# Gerstner style tool box plans



## Mark_f (Jul 6, 2017)

I been a Machinist all my life ( well over 40 years ) and I always dreamed of owning a new Gerstner tool box. I remember looking at the price years ago and said " I can never afford an $800 tool box". Well ...... I went to look at them again a few days ago and I figured they have gone up a little ....... BUT THAT BOX IS $2300 NOW. I know I will never own one before I die now. So I thought about looking for plans to make one but can't find any, even to buy. Does anyone have plans for a Gerstner style tool box. I used to do wood working as a hobby and building one would not be a problem.


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## ozzie46 (Jul 6, 2017)

Mark, would this fit your needs? 
I I added an extra drawer to it as the plans called for 9 drawers

Here's where the plans are        

http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archives/jan_feb_02/html/major_project.htm


Ron


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## Mark_f (Jul 6, 2017)

ozzie46 said:


> Mark, would this fit your needs?
> I I added an extra drawer to it as the plans called for 9 drawers
> 
> Here's where the plans are
> ...



Thanks. That is a nice looking box. Did you make two pieces like the article, or change it to one piece?


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## T Bredehoft (Jul 6, 2017)

Your interest in Gerstner boxes echos mine, Mark. Thanks, Ron, for the plans.

Now that I'm retired (18 years come New Years) I probably ought to get started. I just inventoried my wood stock, I have  one piece of teak, 12" wide, 9/16 thick and 7.5 feet long. It had been destined to be part of a transom on a Matthews cruiser, but the grain was 'wild', not suitable for transom material. It will make a grand tool box. In case any one is concerned about sourcing the teak, I've had it in my possession since the late 1960s.


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## ozzie46 (Jul 6, 2017)

I made it in 2 pieces like the plan but see no reason why you couldn't make it 1 piece.

 I used 3/4 oak ply for the sides and 1/4 oak ply for the top and back. the drawers are poplar that I've had for about  11 years. It was  used as cribbing for a pivot irrigation system I hauled to Utah form Iowa when I drove truck for a while . It took me a week of resawing to make all the drawer parts.

 Ron


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## 4ssss (Jul 7, 2017)

I just bought a 52 off craigslist for $100, loaded with tools that I gave away here. Refinishing it will be my winter project. Gerstner sells "2nds" all the time and you just missed the warehouse sale they have once a year. Subscribe to their newsletter and while still not cheap, some deals still do come up. They also sell kits where you have to put them together and finish them.


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## Silverbullet (Jul 7, 2017)

Me too thanks for the plans , I have a ton of lace wood that's super gorgeous. Maybe ill accent it with walnut drawer fronts .


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## Eddyde (Jul 8, 2017)

Here's a link to one of their kits http://gerstnerusa.com/2610-kit-chest?search=kit


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

After looking at the 10 drawer Gerstner chest for $2300 ... ... (I know I will never own one of those) , I looked the the same model 052 box as a kit and it is $800 to build it yourself.  I was shopping around the internet and found a box I may like. Now , a friend of mine has a wood shop and since I help him a lot , he has offered to help me build the box of my dreams from solid cherry wood. This is going to be a winter project and take months to build, so I thought about buying a cheap knock off to do for a while. I came across a nice looking box from Grizzly for $195.
It has 12 drawers. Is made of maple ( Gerstner now offers one made of maple also. ) Well ..... I ordered it and it came today. This box is amazing. The large panels are maple veneer, the drawers,front panel , and smaller sections are solid maple. Guess what...... The Gerstner is built the same way now. Thier large panels used to be glued up from solid boards but now they too are using veneered plywood. The drawers on this box are solid maple front , sides and back. ( The Gerstner is not). All the hardware is identical to the Gerstner. The joinery is excellent. Usually the Chinese knockoffs have filler in the poor fit joints. I can find no filler anywhere on this tool chest. As far as materials, this chest is as good as a Gerstner. As far as construction quality, it is close to a Gerstner. I looked closely at the Gerstner kit and in my opinion, this box is built a little better. The factory built Gerstner may be a shade better, but not $2100 difference better. Here are a few pics of the box. It is 26" wide, 11 1/2" deep, and 17" high.











