# Machinist's Chest Build



## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

I've had a desperate need for a while for someplace to store my hand tools (instead of all spread out on benches, shelves, etc..). After looking around at different pictures and plans for chests, I decided to roughly follow this design from Woodsmith Magazine.

I've been working off and on for several months on this chest and was going to wait until I finished to post build pics. Then earlier this week _nbo10_ revived the thread "Alternative Methods" Challenge. 

Since I'm building the same chest (sort of) that was built by several others in that challenge I thought I'd go ahead and start posting now and show my methods and design changes.

For reference here are links to the other threads where the machinist's chest was built:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/alternative-methods-challenge-machinists-chest-30864/

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/alternative-methods-project-3-machinest-chest-30401/

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/alternate-challenge-machinist-chest-30057/

And here is a picture of the chest from Woodsmith Mag.


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## MasterSplinter (Jan 12, 2013)

Very cool. I need to build something also. I have 2 machinest tool boxes. One wood, my grandfathers, and one metal. My dads. The upper drawers on them are very thin. It will be interesting to see your take on it.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

My take on the original design is I really like the look of it, but I thought the dimensions of it were way too small for my use. The Woodsmith design is 17" wide, 8" deep and ~13" high. The large drawers are only 2.5" tall and the small ones 1.25" tall.

In comparison my design is 24" wide, 16" deep and 20" high. The large drawers on mine will be approx 4" tall with the small ones around 2.5". I've also changed the drawer configuration a little with all shorter drawers on the top half. Needless to say, I won't be including handles on mine as when it's full it will be way too heavy to carry.

Here is a picture of a Sketchup model I drew to get a handle on proportions and drawer sizes.


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## nbo10 (Jan 26, 2011)

Looking forward to following this build. Looks like it will be fun.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

I'm in for this one. :thumbsup:


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## Phaedrus (Jan 18, 2012)

I'm on board and excited for this one. :thumbsup:
I always thought that Machinist's Toolbox design looked too small for woodworking tools, so it looks like you've got a good solution planned. 

Let the entertainment begin.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

trc65 said:


> My take on the original design is I really like the look of it, but I thought the dimensions of it were way too small for my use. The Woodsmith design is 17" wide, 8" deep and ~13" high. The large drawers are only 2.5" tall and the small ones 1.25" tall.
> 
> In comparison my design is 24" wide, 16" deep and 20" high. The large drawers on mine will be approx 4" tall with the small ones around 2.5". I've also changed the drawer configuration a little with all shorter drawers on the top half. Needless to say, I won't be including handles on mine as when it's full it will be way too heavy to carry.
> 
> Here is a picture of a Sketchup model I drew to get a handle on proportions and drawer sizes.


Good idea on the size changes. I store my hand tools in my work bench and didn't really consider my drawers wouldnt be deep enough When I built it. Shoot come to think of it, I didn't have a lot of the tools back then. I've always liked the WS plan.

Al

Friends don't let friends use stamped metal tools sold at clothing stores.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Just a note on tools I'm using. This will be a mostly hand tool build so it fits well with the "Alternative Methods" theme. The only power tools I have are a circular saw, miter saw and router and they will/have been used where needed.

Time for a few pictures of the actual build process. The first is my wood source. I've shown some of these pictures before, but what you are seeing is the remnants of our barn which was knocked down about 10 years ago. Lots of 1x fir, but all the 2x material is white oak and that is what I'm using for this project.









Last fall I spent about two weeks slowly working my way through this pile pulling out any remaining boards that weren't rotten. I was able to pull quite a few out, unfortunately, most of them don't have a straight section longer than about two feet. Most of them also have nails sticking out of one edge as seen below. The majority of the boards are a true 2" x 6" +/- 1/2". 









There is no way to remove the nails other than ripping about 2" off of each board, which I do with a circular saw and some angle iron for a fence. 

I was able to find one board with no nails and it was that board I used for the sides and bottom of the chest. 

Before ripping, I edge and face planed each board. Marked them up and ripped them with a 5 tpi Warranted Superior handsaw I restored last winter. Very slow going through that aged oak - about 15 minutes per foot of rip. What I ended up with was a series of boards about 5 1/2" wide, ~3/4" thick. I had pre-cut them to length of about 18" for the sides and 26" for the bottom. Here is a pic of one of them after ripping - not real pretty, but the backside is flat and it has good edges.









