Blade storage box w/ pics (WIP)

[Sully]

Hi Folks,

Can you tell I'm anxious to get this blade storage issue resolved?

I spent a couple of hours last night putting together a storage box for my tablesaw, RAS, and Compound Miter Saw blades. The box consists of a lower and upper section that eventually will be hinged together. Here's what I've completed so far:

The main components of the box are shown here. The components were all cut out of a piece of 3/4 shop grade ply from Lowes that I happened to have lying around.


A picture of the assembled lower portion of the box:


A assembled upper portion of the box:


The two halves as they will sit when hinged together:


To hold the blades in place and keep them safely spaced apart, I made some inserts out of various pieces of scrap 3/4 MDF that I had lying in the cutoff bin. The two side inserts were cut on an angle (30 degrees) to match the main box assembly. The inserts have a 1/4" deep x 1/4" wide series of grooves cut in them at 1" intervals.


(You can ignore the lower two triangles in the 2nd picture above. They serve no purpose in the blade storage box).

The side MDF inserts are attached with hot-glue and a couple of brads. The lower MDF insert is attached only with hot-glue. I elected to not use wood-glue to attach the MDF inserts. I have the option of replacing the inserts if they get too beat up from use.


The lower MDF insert is a "stairstep" () with three steps at heights of 1", 11/16", and 3/8". The back two blades rest on the highest step. The next two rest on the next lower step, etc. The two blades closest the front of the box rest directly on the bottom of the box.


I still need to attach the hinges to the front. I plan to hang it on the wall using a French cleat. Looking at the last picture reminds me that I need to do two more things: 1) buy some more blades and 2) build one for my 12" blades too.

Thanks for looking,
J

[WNC_Dave]

That looks like a good storage option. maybe make a small one just for the dado blades so you can take it to the saw when you are setting up for a dado, instead of taking the larger box with blades that you are not using.

Dave

[lottathought]

I had been thinking about this problem for a while. I had not come up with anything this nice however.

I might have to borrow from your idea.

[cpw]

Looks great. Hope it serves you well. Wouldn't work for me, though. All my tools take different size blades:

tablesaw = 9"
Compound Miter Saw = 10"
CS = 7 1/4"
Cordless CS = 5 1/2"

[Sully]

With different thickness of inserts one box could hold blades of many different diameters. Just a thought.

[waltv]

I built the box shown here from sketched plans in the Tips section of some WW magazine. But I can't remember which magazine!

It's made from some plywood, pine and hardwood scrap pieces. Pretty simple to built. It has 10 drawers or trays to hold blades. (In this case all ten inch blades.)

Keeps the blades separated and isolated, so you don't skin up you hands on the teeth of adjacent blades.

[Ray Martin]

Walt,

That chest of (blade) drawers really does look nice... and it answers the challenge of different size blades. you could even store spare jointer blades in a drawer.

Ray

[Alan in Little Washington]

Both solutions look good! They both raise issues I want to incorporate into the cabinet I have been thinking about building under my tablesaw extension table to hold blades, jigs, push sticks, etc. etc.

I am thinking of making a blade drawer similar to Jay's box, with the blades standing on edge, so I can see all the blades at one time, but build it so it that tilts out.

Also, I am thinking about putting a radius on the tops of the dividers that is slightly larger than the radius of the blades so the tips are slightly below the tops of the dividers, are protected, and my knuckles are protected . I would probably need two sections- one for my 10" tablesaw and Compound Miter Saw blades and another for my 8" dado blade and chippers.

Since the blade tips would be below the dividers, I would bevel an area of the that angles away from the blade, on the inside top edge of both adjoining dividers so I could grab a blade and remove it. These beveled areas would need to be in different positions on the dividers, blade to blade, otherwise the bevels would cut into each other and you would expose the teeth of the adjacent blade near your knuckles.

This method would allow me to see a section of the blade/teeth to make my blade selection and allow me to put my fingers in to grab and pull out a blade without my knuckles hitting any other blades. Clear as mud? I wish I was good at Autocad or Sketchup!!!

[Sully]

Walt,
That's a nice setup. Makes me want to throw my simple box out and start over.
J

[sawduster]

J,
You can throw that box my way if you want to throw it out
Man. that's way better than I could build .
Couple of hours ? It would take me a couple of days to even figure out how to cut the pieces
I like it !

Alan had me lost by the 5th sentence of his post

[waltv]

Jay,

Don't do that! Your setup is OK. Functional and straight forward. The case I built wasn't my idea!!!!! But, I did like the isolation of the blades from each other though.

By the way, I store my blade case on a shelf in a roll-around cabinet in which I store other tablesaw accessories like dado set, tenoning jig, wrenches, throat plates, etc. It is too heavy with 7 or 8 blades in it to lug around the shop very much. The roll-around also acts as an additional outfeed support occasionally, so it's generally close to the tablesaw.