Storage Chest for my Planes and Sharpening Stones 4

Wrapping It Up

I almost finished the chest last night. I made a tray for my planes to sit in, and added runners on the inside sides of the box for the tray to slide on. I glued and nailed the bottom on. I got my cut nails and they seemed to work great. I pre-drilled the holes and aligned the nails so the wide sides ran parrallel to the grain. I didn't get any splitting. When I made the lid, I attached the battens by hammering the nails  about a 1/4 inch through and turned the lid over and bent them over, then finished driving the nails from the pother side, turned it over again and hammered the bent bit down into the wood like a staple. I glued everything as well for good measure. I ended up using a piece of 1/2 inch Birch plywood for the lid panel, since I messed up and needed it thinner than I planned initially.

Here is the locking pin being slid out to allow the lid to slide forward.

 

With the pin removed, the lid slides to the right, freeing the left side.

This shows the gap left by sliding the lid to the right, allowing it to be lifted out on the left end. 

 

The tray slides left and right to allow access to the bottom of the chest.

Here is a link to the SketchUp model:
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=ud8b5d59e-53a5-43b9-bc71-803d37fd5902

I might have one more post on the chest after I add finish. I might add the cross batten piece to the lid to make the Z pattern but I don't think it is needed.

Storage Chest for my Planes and Sharpening Stones 3

Putting it all together

I chopped the remaining mortises, and added a 6 degree slant to the inside faces.

I decide to just add wedges to the inside (toward the center) of the tenons. I don't think that pine would flex very well without breaking or splitting, if I tried to put the wedge in the tenon. I cut the wedges by putting that peace of elm I was planing earlier in my tenoning jig and cutting off enough for 16 wedges. I kept the saw blade at the same 6 degrees I used to make the chisel guide.

Here is a drawing of the setup of pairing down with the chisel against a guide to make the slant on the side of the mortises consistent.

Here are the sides and ends put together with the wedges inserted.

Now I need to glue all this together and trim off the wedges. Then I can start on the handles and the lid assembly.

Yea! Its square!

Now I can trim up the bottom and glue it on. I know at some point I have to decide what other fasters to use. I tend toward regular wood screws, but all the traditional boxes of this kind use cut nails. I have never used them and am afraid they would split the wood. Would cut nails split these cheap pine boards? I know I will need to pre-drill the holes either way.

Storage Chest for my Planes and Sharpening Stones 2

Putting a plan into action

I had originally figured I would use the 3/4" oak I had left over from my bed project, but after piling up the pieces that I would use, and trying to lift the pile, I decided that oak was too heavy/dense for this project. I went to Home Depot and bought 8 1"x12"x4' pine boards. They were actually 3/4" x 9 1/4" x 4'. I got all of them for a little over $24. They had knots and stuff, but I figured this was just a storage box, and not anything fancy. I really wanted to practice using my hand tools and thought the wedged through tenons on the sides would be a challenge.

I brought the wood home and started cutting it up and gluing it together.

While I was waiting for the glue to dry enough to scrape it off, I practiced planing some Red Elm I cut from fire wood I got from Mark and Patrice. I made a make-shift bench hook too.

I am not sure how strong pine edge-glued joints will be in the long run, so I made sure to stagger the glue joints on the sides and ends so that solid wood would straddle the seams. I drew some pencil lines on the end-grain seams for the picture.

I decided to add a dado where the ends meet the sides. I only made it about 1/8" deep. I used a stop block on my table saw sled to cut the dado outer edges consistently.

I used my small router plane and a pairing chisel to clean up the dados.

Test fit with just the dados. Now I need to cut the tenons.

I used a marking gauge to set the length of the tenons using the width of the side minus the dado depth.

Than I marked the ends of the end pieces.

Then I used a tri-square  to mark out the positions of the tenons.

Then I used my nifty 90-degree magnetic  sawing guide and my Japanese razor saw that I got from David Barron to cut the tenons.

Then I sawed out the waste between the tenons. Then I chopped and paired with chisels to clean up the tenons.

After marking out the position for the mortises, I drilled a hole where each one will go, and started chopping out the mortises.