Since the backs were flat (from the planing before ripping) all I needed to do was plane the edges before gluing them into panels. 

I started surface planing them after glue-up with my SB #5 and that was slow going. I seriously started looking to buy a scrub plane or a fore plane to speed up the process when I remembered that I had a SB transitional #35 plane with the same size blade as the #5. Took the blade to the grinder, spent some time on sandpaper and water stones and this what it now looks like. 









Put that blade in my #5 and the panels were thicknessed to about 9/16". It worked very well (and quick) and now I have a combo Jack/Fore plane depending on which blade is in it - I really need to get another #5 so I don't have to switch blades. 

Used a smooth plane to finish them up a bit and here is one of the panels almost done. 










Another note: I'm not real particular when it comes to actual measurements. The width of the side panels obviously match up with the bottom, but from there everything will be built to size based on what has been done already. For example, I was shooting for a 16" depth, but it ended up at 16 1/4". I saw no reason to remove another 1/4" from all the panels so I just left them as they are. I just measured tonight and the other dimensions of the case are 24 3/16" wide and 17 3/4" tall:smile:


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## Paul W Gillespie (Jul 7, 2011)

Very cool to build with the hand tools. Its way to much work for me, but I am watching.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Thanks Paul, it's a love/hate relationship I have with hand tools. When I was re-sawing all that oak I wanted a bandsaw in the worst way. When I was done though, I had a good workout and really had a sense of accomplishment. 

I used to think there were a lot of things I couldn't build as I didn't have a tablesaw, bandsaw, planer, jointer, etc. Now I know I can build almost anything I want with the tools I have.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Having already built this tool chest according to the dimension in the magazine, I'm really looking forward to your take on it. I had a great time building mine and I hope you have as much fun with yours. This is gonna be a great build. :thumbsup:
Consider me glued.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

I, too, am following this one. Hand tools and white oak. That's a tough game. I like this tool chest too and have considered building it. You may be my inspiration to do so. I have some wormy white oak sitting that I know the wife won't let me use for inside.... 

How does that chipbreaker work with your radius'ed iron? Does it clog up on the corners? I have a spare iron I've been meaning to radius for my #5 but wasn't sure what to do with the chipbreaker.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Kenbo said:


> Having already built this tool chest according to the dimension in the magazine, I'm really looking forward to your take on it. I had a great time building mine and I hope you have as much fun with yours. This is gonna be a great build. :thumbsup:
> Consider me glued.



My "_shop_" is actually just a small corner of an uninsulated, unheated machine shed. One goal of building this chest was to get a majority of my tools under some cover to keep the dust/dirt off and hopefully keep some of the condensation off. My main criteria with the size was to be able to store my #7 jointer plane in one of the drawers with room to spare.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

ACP said:


> I, too, am following this one. Hand tools and white oak. That's a tough game. I like this tool chest too and have considered building it. You may be my inspiration to do so. I have some wormy white oak sitting that I know the wife won't let me use for inside....
> 
> How does that chipbreaker work with your radius'ed iron? Does it clog up on the corners? I have a spare iron I've been meaning to radius for my #5 but wasn't sure what to do with the chipbreaker.


Almost everything I have made since I started woodworking a couple of years ago has been with that oak. It's cheap :laughing:, I have lots of it to play with and I like the look of it. Other than a couple of things I've built with a little bit of poplar, and a couple of tools made with black locust, it's the only wood I've worked with. If nothing else, it has sure taught me the meaning of sharp!

I don't know that the chip breaker really does anything for the iron other than stiffening it up a little bit. The picture shows the chip breaker in the position I use it in, so the corners don't really come into play with the "point" of the blade so far beyond it. Also, with that much of a radius, you are only removing wood from about the center inch so you really don't have any chips on the edges. It looks weird, but it seems to work......

I guess I've never seen what the chip breaker on a true fore plane with a radiused iron looks like - anyone care to comment???


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Here are some more pics of the build.

Another design change that I made from the original plan was to use dovetails for the main carcass instead of finger joints. I guess I could have cut finger joints by hand, but that seemed tedious at best and I like the look of dovetails better anyway.

Here's one of the sides and the bottom with the dovetails cut. Ignore the clamps, I just set the carcass on top of them to take the picture.









