The plane till is a storage system with a long history and a clear function: hold your bench planes, bevel-down or sole-down, in a way that protects the blades and makes them immediately accessible during a session. From the Victorian tool chest with its fitted tray to the contemporary wall-mounted rack, the essential requirements haven’t changed. The execution varies from a simple painted plywood shelf to an elaborate piece of cabinetry that is as much a display of craft as a storage solution.
We featured five reader plane tills this month, ranging from a simple and elegant to a genuinely ambitious construction. The most refined was from cabinetmaker Alex in New Hampshire – a 6-foot walnut frame with individual angled slots for 14 planes, each slot sized precisely to the plane body and lined with waxed canvas to prevent rust. The slots angle toward the user so the plane handle presents itself naturally during reach. The frame mounts to the wall with two lag screws through a French cleat on the back – removable in 30 seconds, if the shop layout ever changes.
The most practical was from Brian in Ohio: a single 1×8 pine board with a 3/4-inch stop along the bottom edge, mounted to the wall at workbench height. Planes rest sole-down on the shelf against the stop. No individual slots, no custom sizing – just planes in a row at the right height. “I spent 20 minutes building it,” Brian says. “Every more complex system I’ve seen since makes the same number of planes accessible in the same amount of time.” He’s not wrong. The elegant solution often outperforms the complex one.
Build advice from our most experienced readers: whatever till design you choose, get the mounting height right before you build anything permanent. Put a plane on the wall with a temporary shelf at several heights until you find the position where your hand reaches naturally during a planing session. That height is the correct till height for your body. It’s different for everyone. Share your plane till – from a single shelf to a cathedral of wood planes.