# Bombe Chest on Chest



## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Starting tomorrow I will be building my 7th _bombe chest on chest_. I have been asked to do a video on it , just more than I have time for, so I will be doing it on my blog for free. I will give dimensions and be explaining the process and how I personally do them. This build is going to be a private class I'm doing in my shop but i thought I would check the interest here as well, even though it's doubtful many will ever build one but you just might pick up some pointers here if you are interested. Feel free to comment here or ask questions in this thread or on the blog. 

In this set we will be focusing on the bottom case and the curved sides. For the moment this is a 3 day set, then in January we will resume so it will not be a start to finish. But when we restart I will also post it here and give you dimensions and help where ever I can. My cliche is _”it isnt rocket science, unless you insist”_. This particular bombe was measured at a museum and is true and faithful to its orginal. Its sister recently sold at auction for 3.2 million, so if you are interested, follow the blog. It will probably be mid day tomorrow before it's up but I personally think you would enjoy the process. I will post updates here when I can, all the way through completion. For those who do not know what the piece looks like see photo below. later, CN . . . . .


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## darty (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks Charles


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## Chad (May 10, 2009)

Sounds good, I'll be watching and reading the posts. Thanks for putting it out there for us.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I cant lie and say I'll be building one along with you, heck I can't even get a simple keeping box past the first flat face (well I did get that far but that's where it still sits). 

Can't wait to watch this one unfold though. Get cracking old man :wheelchair:


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## kjhart0133 (Feb 4, 2009)

I'll be watching as well. It's a beautiful piece!


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

*The Bombe Chest on Chest - Day 1 (Part 1)*









Several years ago I was commissioned to build a Bombe Chest on Chest, a reproduction of one at the DeWitt Wallace Museum in Williamsburg, VA. In the early days of posting videos, Sherri put together a slide show of the process, it has been seen over 17K times on youtube.com (



).

I have probably received more questions and comments about this piece than any other I have built. Many have requested a video or DVD on the build but sometimes, video is impossible, so we thought we would do the next best thing and blog the build. The Bombe currently being built is being done with a gentleman from New Jersey, so I want to warn you now that this build will be done in segments. This week we have three working days and then we will be on hold until January.









First, we start with a slab of mahogany. The sides of the bottom case finish out at 31 1/4" tall x 23" wide and are shaped from 12/4 stock. Here we are using 16/4 because it is what I could get at the time so it's just a little more stock removal. You will remove more stock than you keep, sort of heart breaking, all that wood and $$ headed to the dumpster, but....it is what it is.

Now, since we will be removing a lot of material, we are going to open up some adverse drying conditions. The inside of these pieces are not as dry as the outside, so moving around, trying to cup, all that is possible so we added 3" to the length of the sides and screwed a caul to each end for two reasons. One, it provides a true guide on each end and second, it prevents it from cupping. Now, a little later I will tell you how to get the profile and the drawer spacing, but for now, let me show you how we begin.

*Shaping the Piece - Cutting the Sliding DoveTails*









First, using a dado blade, we cut a level platform for our router to sit on and allow our router bit to be able to reach it's depth.














Once the platform is cut, we plowed a dado 3/4" wide for the router guide to run in, then using a 3/4", 14 degree dovetail bit and a 3/4" guide, we cut the first sliding dovetail across the piece to a depth of 5/16" on the case.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

*The Bombe Chest on Chest - Day 1 (Part 2)*









The next drawer, because it was not as deep into the case, we simply plowed a groove for the router guide and again, cut a 5/6" deep dovetail all the way across. The top drawer divider, we will do on the router table as it is almost flush to the case side and there is no room to cut the guide slot.

With our two dovetail slots cut, we focus on "whittling out" the side profiles.









A dado works great and as wel, angling the dado, you can cut the arch almost perfectly. Just remember to keep the sliding dovetail slots flat, or better put, at 90 degrees to the dovetail slot, that way our cross pieces are a straight fit, no having to cut angled pins to fit the slots.

