Router Bit Storage Trays (Stackable)

I have acquired a few router bits over the last few years and they have all been sitting on  a shelf in their individual packages.  It works, but I have knocked a couple to the ground and I also  have to pull half of them down to find the one I want.  So, last weekend I decided to make router bit storage trays out of scrap wood.

I wanted the storage trays to be verstatile since I am not sure if they will always remain on a shelf somewhere.  So, I wanted them stackable and also have the ability to be hung vertically, if needed.  I decided that I wanted them about 9″X9″, so I gathered up some scrap wood around the shop and started cutting.

The base of the storage tray is 3/4″ melemine.  I had some left over from a closet shelving project.  I cut this to 7.5″ by 7.5″.

It was at this point that I totally blanked on taking pictures, so you will  have to deal with my written descriptions for a while.  I promise to be brief.

After the melamine was cut I added hardwood edging to them that was 3/4 wide.  I mitered all the corners and only had one piece that I cut toos  short. Which is better than usual.  I glued and clamped the edging on and let it sit overnight.  The small panels are now 9″X9″.   I only made two of them.  I block planed them flush and added a small chamfer to all of the edges that wouldn’t get  a handle.

Drilling Holes for Shanks

So now onto the holes that will hold the router bits.  I have 1/4″ and 1/2″ shank bits, so I made One for 1/4″ and one for 1/2″.  I started by laying out the locations where I wanted to drill the holes.  I designed and started with 1 1/4″ (~6 bits X ~6 bits)  spacing between bits and this seemed too tight.  I felt it didnt have enough space for my fingers to grab the bit.  Then I laid out 1 1/2 spacing and still didn’t think that was enough.  So I went up to 1 3/4″ (+) to get 5 equal spaces, which means 4 router bits by 4 router bits.  Not as many I had intentioned, but functionally better.  I laid out my grid and headed to the drill press.

Down the road I may want to hang these vertically , so I wanted the bits to be at an angle so they wouldn’t fall out.  I set up the drill press with a 10 degree angle on the table and made a test cut.  I didn’t think it was enough of an angle, so I jumped up to 15 degrees and made another hole.  I liked it and stuck with it.  My drill press only has about 6″ between the drill bit and the support post.  So I can only drill half the holes before I have to tilt the table 15 degrees the other way and finish the other half.

One thing I don’t like about the packaging the bits come in is how tight the bits are held.  I feel like i am going to slice a finger pulling them out.  I wanted to make sure this storage tray wasn’t so tight.  I did some test drilling and found that the 1/4″ forstner bit was a nice fit and also the 1/2″ forstner bit was a good fit, (or so I thought).  I drilled all 32 holes and called it a day.

Handles

The following day I got to work on the handles.  I had a 15″ long board of oak that was about 4″ wide and ~5/8 thick that was perfect for this.  The handles also act as the “height” spacers, so the dimension wasn’t arbitraty.  I grabbed, what I thought, was my tallest bit and took some measurements and began cutting the handles out.  The board was ripped with the overall height and rabbets in mind.  I ripped the board down to 3 1/2″ and then cut a rabbet along the two long edges of the board.  These rabbets will “accept” the trays.  One for gluing and one for stacking.  Then I cross cut them to their width.  I didn’t feel I needed to add holes for grabbign these handles at the time, so I glued them onto the trays.

Finally back to pictures!

Unfortunately one of the handles was at a small angle and the tray wouldn’t fit into the upper rabbet.  So, I grabbed my shoulder plane and took some material off.

After this I block planed a chamfer into the bottom of the handle.  Here you can see a good picture of why I cut a rabbet in each side of the handle.

Handle ‘finger holes’ and Butterfingers

After “testing” out the handles I decided they needed slots cut into them so they would be easier to grab and handle.  I busted out the forstner bit (1″) and drilled there holes per handle to form most of the slot.  I chiseled out the small sections left.  During this drilling and chiseling,  I dropped one of them on the floor.

Fortunately it was a pretty clean break and I could add some glue and clamp it back together.  I let it dry overnight and followed up with some sanding the next day.  Once the sanding was complete, I added my favorite “shop project” finish, Shellac.  I also added shellac inside of the driled holes.

Finishing and some Re-drilling

Once the shellac dried I started arranging the bits and found that my 1/2″ shank bits were too tight in the holes.  I pulled out the drill and 1/2  bit and opened them up a bit with  some “wobble” action.  I marked all the bit locations with a sharpie.  It is pretty permanent on melamine, but if I used some rubbing alcohol I can clean it off if it needs to be rearranged.

Here is the tray with the 1/4 shank bits and followed by a picture of all the packaging that I was able to elminate.

Here are both of the trays together where you can see the 15 degree angle a little clearer.  If I ever wanted to hang these on the wall I could mount a small cleat on the back and not worry about the bits falling out.

I mentioned before that I thought I grabbed my tallest bit to make my handles the proper height for clearance.  Well, I grabbed my second tallest bit and got really lucky.  That dovetail bit is really long , but it just barely fits.

Here are a couple more shots of how it turned out

All in all, a pretty nice, easy poject, that was free.