The Toolbox Book

Jim Tolpin

Reviewed by:

Ken Greenberg

By the time you have acquired a decent working set of hand tools, you have long since run out of places to keep them, especially in an organized way. How best to address this problem? Tolpin provides so many alternatives you will have trouble choosing among them, but he presents plans for some and explains their relative advantages and disadvantages. In the long run, you have to make up your own mind about whether a tool chest, wall cabinet, standing tool cabinet, portable site storage, or any of the other choices best meets your needs. This book will at least let you know what most of the common alternatives are.

Robert Weber

The Toolbox Book by Jim Tolpin was originally published in hardcover in 1995, and then in softcover in 1998 as a companion to Scott Landis' The Workbench Book and The Workshop Book. This book does for tool storage what Landis' book did for workholding and support tables.

Tolpin begins by delving into the history of the contemporary toolbox, starting in the 1600s. He then spends a chapter on tool chests with a number of examples and design details. Following this is a chapter displaying a variety of tool chests built by the students of the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Nice eye candy is found throughout.

The next eight chapters get into the meat of the book, and make up the bulk of the pages. Starting with an overview of the thought process that goes into designing tool storage, the author spends a chapter each on the major types of storage containers in use. For in the shop, he looks at wall cabinets, standing tool cabinets, and rolling tool carts. For the job site he examines open shoulder totes, lidded totes, and wheeled site boxes. Finally, he takes a look at vans and trucks outfitted to become rolling toolboxes on the road.

Every chapter gives numerous examples of various types of tool storage, some by the author, and there are detailed instructions for building each type presented, as well as design considerations. Many of the examples are inspiring, and some are downright intimidating. All in all, there is tremendous food for thought in this book, as I never before considered all the options in tool storage available.

In a final analysis, this book is not as verbose as its workbench companion, but still provides a plethora of useful information. Anyone considering a means of tool storage would do well to take a look at this book first.