Now, that's as far as we got on Day 1, but I want you to note a couple of things.

First, the mahogany blanks have to be square and as flat as possible to keep everything in line. I have a large drum sander and with the 16/4 material I was able to insure flat panels. If you buy 12/4, be careful, it's right on the line, as the sides are right at 2 7/8"-3" at the widest point, so 12/4 will do, but it leaves little ro9om if the piece is not pretty straight and flat to start with. A skill saw and a guide, again, having to cut from both sides (16/4) is a good way to cross cut the big slabs. Start long, so you have room to make any corrections if needed.

Note that Ihave not angled my dado except for one cut on the end of the arch. I just let the little steps created by using the dado blade vertical be a good hand plane clean up. Also note my 'idiot' stick, just a piece of wood with the profile drawen to use with my miter slide to set the blade height and the fence.

There are a lot of passes to be made here and this stuff isn't getting any lighter lifting, but it will....there are some more photos below and in Part 3 for your review.....More tomorrow.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

*The Bombe Chest on Chest - Day 1 (Part 3)*


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I can't be the only one wondering why...*

You didn't just bandsaw the material away rather than all the passes with the dado head? Somethin' I'm missin' here? :blink: bill


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Bill the sides are 24" wide , dont have band saw to handle that, and cutting those one board sides...well , just cant bring myself to do it , so we just nibble away , and then finish with a hand plane...and besides , this allows those with average shop tools to be able to make one


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Gotcha!*

I knew I was missin' sumpthin' You can't tell from the photos they are 24" wide, let's see where's my 36" Tannewicz when I need one.:laughing:
I suppose you're gonna show us handplane with a convex iron next?
OK I'll just be quite and wait. :blink: Thanks, bill


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

bill are you in for a shock..no curved planes..you not going to believe this , the best little plane for cleaning up the inside radius is , uh well , oh geez.... a stanley shoulder plane, or rabbett plane...works better than anything i have and i got this radius and that raidus , and adjustable radius, and bench planes and smoothers, but that little simple shoulder plane , does the trick, and has on all the others...was going to surprise you tomorrow with it...like i said, with good basic woodworking tools you can build one...they are not that hard, a might time consuming , but otherwise ..you can move thru one alot fasterthan you think , tomorrow we will stand the bottom case , with all the dividers and drawer runners in place , ready for final finish up..( some hand planing on the out side and a little touch up on the inside and we will have the most intimidating part done...


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Don't feel bad Woody I asked him the same question about the band saw.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Charles, you're no Norm Abrams...*

Not only are you a Master Craftsman you are a hellava nice guy for posting all this info here for free. What a source of knowledge for us all! :yes:Thanks.
BTW I'm making a small "Keepings Chest" as TT likes to call it, and I've taken step by step photos as I go. Mine has a humped back top, flame box elder, not very flamey so I added some red dye. I'll post a new thread for all to see...here's a few shots.
BTW I didn't want just a straight parting line for the top so I used a curved one and partially cut it on the BS before assembly. I'll finish cutting it through with a "pull" saw. I did the same on the front and back so I only have to cut through the corners. Where there's will there's a bill :laughing:


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

this will be fun to see it come together..nice.... I like box elder...i got some of TT's cookies and turned them...i like it alot.. how did you round your top,


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Rounded top?*

Mother nature and a wet log caused a lot of cup in the boards, so I go "What I'm gonna do now?". Work with it, work with it man. So I glued cup to cup by beveling each piece to increase the cup, to form more cup and pretty soon I had a chest top. But we digress here from your thread. I'll post a thread on this project, I don't want to steal your thread. The real trick was routing the curved edge rabbet....:yes: bill


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

CharlesNeil said:


> i thought I would check the interest here as well,
> 
> even though it's doubtful many will ever build one but you just might pick up some pointers here if you are interested.