I got one corner mortises and test fitted. I still need to add an angle to the side of the mortises, so I can add the wedges to the tenons so as to create dovetail shaped tenons.

I made good progress this weekend. I am really enjoying slowing down and taking my time to make my projects. No rush.

P.S. to this post:

I chopped two more corners worth of mortises last night (8 total mortises) before the Black List came on and I had to stop. I didn't pre-drill the holes this time. I just chopped the traditional way and it worked a lot better.

Storage chest for my Planes and Sharpening stones 1

The planning stage

I want to make a storage chest for my hand planes, and my sharpening stones and guides. I came across various versions of the Japanese tool chest on the web, and I thought it would be fun to use that design for my chest. I worked up a version in SketchUp and posted it to 3D Warehouse a while ago, so I downloaded it and modified the dimensions to fit my new chest requirements.

Here is an image of the SketchUp model so far:

Here is a link to the model posted on 3D Warehouse:

Japanese Toolbox with Locking Bar and Design Notes

Here is an animation of how the locking lid works:

Basically I want to be able to pull out a smaller box containing my hand planes, and keep my sharpening materials in the bottom of the chest. There will need to be cleats attached to the insides for the plane box to sit on. I measured all my planes and stones and guides, and used them to determine the overall dimensions of the chest. The chest will be 16" wide, 13 3/4 " deep, and 27 1/2" long. Since I will have to glue up boards to make them 14 1/4" wide to make up the ends and sides, I will end up using more through tenons than the eight shown. I will want the tenons to help the glue hold the ends and side boards together along the grain as well as holding the sides against the ends.

Queen-Sized Bed Complete

Finally

I finished the queen-sized bed this weekend. I am generally happy with the results. It was made from quarter-sawn oak I got from Jim Starr, and black walnut that Hartley Calvin gave me years ago. I made the dresser and side table that goes with it years ago. I am glad this project is finally put to bed. Now I can start on the next project. The arc in the top of the head-board and foot-board was made with a large router trammel I made. the Sketch-up model is at:

Sketch-up Link of Bed Model

This is the completed bed in the guest room.

Here is the foot-board assembled.

Here are the side rails. I used the 6 x 5/8" Heavy Duty Wrought Steel Bed Rail Fastener Set from Rockler. I inset the metal plates about 1/16 of an inch, so there is room for adjustment later. If they are loose, you have some room to tighten.

Here is the bed partially completed in the wood shop.

I made a compound dovetail for the tabs sticking out from the side rail supports. I wanted to be able to tie the side rails together later if needed and wanted somewhere to put in a dowel that wasn't too close to the end of the cross slat.

Welcome to Piston Fit (yeah, right)

Welcome

"Piston-fit" is a term used to describe perfectly fitting drawers, that when opened and closed, have a drag introduced by the air having to sneak its way around the edges creating a cushion of air feeling to the drawer movement. Yeah, I have never got anything like that so far.

Well, this is my first post. So welcome. I apologize up-front for the fact that I am the world's biggest hack. I have a college degree, in Mathematics, but most of what I know is just a jumbled collection of random skills collected over my life, dictated by my interest at the time. When my childhood-friend John and I were young, we decided we would be "Renaissance Men" when we grew up and know everything about everything. A lofty goal for 10-year-olds. After 40 years, the result is I know a little about a lot, and a lot about a little. I realized too late that I will never reach a certain level of excellence in one area, because it just doesn't hold my interest long enough, and I don't achieve "perfection". I end up with "pretty good" some times, but mostly "good enough for me". I do strive to improve all the time, and I think I get better, but I often settle for "good enough" on any particular project.

This blog is about one of my long-term interests: woodworking. I took wood-shop in jr. high and high school, and made some stuff at the craft shop in college, but hadn't done any more wood working for many years, when I got a big raise, and started buying power tools. I went through the usual sequence of buying tools slowly until I had most of the critical tools for making some basic furniture. I made some of jigs for cutting mortises with a router and a tenoning jig for the table saw, cross-cut sleds, work benches...

I only just recently started buying nice hand tools for planing, cutting, marking, chiseling, and carving. Man that stuff adds up fast.

Anyway, I plan on using this blog as a way to chronicle my past, current, and ongoing woodworking projects. Here we go.