# Alternative Methods Challenge- Machinist's Chest



## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

As I mentioned in another post, I gathered together my woods for the machinist chest last night--at least what I have on hand so far. Today, I took the opportunity to use this project to justify buying a few new toys. I got a new 2 TPI resawing blade for my bandsaw, a set of calipers, and a couple of squares, which I've needed for a while. I considered getting some set-up blocks like Kenbo has shown in his posts because I think they really will help speed up set-up times but I decided I'll just grab some scrap aluminum from work and make a set of my own.

About 10 years ago I promised my sister I'd make a display/storage box for her collection of hand fans and this machinist chest is remarkably close to my original design. As such, I'm finally going to attempt to build this thing and call it my challenge entry. I will be making a couple of dimensional changes, wider and deeper, perhaps a shade taller, and some internal mechanism changes. I will also be changing the single front panel to two panels (one that opens upward and one that opens downward) since this won't be intended to be carried anywhere and I want the panels to be completely hidden when they're opened.

Here are the specifics: instead of 17 inches wide, my box will be approximately 22, and it will be about 12 inches deep rather than 8 inches. Per the challenge rules, I'll be using the same joinery throughout the box as the original plan, but I intend to make one more significant change to the design. Instead of drawer pull hardware, I will be putting an invisible mechanism that ties the drawers together such that you push one drawer in to push the one next to it (or above it for the wide drawers) out. 

Here's a quick picture of my starting woods and some explanation. First, the woods are yellowheart and bloodwood. An excellent choice for nice buttery yellow and a fantastic accent color. My sister and I picked these woods out together, way back when. 

As I said, I promised my sister I'd build this a long time ago; before I had a bandsaw suitable for resawing. As such, I used to rip thin strips on my tablesaw (approximately 1/8 and 3/8 inches thick) and then glue up panels. One of the panels can be seen on the right of the picture. These will be the basis of most of the drawers and several of the larger components as well, once they're glued up. The thicker boards on the bottom left of the picture will be resawn to build the side panels and a few of the rails for the rail & stile panels.

So, I'm officially started, before I even expected. Now let's see if I can actually come close to finishing by Christmas.


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

*Go Frank!*

Look forward to seeing this develop. I'm not familiar with these woods yet so that's an extra bonus. :thumbsup:


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Well, I just put the new blade in the bandsaw and tested it out by making a cut-out on my fence so that I can lower the blade guides closer to the table while still using the fence. Boy let me tell you, a new blade makes a huge difference in blade wobble and speed! Cleanest cuts I've made with this saw to date. I can't wait to do some resawing tomorrow.

Shopdad, they're both very nice woods and relatively easy to work. The yellowheart (also called Pau Amarello) is probably similar to oak in hardness though it may be a tad softer. The bloodwood is significantly harder but I really like working it. Makes for really clean lines but don't let your wife walk into the shop before you clean up... she'll think you cut yourself and you're bleeding to death. The sawdust on the floor really does look like pools of blood.

Hopefully I'll have some progress pics tomorrow.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Nice to see that you've not only started, but are modifying it to fit your needs and already have a home planned of the finished piece. Your choice of wood will look really nice together and also set it apart from all the dark colored machinist chests out there.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Nice start, Frank! It will be interesting to see how those woods turn out as I have no experience with either of them. I must admit that I didn't understand anything of your concept for the drawer pulls, so that will be interesting to follow.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

That's the spirit Frank. I was hoping that you would start soon. Either way, I will be following this thread closely and I'm looking forward to seeing your methods and your modifications.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Longknife said:


> Nice start, Frank! It will be interesting to see how those woods turn out as I have no experience with either of them. I must admit that I didn't understand anything of your concept for the drawer pulls, so that will be interesting to follow.


Longknife, basically the drawers will be on a "teeter-totter" as we call it here in the USA. Basically a fulcrum with pivot at the center nd two wedges at either end. The drawer backs will touch the wedges, so when one drawer is pushed in slightly, the fulcrum will pivot, pushing the other drawer out enough to open it. I'm hoping it works out as well as it seems to on paper. Pics soon, to show the concept.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

frankp said:


> Longknife, basically the drawers will be on a "teeter-totter" as we call it here in the USA. Basically a fulcrum with pivot at the center nd two wedges at either end. The drawer backs will touch the wedges, so when one drawer is pushed in slightly, the fulcrum will pivot, pushing the other drawer out enough to open it. I'm hoping it works out as well as it seems to on paper. Pics soon, to show the concept.