Heck yea I am interested...and you're right I will probably never build one. But watching you build one will be almost as fun, and save me a bunch of wood and frustration. I saw a picture of that second one you posted awhile back when I was poking around on your site (I stick my nose in over there every once in awhile to see what you are up to) It really caught my eye. :yes:


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

*The Bombe Chest on Chest - Day 2*

Okay, Sherri here, you all are going to have to put up with my learning curve on getting major posts over here, I just completed the DAY 2 blog on our site and we have 30 photos that go along with it, with only five pictures per post, it's gonna take me a little bit to get it posted here, may even be tomorrow, so in the mean time, here is the direct link at our blog if you want to check out the second day.

http://intheworkshop.wordpress.com/

I'll get it up over here as soon as I can.

Sherri


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

No problem Sherri. We can go there but we want it here too when you can. Let me know if you want me to make some posts for you. I'll keep same layout as you did in the last one.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)

*Bombe Chest on Chest – Day 2*

Yesterday, we made a lot of progress and will hopefully stand the bottom case at the end of today, Day 3. Frank goes home this evening and won’t be back until after the Holidays so the Bombe will be on hold until he returns. There will be a blog on the Bombe tomorrow though, just lettin’ ya know.
Okay, so yesterday we accomplished a lot of tasks but mostly still removing wood. We got the inside completed, glued up our dividers, made the template for removing the material on the outside, hand planed the inside, and so on, here are photos of what went on yesterday.














Yesterday we finished ‘whittling’ the inside of the case sides, the photos above show what we were left with after the table saw work. Notice the stair steps as we did not angle the dado although as I mentioned yesterday, you can if you want to take the time.



I mentioned yesterday that we did not cut the top divider sliding dovetail with the hand held router, here are a couple of photos showing the process we used yesterday to cut it.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)


We used a scrap piece of wood and transferred the pattern of the curved side to it and then band sawed the shape. We made a total of four of these templates so that one could be attached to the front and back of each side. To fill in the tear out we used auto body filler and then sanded smooth. It’s best to make these in pairs so that the front and the back are identical.
Okay, so at this point it was time to clean up the inside and smooth the shape. To do this, we made a template, the following photos show the process we did to make it.
























We then prepared the sides for the hand planing. To do this we used a long flush trim bit in the hand held router to smooth the edges so that we know where to plane to. Note that I do not rout close to my sliding dovetail slots because that is a flat surface I will index off of later when dovetailing the dividers, more on that when we do the process, but for now, leave a little distance when you come to the slots.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)















View attachment 12001








Note in the photo that the larger planes do not do the best job in planing the curvature.
My favorite plane to use for this task is the small one on the right in the photo below, the #92 Stanley Rabbet Plane.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)



While doing the hand planing, make sure you keep a straight edge close by so that you can constantly check that you are as flat and smooth as possible.










The photos below show the insides after they have been hand planed.
















Now we began to work on shaping the outside. In order to do this, we must make a new template. On another piece of wood, we traced the profile of the inside.









The we went to the band saw and cut out the shape and smoothed it out to use as a pattern.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)



Next, we laid the pattern on another piece of wood and using a wheel or washer to track the profile 7/8“ larger we can easily draw a mirror image. Note that you need to pick a washer that allows the pencil point to be the distance from the pattern that will be the thickness of your side, in this case, 7/8“.









For the ends (straight areas) I used a combination square set at 7/8“.










Next we band sawed the outer profile and then traced it onto the sides of the mahogany, now this template becomes the “set up“ stick for my saw (I‘ll attach to my miter slide) to whittle away the material on the outside using the same technique we used for the inside.
















As mentioned above, we began whittling away the outside material, this photo shows our first pass across the table saw.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

(This is being posted for Charles Neil. This is a continuation of his Bombe project. TT)



We have an issue – I didn’t think about the fact that we had left the sides at about 3 7/8” thick instead of going down to 3” and my 8” dado head isn’t high enough.