I thought I'd show a couple of pictures on how I lay out and cut dovetails. When I first started cutting dovetails I used a sliding bevel, but it just seemed cumbersome to me so now I use this dovetail gauge from Veritas to lay out all my dovetails. It's a 14 degree gauge which is approx. 1:4 ratio. I know some people say to use a 1:6 for softwoods and 1:8 in hardwoods, and there is probably a good reason for that, but I like the look of the 14 degree so that's what I use.:yes: 

BTW I always use a knife for marking the dovetails and then follow that with a pencil so I can actually see the mark.










I use a dovetail saw to cut the tails and follow that with a coping saw to remove most of the waste. Clean up with appropriate sized chisel. 

Once the tails are cut, it's time to mark the pins. I use a couple of right angle clamps to hold the two boards while marking. I've seen some really nifty jigs that others have built for this, but I never seem to find the time to build one.









When I mark the tails, I use a little machinist square to copy the marks from the end of the board to the face. Put the blade of the knife in the mark on the end, move the square over to the back of the blade and scribe the face of the board keeping the angle of the knife the same as the end marks.









Finally, a picture showing how I clamp larger boards that won't fit into my little vise. This method works well for supporting long boards for jointing or panels that you need to dovetail. Just use one hand screw clamp to attach to the board and use another to clamp the first to the bench.


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## nbo10 (Jan 26, 2011)

Looking good. It's amazing that the boards you are working on came from the weathered stack of wood.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Now that the dovetails are cut, it's time for a little work on the side panels before they can be glued to the bottom. 

First is to cut grooves for the plywood panels. As I don't have any hand tools to perform this task, it's off to my hi-tech router table pictured below.:laughing: It's not much, but it is all I need. Router screwed to a piece of plywood and a cutoff from a counter top for a fence. Add a couple of clamps and I'm good to go.









Since the 1/4" plywood is actually 5.2mm, I got an inexpensive straight bit from MLCS designed for "undersize" plywood.

The original plan calls for the drawer divider panel to be attached to the bottom of the till panel just with glue and screws. This seemed a little weak to me so I added another panel to support the bottom of the divider. I don't really know if this is necessary, but it seemed like a good idea.

The other thing needed is the drawer slides to be made and attached to the sides and the drawer divider. I used some 1/4" thick poplar for the slides. They need to be 1/2" wide, so I used a marking gauge to scribe marks on the board and used my dovetail saw to rip the boards. 

I just clamped the poplar to a piece of scrap and slowly cut the slides. It is not very efficient to make this long horizontal cut as you need to stop periodically to blow out the dust. Nevertheless, I ended up with uniform sized slides that only need a pass with the block plane to clean them up before attaching.









*Here is where I need a little input from those reading this.* 

The original plan calls for attaching the drawer slides with ring shank nails which I have done. However, I noticed that others making this chest for the "Alternative Methods Challenge" glued and/or screwed the slides. I'm not at all confidant that the nails will hold these in the long term, but I worry that if I glue the slides it will cause problems as the side panels move with seasonal humidity changes. Especially since this chest will be housed in a machine shed with no heating/cooling. Any input will be greatly appreciated - and I can still make changes even though the sides/bottom are already attached.

Finally, here is a picture of the sides/bottom attached along with the top rail.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Today's glues are a far cry from those of just a few years ago. I would have no worries about using the glue and screw method of assembly. As long as the chest is protected from direct damage from the rain or snow there should not be any issues.

Things are looking really nice so far. My compliments to the chief :thumbsup:


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

When you're working with the little strips used for the guides, they can be tough to hold if you need to do any work on them so the easiest way to do any trimming is to clamp a block (or other plane) and run the wood over the plane. Just be careful what you do with your fingers while doing this.:yes:









My chest is going to sit on a bench or shelf and will not be movable like the one in the magazine, so I'm not going to spend any time making a raised panel for the rear. Instead, I'm using a piece of 1/2" plywood that was recovered from some other project (hence the ugly brown paint). I'm using the same plywood for the divider. 

After rabbiting the back panel and cutting grooves for the till panel, bottom panel and divider I went ahead and glued all of them together in a sub assembly shown below. My reasoning was it would be easier to do it this way rather than trying to align all the pieces while trying to glue it up. We'll see if that's true when I get to that stage.









To hide the plywood edge on the front of the divider I cut and glued a strip of oak to the front.









