
When you are demonstrating you need to show off your talents so David Barron’s toolbox had to feature through dovetail and mortice & tenon joints
Storing and transporting my tools to shows and demonstrations used to be a juggling act involving cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. It was time to make a purpose-built toolbox. I have always fancied constructing one and there are some beautiful examples in The Toolbox Book by Jim Tolpin. The danger with any purpose-made box is that you forget some essential tool or you add a new tool which doesn’t fit. Conversely you can try to anticipate future needs and end up with a box that is too big to move.I laid out all the tools I needed to accommodate, photo 1, and then thought hard about the style of the












Bandsaw Upgrade
The bandsaw is the latest machinery upgrade in my workshop and I am extremely pleased with my purchase. It is a Startrite 401E with a 16in depth of cut and a frame that can really get the blade taut – ideal attributes for deep resawing. I have also invested in a Lennox Trimaster tungsten carbide blade which cuts extremely quickly and cleanly and is supposed to last many times longer than even HSS blades. I can’t vouch for this claim to longevity yet, but at £150 a blade it had better last.
Inferior fittings
To support the first tray, the bottom of the box is equipped with 6mm oak strips which are mitred and friction fitted, photo 11, around the inside of the box. The two trays are dovetailed on the corners and sized to be a tight fit which can be carefully planed down after glue up. Just as well-fitting drawers run the smoothest, the same goes with these trays which glide down gently on a cushion of air.
Because the grain of the carcass and the trays run in the same direction the fit will stay good throughout the changing seasons. The tray sides were sealed with shellac sanding sealer before being cut back hard with 320 grit and waxed with a good-quality paste wax. The tray bottoms are made from plywood and fitted into grooves routed into the tray sides. Being man-made no allowance needs to be made with the bottoms for seasonal movement and the dividers can safely be pinned into the base as well as the sides.
To make sure the panel pins were accurately positioned to locate in the thin dividers I used two spacer blocks, the first one to mark the centre line which is drilled from the inside and the other to hold the divider in the correct location as the holes were drilled back the other way into the dividers, photo 12. I used a 1mm drill for the pilot holes and used panel pins 1.25mm thick by 15mm long. I snipped the heads off the pins just before they were finally driven home so as to leave only a tiny hole to be filled. The dividers were carefully sized to length on a shooting board. They needed to be a nice fit but not so tight as to bulge the sides which had already been planed to fit the base.

Conclusion
The outside of the box was finished with five coats of Osmo Hardwax Oil which gives a nice durable and easy to maintain finish. The final result was very pleasing, with the oak and burr oak blending nicely. All the tools needed for my show demonstrations seem to fit and the carrying method from underneath works well, although it is surprisingly heavy with everything on board.