So after a bit of grumbling, we got a 10“ saw blade and kerfed the thicker parts. The wafers will be snapped off and hand planed smooth, not a big issue, but certainly an issue!



The other thing we accomplished yesterday was gluing up our dividers. I like to glue the mahogany to poplar, it makes for a stronger and more stable piece. The original had solid mahogany dividers and the drawers had cut into them pretty severely. We wanted a little more durability.














After glue up, a pass over the jointer to be sure all is straight and flat.



Well, that covers Day 2, be back tomorrow with day 3. Later!


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Thanks kevin, you done good ...:thumbsup: im impressed with your puter skills...


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

day 3 is up on the blog we will get it over here as soon as we can

http://intheworkshop.wordpress.com/


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Bombe Chest on Chest – Day 3

I must say that Frank didn’t let any grass grow under his feet. I was going to say that he didn’t let any dust settle on him, but that wasn’t the case. No doubt we made a mess and a fine one at that….but when he left yesterday evening, the bottom case was standing.
Now, we went pretty quick here, but remember, I had all the patterns already made. The outside of the case still has some hand planing and smoothing to be done, but since it will be January before Frank returns, I wanted the case locked down and standing. I will put the last two drawer dividers in so the case will be ready for bottom moldings and feet when he returns and then on to the upper case.
















Let’s go to the recap in photos of what we accomplished yesterday.















We started by continuing to nibble away the majority of the material. Yesterday I told you about my miscalculation of the side thickness giving me an issue with the depth of my dado blade cut, the photos above show the continued kerfs we made and then breaking away the wedges left behind.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Then using our pattern we made yesterday, we defined the outer edges to a defined shape with the router and then planed to it, just like we did on the inner shape. (below photos). Notice that I left a section in the center as well as at the bottom and top un-nibbled….this was to allow the piece to continue to slide flat across the table saw. It also helped to stabilize the piece on its side as I used the router. Just before we hand planed the outer shape, we took a jig saw and removed most of the protrusions and then smoothed with the rest of the outer side. I also skipped over the dovetail slots on the inside, we simply slid a hand plane (long smoother) across it to get my 5/16” depth, not an issue, just take fine equal strokes checking the fit as you go.






























Then we removed the top and bottom material to come to the correct height. I ran it across the table saw to be sure our top and bottom were straight and the width a consistant 7/8“. The original case sides were ¾“, I beefed them up a little to 7/8“.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

The next steps was to shape the side panel profile which also has the Bombe curve to it, the exact profile that you see facing the piece.
We used some ½“ MDF and made a full size pattern with some extensions to fit into the curvature.











Then we roughed out the cut with a jig saw, then screwed the pattern on my side and using that long flush trim bit with a top bearing, we routed to shape.















The bit wouldn‘t cut all the way so we just took a hand plane and shaped to it, worked really nice.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Now, the top and bottom….When I first examined the original, I was expecting to find the top and bottom dove tailed in, but it wasn’t. It was set in a blind rabbet, glued and nailed. I followed suit, can’t be much easier than that! I did, however, use some screws rather than nails. I also used wide poplar, the original used white pine.
I will confess however that I was somewhat reluctant to use this technique on the bottom and tops, but it worked for several hundred years on the original and on my earlier builds as well. It isn’t broke, so I won’t fix it! Oddly enough, the bottom in the top case is dove tailed. Can’t tell you why, but it was. My thought is that perhaps the builder of the original was not proficient in half blind dove tails and the upper case uses through dove tails which are hidden by the belt molding, who knows, but interesting to think on!
Now, I have only one glue seam, except for the mahogany face strip, we do not want a bunch of glued up smaller pieces as they will not expand and contract at the same rate as the wider stock will.
Here is the case standing – 2 sides, top and bottom.











