I had a need for a means to cart my tools and other stuff around my garden. I was using an orange B&Q bucket to lug my drill, driver, boxes of screws and anything else I needed, which was far from ideal. I have tool bags and tool boxes but I wanted a tool tote that would remain empty and ready to be filled, depending on the job.

One other feature, or necessity, was that there was a drawer or tray that would let me put shallow objects, like my screw boxes or small tools, separate from the larger tools. I didn't want latches or anything that wuld break or catch, so I turned to magnets.

The more I thought about the idea, the more I thought it would work and it would work well. Being a huge fan of maker videos on YouTube, I decided to record the whole process and make a short video of the making process. The side-effect of making a video is you put extra effort in to the process- my tool tote ended up with a paint job and then I went and stencilled it up. It's a slippery slope. Check out the video-

Notes on the project-

• The tool tote works great but is a little bit heavy. I used 12mm plywood for strength and if I was to make another I'd use 12mm again but I'd try reduce the volume of the tote.
• I used rare-earth magnets with .8kg pull but it actully wasn't enough. I cut this out of the video for the sake of brevity, but the first time I tried the magnets they didn't hold the empty tray in place. So I prised them out of the bottom plate and put two magnets (stuck together with epoxy) in instead. As I had one .8kg pull magnet per corner in the tray and two .8kg pull magnet in each corner of the bottom plate of the tool tote, I couldn't recommend a specific rate of pull for magnets without doing some testing. Next time.
• I used whatever paint I had handy, I think the dark grey was a €1.50 can of primer. Covered pretty well. I used boiled linseed oil on the handle, which was screwed in to place so I can replace it when I break it.

Notes on the video-

• I shot it on my iPhone because that's what I have. I think the quality is ok, I used 1920 x 1080p. My workshop has about ten 100w incandescent bulbs which is why there is a yellow hue to everything.
• I was going to do a voice over explaining the process but I don't have a decent mic or the time to do a script and record it. I really just wanted to get the video out, so it is what it is.