Tool Tube: Keeping Your Go-to Carving Tools Handy

I’ve been called a “professional” pumpkin carver (which is not the worst thing I’ve been called), carving approximately one metric crap ton of pumpkins every year, often at live events where people show up to point and laugh and throw rotten vegetables. Possibly more than any other tools on earth, pumpkin carving tools like to crawl under pumpkin shavings or leap off of the table and roll out the door (like the meatball in “On Top of Spaghetti”), making them impossible to find. I have probably thirty tools close by for any given carve, but only about 6 or 8 that are in heavy rotation, and those are the ones I wanted to corral.

So for this season I’m trying out this tube which keeps them segregated from their less-used brethren, protects me from their pointy ends during transport, and allows easy access to them during carving.

I think I’ve seen something similar to this for paint brushes, and I believe some plastic straw dispensers in restaurants use a similar principal. In any case, this could be adapted for any assortment of tools or pens or pencils or cigars or skewers or poison darts or whatever else you can think of.

Supplies

Tools:

• Pliers
• Wire cutters
• Hacksaw to cut your pipe
• Hammer and nail or drill - something you can use to punch holes in your disc.

Materials:

• a tube
• a bottom and cap for the tube, can be two PVC caps
• a disc that fits inside it, with a rim: I used a canning jar lid
• a wire hanger
• some duct tape.

I used what I had on hand which was a section of 3" white corrugated drainage pipe, but PVC pipe would work just as well.

For the disc I used a small canning jar lid with its ring, but any stiff material will work: plywood, plastic, etc., as long as there's a lip or rim around the edge to keep the skinnier tools from crawling between the disc and the tube.

There's enough wire in one typical wire hanger to do the job.

Mine is all covered with black Gorilla tape (which is like in my top twelve Favorite Things Ever), so mine looks remarkably like black Gorilla tape. But you could jazz yours up with other groovy colors, or leave it white and pristine like it was manufactured by Apple.

Step 1: Plan, Cut Pipe, Add Caps

Cut your pipe a little longer than the longest tool in your assortment. In my case it was an 8" clay finishing tool, so I hacked the tube to 9".

Note: This might be a personal record for me in the scribble-vs-execution ratio: usually I cover several pages with doodles of a project, then draw it in Adobe Illustrator and keep coming back to it now and then, until finally (sometimes years later) I finally pull the trigger. But this time the attached scribbles were all I did. Do I get extra points for that? Yes, yes I do. Sixteen extra points.

Close up the bottom and make a lid. You can use a couple PVC caps for both, but I closed the bottom with a wide canning jar lid and duct tape, and made my cap out of a scrap from a PVC flange that happened to fit over the pipe.

Step 2: Perforate the Disc

Poke three holes in your disc, close to the diameter of your wire hanger: On in the middle, two on the edge, opposite each other.

I used a hammer with a small nail and a block of scrap wood behind it, but you can use whatever will do the trick depending on what your disc is made of.

Step 3: Bend and Cut the Wires

Using your wire cutters and pliers, cut your hanger as suggested in the attached image, and straighten your wire.

Note: when repurposing hangers I usually toss the curved bit, because by the time you've straightened that part out the metal is so fragile that it's not worth the trouble.

You need a long wire in the middle of the disc that's just shy of the full length of the tube, which functions as a handle to pull the tools up. See image: bend a small loop in the top, run it through the disc, put one 90-degree bend at the bottom, then add one more 90-degree sideways bend (so it looks like an "L" from above). Secure the wire to the bottom of the disc with tape. You should now have a vertical wire poking straight up from the disc.

For the side wires, start by making a "U" shape, then add a "squiggle" at the bottom. That's so this wire can curve around the middle wire, and still stay flush with the disc. line the ends up with the side holes in the disc, and make sharp 90-degree bends as shown. Push the wire up against the disc, add the rim (if it's not already there) and tape it all up.

You should now have three stable vertical wires sticking out of the disc.

Step 4: Make the "Clips"

Place your assembly into your tube, then add a few of the items you're going to store in there, ideally the longest and shortest.

Pull up on the handle until your tools are sticking out enough so you can easily grab them. In some cases they might conveniently lean outward, or they may just stay vertical, but you want to find the best spot for the disc to stay when your tools are in "accessible" mode. Once you've decided, bend both wires outward a bit to mark the spot.

Bend the wires all the way so they point down, then add another bend about 3/4" that points straight up, and cut the wire (see image).

Now your side wires will function as "clips" to keep the disc at its upper setting. Pull up on the handle an inch, squeeze the clips toward each other and push the handle down, and the whole thing slides to the bottom of the tube. For a tighter fit you can give the side wires more of an outward slant, so they'll push harder against the walls of the tube.

Step 5: Finish and Tweak

Add your tools and try it out! You'll likely want to re-bend the side wires a bit so they feel nicely spring-loaded and they clip tightly to the rim of the tube. Be sure to hide any sharp edges on the wire with tape or by filing.

I added a stray bit of paracord for a handle, and hid a few neodymium magnets on the sides so I can stick a tool or two there while I'm carving. I'm sure you can think of more useful tweak, all suggestions welcome!

Happy Carving!

*UPDATE* 10-17-2022:

After a busy weekend of pumpkin carving events (Friday | Saturday | Sunday), I decided on a slight modification to the tool tube: your disc needs a rim! Some of the skinnier tools occasionally try to crawl into the gap between the disc and the tube causing jams, but a very small rim around that disc will prevent that issue. If you used a lid from a canning jar like I did, you might want to add the lid ring and tape that into place, or keep an eye out for a non-canning jar lid that fits.I don't think I have room to add a lid ring so I'll be making my rim out of Gorilla tape.

*UPDATE* 10-20-2022:

I lied about the Gorilla tape: it turns out that I did have room for a canning jar lid ring after all, and I was able to stick that on with very little trouble! So I added a few words and a new photo to this 'ible showing that obvious-in-retrospect modification, and now it's looking like the rest of my carving season will be free from tool tube jams, huzzah!

I think I'll start making these for everything now: Golf clubs! Silverware! Carrots! Baseball bats! The list is endless. What cylindrical objects are YOU going to corral into a tube?

Cheers!