Usually there are flaws and repairs on the knock off items, but there are none on this box. ( Maybe I just got a good one, I dont know). But I will be proud to show this tool chest off in my shop. I am still building the cherry box this winter, but it will be hard to beat this for the money.


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## dlane (Jul 10, 2017)

Nice box Mark , What dose the badge say on the front


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## T Bredehoft (Jul 10, 2017)

I like the proportions of your box, Mark, I've already started to lay out mine only based upon the plans submitted, I think I'll change mine to be more like yours. But that bottom row of small drawers has to go. small deep drawers are deadly of losing things in.


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## woodchucker (Jul 10, 2017)

That bottom row of drawers would be invaluable to me. My Kennedy 520's bottom drawers hold the LONG stuff.


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

dlane said:


> Nice box Mark , What dose the badge say on the front


The badge says "GRIZZLY".


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

For a ready made box, you can't beat this one for the money. They make it in oak also but they were on back order. The box is heavy, it weighs 40 pounds. I think I can be happy with this box, but I still want to build one.


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

T Bredehoft said:


> I like the proportions of your box, Mark, I've already started to lay out mine only based upon the plans submitted, I think I'll change mine to be more like yours. But that bottom row of small drawers has to go. small deep drawers are deadly of losing things in.



Yeah ..... The plans call for that one row of two drawers. I would change that to a long drawer. There is enough small drawers at the top. When I build a box, I want 13 drawers, one a book drawer, and three or 4 long drawers at the bottom.


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## Eddyde (Jul 10, 2017)

mark_f said:


> The badge says "GRIZZLY".


You can buy "replacement" badges from the Gerstner website, just say'n


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

Eddyde said:


> You can buy "replacement" badges from the Gerstner website, just say'n


You can only buy hardware or badges with the Gerstner name on them if you send photos proving you actually own a Gerstner. Without proof that you have one in your possession, they will not sell them to you.


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## woodchucker (Jul 10, 2017)

mark_f said:


> For a ready made box, you can't beat this one for the money. They make it in oak also but they were on back order. The box is heavy, it weighs 40 pounds. I think I can be happy with this box, but I still want to build one.


Can you tell if the veneer is over ply , or mdf?  MDF would make it weigh a ton, it's more stable than ply. I'm not a fan of either but they both have their uses.


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## Mark_f (Jul 10, 2017)

woochucker said:


> Can you tell if the veneer is over ply , or mdf?  MDF would make it weigh a ton, it's more stable than ply. I'm not a fan of either but they both have their uses.



I really dont know for sure. I can't find anyplace that would show. I would guess ply because the solid maple edge boards and end boards are glued up to the panels. The divider panels between drawer sets is solid maple. I can't tell how the top bottom and sides are made. I can't find any flaws. ( I don't know if they all are this good or I just got lucky and got a good one.)


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## Rick Berk (Jul 11, 2017)

Mark, there is a guy named Bill Gruby on this site that has plans for the Gerstner box, I was one of the lucky ones to win a Christmas giveaway of a set of plan along with 4 others but never received them (whole lot of excuses why). He won't even answer any mail any more but still posts. I have a Gerstner I bought used 40 plus years ago from a 70 year old retiree, I would be willing to measure what I can for you or take pictures. I to do woodworking on the side and have enough 1/4 sawn white oak to make a nice one, the old boxes are beautifully matched grain and figure but the new ones are throwed together with plain and 1/4 sawn mixed and no matching of the panels. If I can be of any help please let me know.


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## brav65 (Jul 11, 2017)

Nice box Mark!


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## T Bredehoft (Aug 7, 2017)

I've been playing in the shop, with hopes of building a (piece of art) tool box. I've used up two 12" by 7 foot by 9/16 boards, cut up into various components. Everything's cut out but the  drawer backs and sides. ( using 3/8 basswood for them). I spent yesterday dry assembling the front panel and back of the box. Here's the first picture. 



