Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process

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One of the other tasks on my (fairly long!) list of things to do on the tool chest is to figure out a good way to identify the drawers.

This might seem like an odd requirement, but this chest is unusual in that it is expected that the drawers will be regularly removed and placed on a nearby table or whatever while the chest itself is used as a workbench. The drawers differ in height by only a few millimetres (the top-left one is 45 mm high and the bottom-left one is 53 mm high – the ones in between are spread in between those sizes).

The combination of regularly removing drawers and them all being fairly similar sizes means it would be helpful to know which drawer is which so they can be quickly returned to their appropriate slots.

There are a few approaches I've thought of (so far) for solving this problem, one of which is pertinent.

1. Integrate it into the drawer inserts / tool holder things somehow (this has the advantage of meaning I can put it off and think of it later, but the disadvantage that I'll have to think about it later).
2. Carve numbers into the top of the drawer fronts. The drawer fronts are only 15 mm thick, so this would be some very fine carving and could be extremely challenging (and potentially leave some fragile bits of wood).
3. Make an engraved brass piece and set that into the drawer, either into the drawer insert, the top of the drawer front or the rear of the drawer front (in the latter case I'd have to be confident it wouldn't get hidden by adjacent tools).
4. Integrate a number into the drawer pull. For example, if I'm using the brass hook pull thing, I could engrave a number into the top, something like this (but probably not in orange):

I'm not sure that there's a good way of integrating a number into any of the other drawer pull styles, so that's one advantage of the brass hook thing. Having said that, it's not essential that it's integrated into a drawer pull, so it doesn't rule out the other options.

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

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