To qoute Sir Winston Churchill (when they explained the atomic bomb to him) "I'm still confused, but on a higher level".
Sounds really interesting though, can't wait to see how it works.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Didn't get as much done after work today as I had hoped. I did go out for a bike ride with the kids, though, and did some other chores around the house, so it wasn't a completely unproductive day. Here's what I've got so far: 

First, I need to learn how to resaw, no question about it. I re-sawed the shorter of my two thick boards and had some obvious floating. I switched ends and tried again, same issue. So, when one has trouble re-sawing, the obvious solution isn't to fix the problem, it's continue as is and make do, right? Well, probably not, but that's what I did.

Once I got the cut made as best as I could, I used a chisel to separate the two halves of the board and then pulled out my planer. I don't have a lot of fancy tools, but I'm very pleased with this little craigslist purchase. It saves me a ton of time and a fair amount of sandpaper so I seem to be using it more and more.

After planing, the boards were about 3/8 inches thick, rather than 1/2 inch. No big deal so I'll use them as is. 1/2" would definitely be preferable for heavy weight tools, but since this is going to be for fans, I think the size will still be okay. In the meantime, I'm going to ask some of the experts here some pointers on what I might be doing wrong. 

Just for grins, here are some pics.

The first is the obvious float in my resaw work. Second is the final cut alignment... not so good. The third is the other side, which was closer but still not quite right. After that is the chisel that finally got the two halves separated and then a shot on the planer. The next step for these pieces will be to rip them on the table saw followed by some routing. I forgot to take pics of the planed pieces but I'll get them tomorrow.


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## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

I dont resaw yet so I cant help you there, but I can tell you that I wish I would have thought about teeter drawers before I did mine...that is a great idea. I'll be watching and see how it works out, may build another...bigger too..


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Looks like you haven't compensated your fence for the blade drift.
Here is a video on how to do that.





 
Another way is to use a pivot fence like the one I'm using.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Good progress so far Frank. Time spent with the children is far more important that this tool chest so I'd say that your priorities are right on. As far as the resaw, a couple of things that I would suggest are as follows:

Check to make sure that your thrust bearings are adjusted correctly. A large cause of drift is the twisting of the blade as it pushes too far of a distance to reach the thrust bearings. You can just place the bearings against the back of the blade and then back it off ever so slightly. You should have approximately the thickness of a dollar bill between the bearings and the back of the blade.

In the same manor, your guide bearings should be adjusted as well. (whether you use bearings or cool blocks doesn't matter, the setup is the same) You can use a dollar bill for their adjustment as well.

Another thing that you may want to consider, is a new blade. Depending on how much abuse this blade has seen, it may not be suitable for resaw. You want to look for a blade that is about 3 tpi.

One more little tip, is to grind off the sharp edge at the back of the blade. With the saw running, you can use a sharpening stone to gently round the back side of the blade. There is a video in my scrolling tips thread about this and how to do it. Although the video is for scroll saw blades, the process is the same.

Don't forget about proper tensioning as well.

I hope this helps and good look. Any questions? Feel free to ask.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Thanks Longknife and Kenbo. This is the very first cut with this blade other than notching my homemade fence so the blade should be good to go. It's a resaw blade, but not a fancy brand and I attribute all of this to my lack of experience rather than quality of the blade. I did spend a fair amount of time adjusting my guide bearings and thrust bearings but they were sparking so much while I was resawing that I backed them off slightly. I'll try rounding the back of the blade to see if it helps.

Longknife, I'm not sure how much help your fence would be as my cuts tend to float toward the fence, rather than away from it. I can't tell whether your pivot fence will work well with that issue or not.

I did discover, though, that the yellowheart is significantly harder than I remembered it being. At 1600 on the janka hardness scale, it's definitely harder than Oak (~1300-1360 janka scale). Taking the day off work today to get some more chores done so more to come tonight...


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

frankp said:


> Longknife, I'm not sure how much help your fence would be as my cuts tend to float toward the fence, rather than away from it. I can't tell whether your pivot fence will work well with that issue or not.
> QUOTE]
> 
> You can have the pivot fence mounted on either the left or the right side of the blade, whatever suits you best. As far as for compensating for drift it doesn't matter. When using it the trick is to let the board ride against the fence and your focus should be to let the kerf follow the line you have drawn on the board. To do that you may have to slide the back end of the board to the left or the right.
> ...