The blue tape is to ID each piece and orient it. The color is off on this I only hope it looks this good finished.


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## T Bredehoft (Aug 9, 2017)

Continuing on my Ultimate Tool Box, I looked up hardware on the Gerstner site, most of it I'll have to spring for, but the drawer pulls are within my skill set. I made a bunch of escutchions and one prototype knob. Gotta improve my DIY screw machine....



	

		
			
		

		
	
 That's two pieces of brass, 7/16 in diameter, 3/8 tall.


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## T Bredehoft (Nov 17, 2017)

The drawer pulls were August 9, the Model Airplane people are resting from their summer, I don't have any propellers to make, so I'm tool boxing.  I got all the pieces cut out, assembled the 8 drawers, and spent about a month calculating how to glue together, (and in what order) the eight pieces of the body. I agonized over where to cut the cavities for the biscuits, (got some wrong) agonized over sequence of gluing, (got them right) and  yesterday glued together the last pieces of the body.  I spent this morning fitting each drawer, just tweaking them here and there. Finally have it all together. I still have to cut off the lid, semi and finish sanding, install the hardware and wax finish it. Another week with no propellers should do it. 




There are two pieces of plywood (except for the drawer bottoms) the bottom of the top shelf and the piece underneath everything. The sides and backs of the drawers are basswood. All the rest is solid Teak. Each drawer rides on two rails inlet into the sides.  More later.


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## Silverbullet (Nov 18, 2017)

Looks good. Ya have to love biscuit joiner. I even have the little cutter that can be used for picture frames. The big Dewalt I've used to build so many I can't remember all of the cabinets and frames , gun boxes. I used to buy glue by the gallon. Not now I can't do nothing .in fact I have two gun boxes glued up and sliced to separate . Only need lining and finish ,hardware . Black walnut .


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## 4GSR (Nov 18, 2017)

mark_f said:


> You can only buy hardware or badges with the Gerstner name on them if you send photos proving you actually own a Gerstner. Without proof that you have one in your possession, they will not sell them to you.


Mark,

There's only two locks they will not sell to you is the 1085 and 1086.  All the rest of the items and locks, they will sell to you.  Just don't tell them it's for a project.  I built a version of their 062 chest they used to sell years back in high school.  I sent them a letter and told them I had a old chest I was restoring and I wanted to buy the handles, corner pieces, hasps, and the lock.  Quoted me a price, I put a check in the mail and in about two weeks I had my stuff.

Even though I don't buy much from them, I am a member of their "club" and every once in a while, they will throw something on sale that I can get an additional discount off of to make the club thing pay off.

Ken


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## T Bredehoft (Dec 5, 2017)

Two weeks later. it isn't absolutely done. I still need to put in the drawer stops, and more wax finish. But it's starting to look pretty good.


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## woodchucker (Dec 5, 2017)

T Bredehoft said:


> Two weeks later. it isn't absolutely done. I still need to put in the drawer stops, and more wax finish. But it's starting to look pretty good.


Yes it is. Nice workmanship.


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## martik777 (Apr 26, 2019)

The link for the plans is gone but you can find it with wayback machine Aug/2017

https://web.archive.org/web/2017081...om/archives/jan_feb_02/html/major_project.htm


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## Cooter Brown (Apr 26, 2019)

Here is the PDF of from that page..... So we don't lose it again....


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## kd4gij (Apr 27, 2019)

The original link still works for me.


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## Cooter Brown (Apr 27, 2019)

strange it is work now.....


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## wildo (Apr 28, 2019)

There was those guys who made a really nice machinist box for the 2014 What's In Your Box giveaway. The first of five build videos is here: 




And they used these plans:








						Pilot Supplies and Aircraft Parts | Aircraft Spruce
					

Aircraft Spruce is a worldwide distributor of certified and homebuilt aircraft supplies.




					www.aircraftspruce.com


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## Cooter Brown (Apr 28, 2019)




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