Here is everything pushed together for a test fit. I know the brown paint looks ugly, but once the drawers are fitted you won't see any of it.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

johnnie52 said:


> Today's glues are a far cry from those of just a few years ago. I would have no worries about using the glue and screw method of assembly. As long as the chest is protected from direct damage from the rain or snow there should not be any issues.
> 
> Things are looking really nice so far. My compliments to the chief :thumbsup:


Johnny couldn't be more right about the glue and screw. One of the first things I learned in wood working is "nails only hold themselves".

I would also add. I love your crappy router table. I used the same one for years. Mine was a sink cutout and my local tool dealer said it might void my warranty using a router like that. 

Al

Friends don't let friends use stamped metal tools sold at clothing stores.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

johnnie52 said:


> Today's glues are a far cry from those of just a few years ago. I would have no worries about using the glue and screw method of assembly.





Al B Thayer said:


> Johnny couldn't be more right about the glue and screw. One of the first things I learned in wood working is "nails only hold themselves".


Thanks guys! I won't pry off the guides to add glue, but as they only have nails right now I will be adding screws.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*On to the Drawers*

Now that the main chest is more or less done and guides installed, it's time to work on the drawers. 

Dovetails for joinery. Bottom of drawers is same 1/4" (5.2mm) plywood as used for till panel and 1/2" dado on the outside for the guides. The dados for the bottom are 1/4" deep on all sides and 1/4" up from the bottom. Large drawers are about 3.5" in height with 3" of usable space inside the drawer.

The first picture shows the start of the glue up for the drawers. Ideally, I'd do the whole drawer at once, but I'm slow, don't have a good assembly area and really sloppy when it comes to gluing:laughing:. So, I start with the front of the drawer and the sides and glue the dovetails using tape in the corners and using a couple of right angle clamping helpers to keep everything square. Let that cure for a while and insert the bottom and glue the back of the drawer on. 









This pic shows the completed drawer with the dado for the guide.









With every larger (for me) build I do, I try to acquire another tool to expand my arsenal. For this build I got a Veritas cabinet scraper. I use card scrapers, but thought this would be a nice addition - and it is! Perfect for cleaning up some of this really hard oak and great for taking a little bit off the drawers for final fit. It works well pushing or pulling and has a large sole which helps working from end to end without snipe.









Finally, here is a picture of the first drawer done and installed.


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## Jeff Shafer (Nov 16, 2010)

Looking good. I like your clamping brackets.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

I'm enjoying this build a lot. Everything looks so well thought out and executed its hard to believe the material used to be an old barn. :thumbsup:


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Looks good. I'm thinking back to all the oppertunities I let go to pick up old barn wood. Where I live now they don't even have barns for miles and miles. I'm green with envy. 

Love that cabinet scraper too. Great work horse in my shop. Keep sending the pics.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

johnnie52 said:


> I'm enjoying this build a lot. Everything looks so well thought out and executed its hard to believe the material used to be an old barn. :thumbsup:


Thanks, I wish it was as well thought out as it appears:laughing:. It's easy to edit out the indecision and second guessing that goes on from day to day.




Al B Thayer said:


> Looks good. I'm thinking back to all the oppertunities I let go to pick up old barn wood. Where I live now they don't even have barns for miles and miles. I'm green with envy.
> 
> Love that cabinet scraper too. Great work horse in my shop. Keep sending the pics.
> 
> ...


Talking about lost opportunities - a majority of the straight oak boards from the barn were pulled out and cut up for firewood before I really got into woodworking. :thumbdown: I figure we burned about 40 of those 2x boards (12-16 ft long) before I wizened up. 

Now I can't drive by a barn without wondering what kind of wood is hiding inside.

I've only had the cabinet scraper for a couple of weeks, and I don't know how I ever got along without it. It finishes those oak boards better than I've ever been able to with a smoother!


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## nbo10 (Jan 26, 2011)

Tim,
Looks like you're making progress. Did the plans call for the dovetails to be oriented that way? Not sure it matters but, the draws may be stronger if the tails and pins are reversed.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*The Dovetails are reversed...*

... on purpose.

Thanks for noticing! And thanks to AL B Thayer who also noticed and asked about it in an earlier PM.

I actually planned them that way for aesthetics. 

It's definitely unconventional, but I didn't want to cut half blind dovetails in that hard oak and I thought it looked a little plain to see just the rectangular ends of the pins and tails with through DTs. I decided to cut them backwards so the angular tails/pins could be seen from the front. 