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Frank, I've pretty much given up any resawing at my baby band saw. No matter how well adjusted I get the blade, the bearings and the blocks, the blade wanders. Also, if the top of the cut is perfect, the bottom will be wrong. Besides, I can only resaw a 3" board anyway with mine. Usually I do my resawing at the table saw. a couple of cuts usually produces separate boards, if not a hand saw finishes the job quickly. Then a couple of passes through the planner and I'm go to go.

Adapting the thickness to the end function is a great idea though. Nice work.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Alrighty, so I made a little progress today. Not as much as I'd hoped but I spent an hour or so building the carcass for a shoe storage box for our foyer and I had to make a new fence for my bandsaw. (Thank you very much Longknife!)

Today's progress went thus.... I built the new fence- forgot to take a picture but it's a pivot fence like Longknife posted. Not as pretty as his, but it turns out quite effective. 

All I did today on the actual project was resaw the long board I had with much greater success than I had with the short one. It's still not perfect and I'm definitely burning wood as I cut but much better than the first attempt. This one was almost completely straight on top and bottom. 

So here are the pictures: The first is the post-planing picture of the short resawn board. (This one is about 13 or 14 inches long.) The second picture is the sawn long board showing the cut line. The final one is the pre-planed long (approximately 22 inches long) resawn board. I'll get this planed tomorrow and it should be close to the actual 1/2 inch thickness the plans call for. This will be the back panel rails and stiles. 

Also tomorrow I'll see if I can get all of these "wide" panels ripped to the correct widths for the rails and stiles.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Does your wife know you're using the living room couch as a photo studio for wood?:laughing:

Apparently you have discovered the secret of getting a straight cut on a band saw... good on you.:thumbsup:


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

That's the spirit Frank. An hour in the shop is better than no time at all. The resaw looks good.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

johnnie52 said:


> Does your wife know you're using the living room couch as a photo studio for wood?:laughing:
> 
> Apparently you have discovered the secret of getting a straight cut on a band saw... good on you.:thumbsup:


Yeah, it's the best background we have that I don't have to dig out of a closet. Everything else is "neutral" color and the colors end up getting washed out and are hard to see, especially on something like yellowheart. I do a lot of the chores in the house though, so I'm the one who has to deal with the mess I leave behind.

Yeah, straight cut, now I just have to figure out how to cut it at a pace that won't leave my garage full of smoke. I literally smelled like I had been sitting by a campfire all night after resawing that board. I think I'm going to look for some guideblocks for my saw too, instead of the bushings it has. Those things are noisy and throw a lot of sparks when the blade does make contact with them.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

I have no experience of yellowheart and its properties but maybe the blade is getting pinched? You could try to put a wedge in the kerf at the end of the board and press it in a little as you go.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Longknife said:


> I have no experience of yellowheart and its properties but maybe the blade is getting pinched? You could try to put a wedge in the kerf at the end of the board and press it in a little as you go.


Yeah I was definitely having a little pinch and was wondering if there were some sort of riving knife for a bandsaw. I'll figure something out for the next time around. I'll probably have to buy a little bit more yellowheart to finish this project so maybe I'll do it then.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Yesterday and today I made little progress. I made more mental progress than actual progress, though so the next few steps should go a little more smoothly. 

We left off with some resawn panels that were to be cut down to make rails and stiles, ostensibly for 3 panels (two front and one rear) but I ended up doing some rough sketches of my idea to make 2 sliding panels for the front and decided against that plan. The dimensions just didn't work right with the added width to the box. On top of that, because I'm making the box deeper, the single sliding panel will go almost completely under the drawers. Two good things about this: 1) I don't have to redesign the front panels and drawer assembly and 2) the assembly should be a little faster only having to build the one panel.

So, once I had determined that bit of detail, I took my rough cut panels and ripped them to the 3 inch wide size the rails and stiles call for in the design, then ran them through the planer. With a little left over from each panel, I get four perfect candidates for rails. The shorter panels that were to be the rails and stiles of the modified (which I'm no longer doing) are significantly thinner. As such, I will end up not using them because they will not match with the thicker rails but I may end up using them as drawer panels or something similar.

