For some reason, I decided that making tool boxes instead of buying them was a great idea. I really wanted to try out a new finger joint jig that I made earlier this week, and this project gave me the perfect excuse.

Materials (for two tool boxes):

3 1x8x6 boards. (you can get away with 1 1x8x8 if you’re only making 1 toolbox)

Paint/Stain/Lacquer

1 3/4 finish nails for attaching the bottom

Tools:

Table Saw

Miter Saw

Router Table

Carpenter’s Square

Measuring Tape

Box Cutter and/or Pencil

Hammer

Dead blow Hammer

Palm Sander

Paint brush

Drill and/or Drill Press

1 Case of Coor’s Light (optional)

This Box Joint Jig

You can do all of this (except the finger joints) with a circular saw, a cordless drill, and that tool between your ears. It’ll just be harder.

Note: If you want to do this project without using box joints, it’ll be 80% easier and faster and will probably last just as long. I’m sure you can figure it out.

For these tool boxes, I set the dimensions at 18″ long and 7″ wide. The sides of the tool box are 7″ tall, but the top of the tool box goes all the way to 12″ with the handle set a half inch lower. Feel free to use these dimensions or use whichever ones suit you best.

I started off with 3 1x8x6 boards. If you’re only building one tool box, you can get away with using an 8 foot board. It took me way too many years to figure out that most miter saws have their tables 3 1/2″ above their legs so that a standard 2×4 (or 4×4 in this case) conveniently placed alongside will help keep your work-piece level. You’d laugh at me if you could see all the times I’ve precariously balanced a board while trying to make an accurate cut on a chop saw.

“If you want to be good, mark with a pencil. If you want to be great, mark with a knife.” I have no idea who said this, but it’s really made a huge difference in the way all my projects have turned out.

Couple things here. The boards come from the factory at 7 1/4″, and I really don’t feel like accounting for that quarter inch for the rest of the day. Ripping them all down to 7″ makes it easier for me to do the math and gives me the opportunity to get rid of anything ugly I see on the edges (dents, staple marks, etc…)

I never, ever, ever trust the distance gauge at the near side of the table saw. As accurate as it might be, my carpenter’s square is always more accurate. Additionally, it automatically makes me think twice about the measurement on the cut I’m about to make.

Finally, as far as I know, it’s 100% illegal to conduct backyard carpentry in the state of Idaho without some type of alcoholic refreshment. Today (and many other days) I chose some Rocky Mountain Spring Water to cool me off on the hot day, complete with a matching koozie that I got by flirting with the right girl at the Mountain Home Music Fest.

No backyard carpentry project is complete without a mid-day “ah shit I forgot [item]” trip to the Home Despot or Lowe’s. This time I forgot the 1″ dowels that are pretty essential to ever being able to pick up these tool boxes. It was a quick trip with 0 hassle, which means a lot to me on a Saturday in a city with plenty of DIY suburbanites.

I draw pictures on any board that has anything other than a straight cut on the end. As you can see by my love of beer and my haphazard attitude with this sort of thing, I make a lot of mistakes. When I draw pictures, I find I make fewer mistakes.

If I’d spent an hour making a specialty jig, I could’ve done this part on the table saw. I didn’t do that. I used a miter saw, and I’m willing to bet it did a 95% accurate job. If anyone gripes about these tool boxes, it won’t be because of the angle on the end boards. Again, I used that block of 4×4 to brace the boards while I used the miter saw. You can also see the round-nose pliers I got for pulling staples out of the ends of lumber.

This. Part. Sucked. My $20 Craigslist drill press is absolutely incredible for 90% of applications, but this wasn’t one of them. The table didn’t go quite low enough for the extra long spade bit, so I had to push it to the side and use different pieces of scrap wood to try to stack up to the right height. I got a ton of tear-out with this setup, so next time I think I’ll drill pilot holes with the drill press and use either a spade bit or a hole saw with my hand drill. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!!!

It’s box joint jig time!! Earlier this week I used these plans by mistermocha to build my own box joint jig. (This whole time I’ve been calling them finger joints. Apparently I wasn’t wrong; they’re both acceptable terms.) Box joints are awesome because they’re actually stronger than dovetails (I’m told) and far easier to make (I assume, I’m nowhere near good enough to mess with dovetail joints).