I know that it makes a weaker joint when pulling the front of the drawer, but I don't think it will make that much of a difference. The dovetails are a good fit with lots of glue area so they should hold (I hope). 

It is a deviation from the original Woodsmith plans as they used locking rabbet joints.

To show you how they look in a larger sense, I'll jump ahead just a little bit in the build and show you this picture with 4 drawers completed.









So, what do you think? 

Comments and criticism are welcome!


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## nbo10 (Jan 26, 2011)

I like it. The figure on the top drawers is interesting.


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## Phaedrus (Jan 18, 2012)

Great work so far!

If you are worried at all about the strength of the drawers with the inversely positioned dovetails (pretty, BTW), you could always run some dowels in from the side of the drawer to add mechanical strength. Heck, might even look nice if you have a contrasting wood. 









Forgive the crappy shakey drawing, it is freezing in my garage today!

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Woodworking Talk


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Phaedrus said:


> Great work so far!
> 
> If you are worried at all about the strength of the drawers with the inversely positioned dovetails (pretty, BTW), you could always run some dowels in from the side of the drawer to add mechanical strength. Heck, might even look nice if you have a contrasting wood.
> 
> ...


Great Idea.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

That's a really good idea Ben, Thanks:thumbsup:

To be honest, I'm not smart (experienced) enough to really know if they will be strong enough over years of use or not. But better safe than sorry though. 

I will be adding dowels to the dovetails after I get all the drawers finished:yes:


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

nbo10 said:


> Tim,
> Looks like you're making progress. Did the plans call for the dovetails to be oriented that way? Not sure it matters but, the draws may be stronger if the tails and pins are reversed.


I was going to ask the same question but I see that it is already answered. Love that contrasting dowel pin idea for the dovetails. Just a fantastic build so far.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*Continuing with the build pics*

Need to go a little backwards from the last pic showing the four drawers. When I decided to add plywood on the bottom of the drawer divider, I suddenly realized I hadn't planned on a good way to fill the gap between the large and small drawers.









This was the fix I came up with. I went ahead and made the bottom small drawer large enough to fill the whole space. I installed the drawer bottom higher and then cut off three sides of the drawer. I did it this way so I wouldn't disrupt the pattern of dovetails on the front. 

Used my dovetail saw to rip off the sides and back.









And here's a pic of the drawer ready to slide in the chest.









And a closeup of the drawer in the chest.









Finally, here is a picture of where I am tonight. Only 3 more drawers to go!









The bottom two drawer fronts are actually book matched pieces, but it looked strange to have both knots on the same side so I flipped one of them to give a little balance.

Each of the small drawers are  quarter sawn ripped pieces from the edge of the 2x6 barn boards. They are book matched as well. The dark horizontal streaks are staining from weathering on the old boards.

That's all for know, I hope to be able to get back in the shop later this week to finish up the last of the drawers.


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## landman (Sep 1, 2013)

trc65 said:


> And here's a pic of the drawer ready to slide in the chest.
> 
> View attachment 81471
> 
> ...


Trc, it is interesting that your barn oak has the same colour and weathering as my flatcar oak which was decking on a railroad flatcar. That brown color can be made to look like walnut with the right stain.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

That's some nice looking lumber! If I didn't know better I'd say is was some of my oak - except - yours is flat and straight  How big is that beam sitting on your saw? It looks huge.


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## landman (Sep 1, 2013)

They were 3x10 about 9' long. You lose about 1/2" trimming away the crud. It is old, and hard but soooo beautiful.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*I'm still working on it!*

Been a little while since the last post, didn't want to bore everyone with pictures of each individual drawer as I finished them. 

And finished them I have! Well - they are mostly finished as in they are all complete. I still have some work to do fitting all of them. Several of them are tight so I've got some work to do with a cabinet scraper to loosen them up a bit. Anyways, here is a pic of all of them in place. 









You'll notice that the center divider on the small drawers is not the right size:no:. Don't know what I was doing when I glued it on. I'll have to shave the face of that down a little, cut a new piece and glue it on to fill in the space.

Here's a pic of the drawers all pulled out.









Just a note on the dovetails - I decided to keep the pins the same size for all the drawers and vary the size of tails. Each drawer obviously has three tails with the center one slightly larger that the outer two. 

