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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Star Tool Chest Revisited



before
before
When I bought this on eBay it was a little rough. The varnish was brittle and mostly gone, the side panels were separating, the handle mostly tape, drawers coming apart, the felt was stained, - in general it was coming apart, but it was all there.

The first thing I did was re-glue and clamp the box itself and the tuck-away front panel, drive in a few screws here and there, and rebuild the drawers. After dealing with the basic structure, I attacked the appearance. I scraped off all the varnish, sanded it smooth, and stained it where it was needed, then rubbed in two or three coats of tung oil. I sanded off the worst of the crud and rust and buffed the hardware a little. Then I re-felted everything. I tried to keep as much original as I could without everything falling apart and feeling all dirty and sticky, because the wear was the result of someone's lifetime of day-to-day honest use. I tried in vain to repair the handle, but finally gave up and bought a nice leather replacement.

It certainly won't hold everything to build a bicycle, but it does a pretty good job of containing the basic everyday maintenance tools and some of the smaller build-up tools. 

The fastener bins in the bottom drawer were five small plastic tackle boxes from Walmart which fit tight with just a little trimming to get them into the drawer. They seem to function okay. I still haven't sorted all the junk screws and widgets I've saved over the years




(The black inner-tube looking thing in the top tray is the Amish made black leather wraps for my new bike. Nice stuff.)

All in all it looks pretty good, probably better than the photos indicate. Anyway I'm happy.

9 comments:

Linda said...

very nice GUNNER LARRY

Mimbres Man said...

Very nice indeed!

Johann Rissik said...

Neat. It was made to be used, rather than displayed.
Off topic..first snow of winter on the mountains behind us and an icy 9 degrees Celsius today. Another harsh day in Africa;)

George A said...

Wood restoration involving sanding and tung oil. What's not to like?!

Gunnar Berg said...

George, Don't start with me. I got two wooden boats in the garage that both need work. As if if they all don't.

Johann Rissik said...

Does anyone know of the bicycle equivalent of this?
http://www.finewoodworking.com/pages/w00088.asp

Gunnar Berg said...

Wowzer!

Silk Hope said...

As we say in Cali.... BONUS!

As for the wooden boats if you tell me you have a Gar or a Chris I will be totally green with envy!

Gunnar Berg said...

Nope. They ain't much.