" was a good width (this may have been too narrow). Once the shelf was cut, I then switched back to relative dimensioning for the dividers.

Too many planes.

I tried a number of layouts for my planes, and quickly found that when I included them all they spilled well beyond the size of the shelf. I then went through them and decided which were the ones most likely to be used (only about half of them are tuned for use at present). I tried again and ended up getting 8 planes on the shelf. That will certainly cover my normal usage. The others can go on the shelves which will be under the plane shelf (the plane shelf will pivot up on a piano hinge).

Final divider & plane layout.

I made dividers from 1/2" wide strips of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood scraps. I laid them on their side because I liked the aesthetic. For layout, I began by attaching the first divider even with the right side of the shelf. I laid my #7 against it, used tooth picks as spacers and installed the next divider. I kept this process going until I reached the left side of the shelf. All the dividers are attached to the shelf with #8 x 1" stainless steel flat head screws. I used screws so that as my plane collection changes over time the shelf can change too (I went stainless because Im a sucker for it).

Note the shelves behind the
plane shelf (which is angled).

The next step (after screwing in the last few dividers) will be to mount the plane shelf and the shelves underneath it. I think Ill then probably mount the right carcass side. As for the left, Im not sure if Ill build the slots for the shoulder planes first or put the side on first. We shall see.

How do you store your planes?

Previous posts in the series:
Cutting the Cabinet Carcass (In Relative Terms)
Trudging Towards Tool Storage
The Bastard Wall Cabinet (for Tools)
Winter Wall Cabinet Wonderland

Categories: a, for, Home, my, planes