There are a few items I like to keep at hand in the shop. To easily carry them about, I built this simple tote. The shallow tray is divided into two sections by a vertical rack. The rack has pegboard on one side and a shelf and handle on the other. This provides a lot of flexibility for storage.
You can see in the drawings below how it goes together. I used 1/2" plywood for the majority of the construction. The base of the tote and rack frame are built with tongue and dado joints. A hardboard bottom fits into a groove cut into the tray sides. And a pair of wide dadoes in the tray sides hold the vertical tool rack securely.
After gluing up the base, you can start on the rack. The frame of the rack has parallel grooves on the inside to accept pegboard and plywood panels. These spaced grooves create clearance for the pegboard hooks. But before assembling the rack, you’ll need to make the handle and shelf.
The handle is glued up from two layers of 1/2" plywood and rounded over for a comfortable fit. For the shelf, it’s simply cut to size. Then you can drill holes and cut slots to store your most-used hand tools. Now you’re ready to fasten the handle and shelf to the plywood panel. To make it easier to access the screws, you’ll want to do this before you assemble the panels and the rack’s frame. After assembling the rack, slip it into the dadoes in the tray and screw it in place. Now just load the tote up with a few supplies and tools.