When I lay out dovetails I always start from the outer edges of the board and work my way to the center. I then end up with a center tail that is almost always larger (or smaller) than the others. No reason for it other than I'm too lazy to figure out an even spacing for them. The one exception to this was for the outer case of this chest. For some reason I actually made them evenly spaced:laughing:

Here's a pic of a side view of the drawers pulled out.










That was actually tough to do - pulling them out - it would have been a lot easier to do if I had some pulls installed:laughing:

This is what I've decided to go with for pulls:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=40248&cat=3,43520,43521,43559

I was looking for some recessed pulls, but just couldn't find any I liked or any that I liked and could afford. Will use two 40mm pulls on the two large drawers and a single 32mm pull on the small ones.

To keep the pulls from instantly rusting I'll probably give them a couple of coats of lacquer first.

The instructions for the pulls say to just hammer them in and then bend the tips back. 

Anyone want to lay bets on whether or not I could actually hammer them through this old oak?

I'm not even going to try that. I've already decided to pre-drill holes for them. 

The other thing that will happen is the holes will turn black from the staples eventually. It will just add to the look of the chest and give it an aged look. If anyone asks, my story is I planned it that way:laughing:


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## Paul W Gillespie (Jul 7, 2011)

Looking good.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

It really looks good. I'm green. What are you finishing with?

Al

Nails only hold themselves.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Al B Thayer said:


> It really looks good. I'm green. What are you finishing with?
> 
> Al
> 
> Nails only hold themselves.


I'm not 100% decided yet on a finish, but I'm thinking about a mix I saw here a while ago. Not sure what it's called, but it's a mix of BLO, turpentine, pine tar and Japan drier. Four parts each of BLO and turpentine, with one part each of Japan drier and pine tar. 

If I remember correctly it's an old mix that used to be (still is?) used on a lot of boat decks. Not that the chest will be out in the weather, but it will be in an unheated machine shed that generates a lot of condensation with temp changes throughout the year.

I'm running a few samples right now to see how it looks. My biggest concern is that it will get too dark with the multiple coats it will need. If that is the case, I may cut back the amount of tar and see what that looks like.

Any comments? Any suggestions for other finishes?


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## captainawesome (Jun 21, 2012)

This chest is incredible trc! I've been following along, and each time you post more pictures of those hand cut dovetails, I get lost in a daze staring at their beauty!! I'm loving the look, methods, and overall execution of the whole thing.

Also, clearly you did not read the FULL directions for those pulls you picked out...

_"Install using only a hammer (or a rock). Mounting hardware included."_

Maybe they would suggest the rock for your oak??? Better play it safe and drill the holes like you said hahaha.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

trc65 said:


> I'm not 100% decided yet on a finish, but I'm thinking about a mix I saw here a while ago. Not sure what it's called, but it's a mix of BLO, turpentine, pine tar and Japan drier. Four parts each of BLO and turpentine, with one part each of Japan drier and pine tar.
> 
> If I remember correctly it's an old mix that used to be (still is?) used on a lot of boat decks. Not that the chest will be out in the weather, but it will be in an unheated machine shed that generates a lot of condensation with temp changes throughout the year.
> 
> ...


I like to use the turp in the mix too. Adds to the finish. It's the Bayer aspirin of wood finishing. The Wonder Drug. BLO is the only way to make a tough finish and look its best all the time.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

captainawesome said:


> This chest is incredible trc! I've been following along, and each time you post more pictures of those hand cut dovetails, I get lost in a daze staring at their beauty!! I'm loving the look, methods, and overall execution of the whole thing.
> 
> Also, clearly you did not read the FULL directions for those pulls you picked out...
> 
> ...



Thanks for the compliments:smile: I've always loved cutting dovetails, but this one has tested my patience. I'm glad to be almost done with them for this project - still have to make a top.

The smart thing would have been to use dovetails for the fronts and use some other joinery for the backs. I don't have a rabbet plane though and that kind of limited by choices using hand tools. I suppose I could have used my router, but I'm trying to use power tools for only those things I have no way of doing with hand tools.

I don't think I will even try a hammer for the pulls - until I first drill holes!

I remember over 30 years ago our Industrial Arts teacher had a chunk of white oak that was about 6" square by a foot long. On the first day of class he promised an "A" for the whole semester for anyone who could pound a 16d nail all the way into the board. 

