well I dropped my jack again. And broke my tote... again. The one I just replaced. 😩
Serious question though, why don't they make the totes with the grain going perpendicular to the plane? You would think that would help it not break in half like this so easily. I speak from experience when I say that it's a really common break.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen more custom totes on the market. Wood, wood and metal combos, wood and colored epoxy combos… seem like an area to explore. Like river tables. That could be a niche.
I’ve seen just about every other aspect of tool making customized, with impressive results, so why not?
@wedge@jamigibbs When I saw the post about the broken tote last night, I wanted to say something like this, but couldn’t get the words right. I don’t know the answer, but maybe the solution is to try. Or you could ask on today’s Open Wire at Lost Art Press and see if Chris or Megan knows the answer. https://blog.lostartpress.com/2023/12/09/lap-open-wire-december-9-2023/
I'm still in the guilty "just don't drop the damn thing" phase but realisticly this happens to just about everyone. And it's going to happen again. I mean, heck, my No. 6 and No. 4 planes handed down to me by family both have cracked totes.
@jamigibbs@wedge The other solution to the dropping the plane problem, which I use in my shop, is to use transitional planes, rather than iron-bodied. My Sargent 3416 Transitional, which is larger than a #5 Stanley, weighs less than half what my LN #5½ does, so a drop means much less impact. Also, I have wood flooring over the concrete floor of the shop, which means dropped tools almost never break.
@davepolaschek@wedge That's a good thought about the flooring. I have concrete. It wouldn't hurt to put down some mats around the bench even just to help my posture from standing for hours.
@jamigibbs@wedge Definitely. My back is a lot happier on the wood/composite flooring than on concrete. Restaurant-style mats with holes are nice in that sawdust can fall through, too.
@davepolaschek@jamigibbs@wedge my feet can't handle hard floors. I have mats in front of my lathe. For you it's drooping planes, for me it's dropping freshly sharpened chisels
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