Lathe Tool Rack

My old lathe tool rack was now no longer big enough for my tool collection and after moving my workshop around also didn't fit in the new location.

So I dismantled the old rack so that I could reuse the pipe and had a look through my woodpile for some timber.

The new rack was made from some reclaimed walnut skirting I had recently been giving that either wasn't fit for purpose or were offcuts from the installation process.

The tubes are a selection of offcuts and left overs from various plumbing jobs in a number of different diameters.

This is the first of two racks I will need to house my tools in their new location. Due to a space limitation I can not fit them all in one long rack.

After lining up my tools and deciding which tool would fit into each diameter tube , I cut them to length on the bandsaw (a hand saw would do just as well)

The tubes are secured to the back board using screws. The tubes were drilled all the way through with a 4 mm drill bit and then the front holes were drilled to allow clearance for the bit holder in the drill (12 mm in my case).

The holes were cleaned up with a razor blade.

IMPORTANT:

The tubes are mounted on the back board leaving a gap between the bench and the bottom of the tube. If you do not do this the tubes fill up with shavings and are very difficult to empty. (lesson learnt from first rack)

After determining the length needed by lining up the tubes the wood was cut to length. I used two lengths of wide skirting and one of narrower skirting to get the depth needed for the rack.

The three pieces were connected together with short boards screwed and glued to the back. These boards were angled at the top and will also provide extra material for fixing the sides to.

The sides were cut and an angle was cut on the front to stop you catching your arm on the top corner when reaching for tools. One side is longer that the other as it is designed to screw to the end of my bench.

The ends were screwed and glued on to the back piece and then the tubes were installed.

The now complete rack was fitted to the bench and populated.

After the rack was installed I realise it would be handy to have somewhere to store my tool rests instead of loosing them in the shavings on the bench.

So I cut two more short lengths of thinner pipe and mounted them using long screws in front of the existing tubes.