I remember thinking how easy it was going to be to get that freebie grade and laughed at all the other "city" boys who couldn't pound a 16d nail. This farm boy was going to show them - and got all of about a 1/2" into it before mine bent like all the others:laughing:


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Al B Thayer said:


> I like to use the turp in the mix too. Adds to the finish. It's the Bayer aspirin of wood finishing. The Wonder Drug. BLO is the only way to make a tough finish and look its best all the time.
> 
> Al
> 
> Nails only hold themselves.



I've almost always used BLO on my projects and I love the look of BLO on this old oak. It gives it such a warm look. 

When I saw the recipe with the turpentine, pine tar and BLO it really appealed to me and I've been waiting for a project to try it on. This one seemed like a good fit.

Here's an link to a short article that someone posted here a while back (can't remember who) on the value of turpentine in a finish. That article and others have steered me to start using turpentine instead of MS when I'm wiping on/sanding in BLO.

It's not a finish I'd use in my basement, but the aroma of the turpentine and pine tar is refreshing in my machine shed:laughing:


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

trc65 said:


> I'm not 100% decided yet on a finish, but I'm thinking about a mix I saw here a while ago. Not sure what it's called, but it's a mix of BLO, turpentine, pine tar and Japan drier. Four parts each of BLO and turpentine, with one part each of Japan drier and pine tar.


When you decide and figure this out, please post your recipe, application, etc. I an still very new to finishing and I'm trying to "soak" up some knowledge.....pun intended.

Mark


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Burb said:


> When you decide and figure this out, please post your recipe, application, etc. I an still very new to finishing and I'm trying to "soak" up some knowledge.....pun intended.
> 
> Mark


I'll post it all when I figure it out. I hope to run a bunch of different samples this week/weekend, but what's killing me is the high temps this week are only in the 50's so drying time is looooooooong.:laughing:


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## sanchez (Feb 18, 2010)

The chest turned out great. I just read the whole thread. Nice work! I really like the dovetails showing in the front.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

That is one fine looking chest! You have really given that old barn new life. :thumbsup:


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## Medevack1 (Oct 2, 2013)

Very nice!!!


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

trc, you broke the rules of the alternate methods challenge by changing the joinery. That said, your excellent use of hand tools, fine execution and late entry allow me to give you a pass on your one infraction. Besides, the thing looks so damn good how could I not include it?! Excellent work, my friend.


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## Carvel Loafer (Dec 31, 2011)

Beautiful work and a great thread. I picked up a few good shop tips here, thanks for posting the details that you did. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Billy De (Jul 19, 2009)

Way to go Tim great thread and really top notch Craftsmanship with the hand tools.:thumbsup: Billy.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

frankp said:


> trc, you broke the rules of the alternate methods challenge by changing the joinery. That said, your excellent use of hand tools, fine execution and late entry allow me to give you a pass on your one infraction. Besides, the thing looks so damn good how could I not include it?! Excellent work, my friend.



Thanks Frank!

I never actually read the rules for the challenge, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it:yes:. 

Besides, that's probably not the only rule I've broken or will break by the time I'm done with it - hopefully in the next couple of weeks.:laughing:


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Haven't had a lot of time to work on the chest in the last couple of weeks, but got some things done in the last couple of days. 

With all of the drawers done, it was time to start work on the lid. Lid is going to be similar to the one in the original plans with the exception of dovetails instead of finger joints and the way I did the top panel.

Here's a pic of the sides of the top. Made them about 2 1/4" tall to match (more or less) the size of the top drawers. I could have gone with a taller lid, but it's going to be heavy enough as is. The sides are ~5/8" thick to match the sides of the chest. Dovetails to match the details on the drawers.









I was going to make the top panel from a glue up of about 4 boards, but I was out of all the wood I had resawn last winter, and I really didn't have the time (or energy) to resaw more by hand so plans changed.

I used my circular saw to rip 1/2" thick strips from the edge of several boards and ended up with strips that were about 1 1/2" wide after planing the edges. These were glued up in small groups until the final glue up of 12 strips.









Here is a pic of the top panel after planing down to about 3/8" thick. Started with my #5 (with radius iron) followed by #7, #4 and finished up with cabinet scraper.









Next was rabbeting the top panel to fit on the frame. I used my router for that, but only have a bit that will do a 1/2" rabbet. After that, it was then using my shoulder plane to widen the rabbets to 5/8". 

