Traditional Tool Chest

Long time no post!!  Lots of stuff going on - anyone who knows me can tell you this is the busiest time of the year for me as I try to finish up projects in the garage and manage hockey tryouts for more teams than I can handle.  Anyway got a few projects cooking...First the entry hall table turned into a bathroom vanity which is now on hold.  We decided to start re-finishing our basement which means I am removing the panelling from the basement and rehanging it the garage/workshop.  Knowing that I would be rearranging the shop I decided it was time to get on with building a traditional tool chest.  No point in keeping cabinets that I don't need or wasting space for tools I will have in the chest.  So here are some pics from the tool chest build...with the exception of ripping boards and planing to thickness all the work so far has been done with hand tools. 

Panels after glue up...the wood is 4/4 clear pine and came in 11-12" widths.  After milling the final thickness of the panels was 7/8". 

 Marked up dovetails and the first hand-cut set.  I left the tails and pins a little longer to over shoot and eventually came back with a plane to knock them smooth and flush.

 Two sets completed!  At this point my hands where pretty tired from holding and hammering chisels for 2.5 hours.

 A few pics of the carcase completed...the final two corners of dovetails went a lot faster taking a little more than an hour to complete both.

 Smooth and flush!!  I planed the tails and pins flush to the surface and they turned out pretty nice!

I still have a lot to do but it is coming along pretty fast.  Once this is done I can start on the basement, rearrange the shop (hang panels) and then I have a few toy boxes on the to-do list.  Hopefully after that I can get back to the bathroom vanity (that started out as entry hall table).   I do live in Minnesota so it is a rush to beat old man winter; maybe he will take a snooze again this year and give us a light winter!!

Entry Hall Table

Started a new project this week! I am building an Entry Hall Table with a little Arts and Crafts flair and some Greene inspiration with thru tenons. The table will be about 27-29 inches high and 12" deep, my wife tends to clutter open space pretty quick so I figured I would make it a decent width at 30". As always learning new lessons, this time at the lumber yard as I laid out the needed wood I forgot I needed 4/4 stock and 6/4 stock. Well I only purchased 6/4 so I need to decide between re-sawing to get 3/4" to 7/8" thickness for the sides and fronts or going back and getting 4/4 stock. Decisions! Anyway it will be made out of quartersawn white oak - like any good arts and crafts style project!  I am still contemplating the finish but here are some early pics at the legs already cut.



Close up to see some of the rays.

Hands On

No new projects lately, just adding a tool tray to the back of my work bench and using it as an opportunity to practice hand cut dovetails.  Why hand cut?  First of all it seems to be a passage that nearly every woodworker has to go through and I really enjoy the challenge of hand tools and feel it is more of a craft. Don’t get me wrong you are not going to find me ripping hundreds of board feet by hand; power tools do make a lot of jobs easier.  Most of my “raw” working is done with power tools such as ripping boards and planning to thickness.  It’s the finish cuts and joinery where I use hand tools.  I know a lot of people get into heated debates about power vs. hand tools; but I think both have their own merits.  My table saw and router are certainly in my top ten tools I could not work without but so are my pull saws and chisels. 

Back to the dovetails….

My first few attempts at the dovetails where pretty bad; well pretty horrible.  I couldn’t get boards to meet flush, my chisel work made the edges look chewed and the gaps between tails and pins – well they if  they were straight I could of used them to hold clamps.  Try, try and try again…eventually the gaps got smaller, the edges looked a lot cleaner and the boards became flush.  

Above is a pic of one the early cuts; actually this is when I first started to really get things flush.  Edges are fairly clean but the gaps need more work.    When I first started cutting the dovetails I used the marking knife lines to gauge where I should start my saws, I even pre-chiseled the saw cut.  This led to bad gaps between the pins and tails.  I found it better to start my cuts about 1/16th into the waste  side of the marking knife line and then pare back to the knife marking line with a chisel.  This really tightened the gaps.
   

Here is my last practice run…I wouldn’t say this is fine furniture quality but it is at least good enough that I can finish my tool tray and start my next project.

Mirror

Decided to build a little frame for a mirror we inherited when we bought our house a few years ago.  The mirror was bolted to a back of a door which we replaced shortly after moving in and the mirror has been sitting in the basement since.  The mirror is 24" x 60" and 3/8" thick.  I thought it would be a quick easy project and for the most part it was.  Make the stiles and rails at 2 1/2" - bottom rail at 7" groove the stiles and rails with a 1" x 3/8" channel and then biscuit joint it together.  While cleaning  up one of the edges of the stiles I dropped it and it cracked one of the lips from the channel.  I ended up having to glue and re-attach the lip.

I was really worried that when it came time to stain and finish the glue seam would be noticeable.  I did end up smooth planning all surfaces hoping it would blend it better.

1" x 3/8" Channel



 

Smooth planned; dry assembly

In the end the glue seam was not noticeable and General Finishes Rosewood stain went on very smoothly.

What are these??

Bow-ties for Pinocchio?

When I first thought of how I was going to put the mirror frame together I thought I would joint them with a double dovetail (bow ties).  The wood I got ended up having a really nice grain pattern so I decided not to interrupt it with the dovetails.  Thanks again for reading!!  Please leave comments or suggestions!!



The Toy Box

I decided to build (and design on the fly) this Toy box for my daughter using the left over Southern Yellow Pine from my woodworking bench.  I tried to avoid having knots but since I was using left over wood I wasn't completely able to accomplish this.  I was able to minimize the knots to the interior and back of the case.
I really like the end grain pattern in the SYP so I decided to showcase it a little by finger jointing the case for the box.  This was the first time I did finger joints and decided to keep it simple...sort of...I cut all the wood into 1 1/2" strips and then cut those strips to match at corners making the finger joints.  So basically I had two lengths to cut for the front and back at 30 1/8" and 29 1/4" - the longer length would have the end grain exposed on the sides.  The sides were made in the same manner as the front.  With both the front/back and sides I left the exposed end grain 1/8" long to overshoot the corners; after glue up I flush trimmed them with a router.

I trimmed the top and bottom with a standard Ogee pattern and glued them flush to the case.  If I had planned this over and had the wood I wanted I would of attached the trim using a sliding dovetail joint. 

Finally I built the lid in the same manner as the the case from 1 1/2" strips.  Another first for me - I decided to hand plane the lid smooth.  The pictures below show the finished underside of the lid.

The plane I used (pictured above) is an old Craftsman (probably a #3) I got at a flea market for $10 and cleaned up.  

Awww - smooth!!  Again I love the end grain pattern!! 

Final product - I finished it with a light amber shellac to bring out more of the yellow in the wood. 

Thanks for reading!!  Check back soon for another post!!