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!!