Notice my hi-tech planing stop.:laughing: A thin piece of wood held in place with a couple of hand screw clamps.









Finally, here is a picture of the top all glued up, sitting on the chest. Nothing is attached yet, I still have to pick up some hinges. I just wiped on some MS to make it look pretty in the picture.









That is most of the construction that is going to happen for now. I still plan on making a front panel for the chest, but that will have to wait or I'll never get Christmas presents completed. It will be my first "post Christmas" project.

Next up will be details and pictures of finish and hardware for the chest.


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## nbo10 (Jan 26, 2011)

Tim, The chest is looking cool.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

Here are a few more (nearly) final pictures of the chest.

Quiz question: How long does a pine tar, BLO, turpentine and Japan Drier finish take to dry with near freezing temps?

Answer: I don't know, everything isn't quite dry yet:laughing: 

It's been about a month and I've got one or two spots on the main chest that are still sticky! I have now moved it inside to finish drying and have also wiped up the sticky spots with MS to remove excess that isn't dry. It's almost there though.

For reference so no one needs go back and try and find my finish recipe, it is 4 parts turpentine, 4 parts BLO, 1 part pine tar and one part Japan drier.

The first application was flooding the wood and keeping it wet for ~30 min. and then wiping off the excess. That dried in about 2 days. I then sanded the mixture into the wood with 400x wet dry and wiped off. Unfortunately, that is when the temperatures plummeted below 40 degrees, and a month later, temps haven't been above freezing for more than a few hours at a time.

Anyway, here are the pictures.

The first one is the drawers after the second application. I love the look of the oak.









Here is one of the smaller drawers with the hardware installed. They were bare metal, so I just gave them a couple of coats of rattle can lacquer to protect. 

I pre-drilled all the holes for the pulls. The instructions said just to drive them through the wood, but there was no way that was going to work. I couldn't even drive them through some scrap poplar.









And here is a picture of it all together.









I haven't got the hinges installed, nor do I have anything in it yet - got busy with Christmas gifts and just haven't had time. I'll post a couple of final pics when I get everything done and all my tools put away.

Thanks for following along everyone - especially for such a long build. :smile:


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## MasterSplinter (Jan 12, 2013)

That looks awesome


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

I must say, that is one fine looking tool chest and very worthy to be included in the alternative methods threads. :thumbsup:


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## Art Rafael (Apr 17, 2013)

You have turned a pile of old boards into a beautiful and useful work of art. Great job. Ralph


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

Excellent craftsmanship. Thanks for sharing.

Mark


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

Man that looks great!


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## Carvel Loafer (Dec 31, 2011)

Fabulous!!!:thumbsup:


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## Chaincarver Steve (Jul 30, 2011)

Nice work. I know you'll get years of use out of it. :thumbsup:


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## 2UpDuc (Dec 16, 2013)

trc65... Take a Bow. That thing is amazing. 











:thumbup:


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## TexasSawduster (Nov 10, 2013)

*Awsome !!!*

Just read thru this thread.
WOW. What an awesome piece from old barn wood. I love it !!!

If that pile had been down here in Texas the termites would have ran off with it before it would have been used. :laughing:


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*Final Pictures*

Now that the finish has fully dried, I finally got it in place on bench, drawer liners installed and tools moved from the bench top into the chest.

The first is the chest sitting on my bench. Those of you who are familiar with the original design will notice it's missing a front panel. I've not even started that yet, but it is in the plans for next spring. 









The second pic shows the primary reason for building the chest this size - I wanted space to store my planes. The big drawers are about 23 1/2 by 14" deep so no problem fitting a #7. It will even have room for a #8 if and when I ever get one.









With two big drawers I have room for expansion of my plane collection.









Most of my tools are now housed in the chest, but they are way too orderly for me.:laughing: Plenty of room to stack many more and for them to get really cluttered when I start my next project.









Finally, lots of room in the top for smaller saws, marking gauges, mallet and any other miscellaneous things that won't fit in drawers.









Thanks everyone for following along and for your kind comments - they are much appreciated:yes: 

I will post some more pics if and when I get the front panel done, but that's all for now.


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## Paul W Gillespie (Jul 7, 2011)

Very cool. A tool box that will be around probably longer than any of us. Well done.


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