I didn’t sprinkle-in sawdust for effect — these things are amazing dust generators, so either do this outside, do this with an incredible dust collection system, or be prepared to enrage whoever cleans up the area you’re working in.

I took a scrap piece from the end boards to make a spacer for placing these guys. If you don’t space the first board, they won’t line up correctly. I had a lot more problems with this part than I thought I would. Primarily, the fingers in my finger joints are just a little bit too thick. I think I could make them 1/32nd or 1/16th thinner and be able to assemble my projects easier without creating a visible gap. I’ll have to adjust the spacer block (just to the right of the router bit) just a little closer to the cut line in order to fix this.

I also had a big issue with tear-out. The back of the boards did absolutely fine butted up against a backer board made out of mdf. I think next time I’ll put a similar backer board on the front of the work-piece. (What’s it called when a backer board is on the front? a fronter board?) I’ve heard of people using painter’s tape to reduce tear-out, but that seems like a lot more work than just putting a backer board on front.

This is what these two tool boxes would look like if you bought them in a ready-to-assemble kit. I didn’t take pictures of me cutting the bottoms or cutting the dowels.

I measured the actual dimensions of the sides and ends (i.e. measured from the gap to the gap of each piece) to get my final cuts, and then I subtracted about 1/16th when I actually did the cuts. Because my boards were 3/4″ thick, my bottom dimensions were 16 1/2″ and 5 1/2″. After subtracting one metric smidge from each side, these came out to 16 499/1000″ and 5 71/144″. Seriously. Just a smidge. I’d rather there be a tiny gap at the bottom than a board keeping the whole tool box from coming together because it’s a little too fat. I’ve learned that a lot of carpentry is figuring out where you want to be tight and where you want to leave a gap; this is a place where I wanted to leave a gap.

My friend showed up while I was in the assembly phase, and that (in conjunction with uncle Coor’s) contributed to me not taking enough pictures during final assembly. If you’ve gotten far enough in life to get internet access and find this blog, I trust you to figure that part out.

Putting these things together was ugly. Like a knee replacement surgery. If you don’t get that reference, tell your kids to leave the room and then look up knee replacement surgeries on YouTube. It’s not pretty. I beat the tar out of these boards with a deadblow hammer until they vaguely looked like they were in place. I used every curse word I know and even took a break in the middle. It was truly the worst part of the project for a friend to show up. I wanted him to think I knew what I was doing. Everything else I did looked professional and scientific compared to this circus fire of a final assembly. I definitely need to make the finger parts of my finger joints a little thinner.

The tool box on the right has the Minwax standard-issue gray stain. It was left-over from another project (that I foolishly forgot to take pictures of) and this seemed like a wise use. The green tool box was a different story. I really wanted to mess around with diluting paint in water to make wood stains. This DIY stain is roughly 1/3 acrylic paint and 2/3 water. I’m alright with the color, but I’m not elated. To me, the final product looks more “something that was painted 30 years ago and left behind the shed” rather than “green wood.” Next time, I’ll try diluting the paint in just a little more water.

I covered each of the boxes in 4 coats of lacquer, and they’re drying while I’m typing this. You might also notice the paint stands I made by driving nails through some scrap pieces of wood. Painting/staining/clear-coating wood takes long enough without having to double your time by knocking out the underside after you do the front side.

If I had to do it again:

Use the drill press for pilot holes and a hand drill for the spade bit. Or get rid of the spade bit and use a hole saw. Use a backer board on the front of the work piece with the finger joint (box joint) jig. Painter’s tape still sounds like too much work. Move the spacer block on the box joint jig a smidge closer to the bit so the fingers aren’t so tight and I’m not teaching every kid in the neighborhood within earshot a whole new arsenal of swear words. I’d make the fingers in the finger joint just a little too long. This way any errors can be completely covered up when I go through with 60 grit sandpaper, and all my corners are flush. Finally, my paint-stain was way too thick. It was 1/3 paint to 2/3 water, but next time I’ll try either 1/4 or 1/5 paint concentration. My tool box just looks like it’s old, not like it’s made out of a beautiful green elf tree or something.

This project was awesome. I made some over-built tool boxes that my great-grandkids will one day feel really guilty about throwing away. That’s success to me. Thanks for reading, and make sure to let me know about all the stuff I did wrong!!

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