Next, we moved on to our dividers and drawer runners as well as installing them. I simply used a ¼” wing cutter to cut the mortise and the tenon. The full length sliding dove tail drawer slide will allow the sides to expand and contract, yet remain straight and true. This technique really works well. Most of the old timers, including the original, only dove tailed the front and back cross pieces, the whole side thing is my idea, but I’ve been using it for many, many years and never an issue, the cases have remained strong and true.











Using the ¾“ 14 degree dove tail bit in my router table, I milled the pins in the sides of my drawer runners and ends of my dividers, front and back. Before milling however, I used a scrap piece to set my bit in my router table. When you mill the pins on the end of your dividers, you want to be able to ‘tap‘ them in place, not have to beat them in. If you are tight dry, it will be super tight after you have applied the glue as it will cause the pins and the slot to swell.
I used Titebond III here only because I was out of the bottled hide glue which is my favorite for dove tails because it doesn‘t swell the parts as much and it adds some lubrication, it also dries really hard which is good for finishing.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Time to install the dividers and the drawer runners. We started with the longest divider so that we could lock the case in place. Note that the front divider, the back divder as well and the FRONT ONLY of the drawer runner is glued in, but not the sides or back tenon.

















Note the space in the rear that allows for expansion and contraction…A MUST!
























There is one ‘dust partition’, it is located in the second divider down, it will be set in a groove all the way around. It will have a splined center, meaning a groove cut in both boards and a spline inserted, sort of like a full length biscuit and it will be glued at each end in the front and back, leaving the center to float and a gap left in the spline joint. Expansion and contraction once again.
Not sure why the original builder only used one partition, I am assuming it was to add strength to the case, so gluing the dust partition on the ends and front and back will add a lot of strength and rigidity.
By the way, that little Stanley #92 sure works great for tweaking a drawer runner dovetail.


End of Day 3 – so far we have used a 2” Flush Trim Router Bit, a ¾” 14 degree Dove Tail Bit, a Stanley #2 Rabbet Plane, a table saw, dado set, a router table and a jig saw and we have stood the lower case.


Now, come January, when Frank returns, we will resume the project and the Bombe blog, I hope you have figured out that it isn’t as hard as it looks. Teaching and working with Frank has been a pure joy, he’s pretty sharp and quite the ‘quick study’ and he did most all the ‘nibbling’ away of the material so the lifting and pushing as well as the hand planing was done by him, I uh, supervised! More me watching him, but he sure hung in there and got it done, a fine beginning and I’m very pleased.

Now, for those of you who have jumped on board to follow the blog of the Bombe, our blogs will continue and on going, will just be blogging about other projects going on here in my shop, probably not as much detail as this one or I’d never get anything built, but always enough that you are welcome to email me with any questions about what I am posting in my blog. Our newsletter will be going out toward the end of next week, it is completely free but you must subscribe, here’s the link http://charlesneilwoodworking.com/newsletters.php if you want to check it out. Later!



.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Man this is moving right along. Templates and all, this is going fast.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

_it moving along Kev, so uh how you doin on that keeping chest , :shifty: are we ready to start finishing yet...???...you alright kevin, I dont care what everyone who knows ya says, i like ya , :laughing:_

_later my friend _

_ps..I can talk to kevin this way , i have his wifes permission.._

_TT..should read Texas Torn nader .._


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

CharlesNeil said:


> _... so uh how you doin on that keeping chest ... are we ready to start finishing yet...???_


The keeping chest shrank to a jewelry box; the sides and ends are faced, thicknessed, squared, sanded to 400 and neatly stacked on a shelf out of the way. It appears his birthday present will morph into his Christmas present. Hopefully Christmas 2009. :whistling2:

What's that about limiting the number of irons one puts in the fire . . . .


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## A-1 Jim (Dec 27, 2010)

Great work Charles, A Bombe is high on my list to do ,but still have to finish other projects I have already started. Thanks for the great photo layout and super techniques.
No missing top quality work when you see it. Fantastic.


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## me109a (Nov 8, 2010)

That looks like a lot of fun work.

Very classic.:thumbsup:


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