In finishing up the slant cabinet for the stand to my bench top mortiser, I decided to try my hand at a drawer organizer for the chisels. This is the result.
This project turned out okay, with only one change I’ll make in future organizers. The cross pieces need to be dadoed on the top instead of the bottom so the dividers are smooth over the entire top surface. I haven’t decided whether the dividers should be eliminated since the cross pieces are fitted to the chisels.
The main thing I learned and want to share is that the new Byrd Shelix head I installed on my 1996 PM15 planer back in June worked flawlessly. I was able to plane some hard maple divider material down to a uniform 3/16” thickness with no trouble. I used hard maple stock that was planed to a uniform 9/64” for these organizers. The finished surfaces were super smooth, like they had been planed by hand. I felt I needed to sand the surfaces with 220 grit before finishing them.
The other improvement I made to my PM15 in June was to install a Wixey Digital Planer gauge. This gauge is dead on accurate and makes planning to a specified thickness exact and a pure pleasure, compared to my previous hit and miss experience.
As always, comments (good, bad, critical or whatever) are greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.