In the meantime I have a lot of 1 inch wide by 3/8 inch strips that I ripped out of rough cut boards. Because of that I needed to clean up the edges in order to glue them up as panels for other parts of this box. I don't own a jointer, and probably never will unless someone else pays for it, but these rough cut edges simply aren't clean enough to make glue ups from without some sort of treatment. 

What were my options? I attempted to use the bandsaw for this first, just trimming the absolute minimum from the edge using a "fine tooth" blade with about 8 teeth per inch. A reasonable idea (with a different blade) but that left things just as rough. Second attempt I made on the belt sander. Unfortunately the sander is just short of the length of the shorter strips (approximately 15 inches) and definitely too short for the longer strips (22 inches). It worked reasonably well, but didn't quite cut the mustard. Finally I started really using my noodle and decided a straight bit in my router would make a nice clean edge. I'm know for a fact someone else on here has mentioned that as an option before but sometimes it takes me a while to make such connections. 

Once I did make the connection, however, it took no time at all to get things set up and start cleaning up the edges with much greater success. I got all of the shorter strips "jointed" and about a third of the longer strips. Tomorrow is a busy day for us but I'll try to clean up the rest of the long strips and start gluing up panels. After that I need to get a couple of new router bits (or dado blades for my table saw) to finish up the rails and stiles, get some more yellowheart and start making my accent inlays from the bloodwood. Not to mention all the other parts. 

Here are some pics of the progress I made over the last two days:


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Nice work Frank. Are the sides of the fence on your router table adjustable individually? I know that with mine, I can adjust the left side of the fence, to be slightly (or drastically) proud of the right side. By adjusting the left side of the fence proud of the right side, you have, in essence created a jointer for thinner parts. With the right side being the infeed table and the left side being the outfeed. Once the stock has started to ride on the outfeed side, as long as you keep the stock pressed firmly against the left side fence, you should get perfectly straight edges and would make glue ups a breeze. If your fence sides are not indivually adjustable, there is always the option of shimming your left fence, or installing auxilliary fences on both with the left fence being about 1/64th thicker than the right fence. Just a suggestion. Keep up the great work buddy.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Ken, yes it's hard to tell because I was trying to move as little material as possible but the fences are individually adjustable. I think the left fence is about 1/32 of an inch (maybe less??) proud of the right fence in the picture. Even though they're too small, I really like these fences. I'm thinking when I build a "real" fence, I'll use the same concept for adjustability but make the fence(s) taller so I can clamp feather boards and other accessories to the fence more easily.


You'll also notice I'm using a little sacrificial piece to help keep the strips firmly against the fences. I haven't figured out a better way to do that yet. I"ve used feather boards for this in the past but I don't get the support I need on the outfeed side.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Nicely done. The router can make a very good substitute for a jointer provided you offset the out feed side of the fence the amount that you will be taking off. My store bought table has a provision for doing that with a part of the out feed side that can be adjusted differently from the infeed side.

It must be pretty cold in your shop or very toxic judging by the gloves and heavy jacket you are wearing. Nice work and real dedication working under those conditions.:thumbsup:

Of course cold is better than heat. You can always build a fire and put clothes on to stay warm. There is only just so much you can take off to stay cool before it becomes illegal... :laughing:


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

johnnie52 said:


> There is only just so much you can take off to stay cool before it becomes illegal... :laughing:


 

Now there's a visual that I didn't need. :laughing:


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

I made a little progress today, after picking up the mother in law last night and getting some other pre-visit chores sorted out.

I decided I needed some more yellowheart and went over to Exotic Lumber in Gaithersburg, MD because they have the best selection and prices (for that selection) I've found locally. I picked up some 8/4 yellowheart and also grabbed a board of 4/4 bloodwood for this project. While there I also picked up some 6/4 paduak to finish up my mantel project, but that's another thread.

Back to the box. I took the yellowheart and cut it with my circular saw because it's long and heavy and I don't have a decent crosscut sled for my tablesaw. As such, I often use the circular saw for such things. Once cut, I took the slab over to my bandsaw and cut it into 2 5/8 inch boards and 1 3/4 inch board all of which then got planed to 1/2 inch thick. I decided on 5/8 because I'm still not really skilled at resawing, but I'm clearly getting better. The kerf on my resaw blade is about 1/16 of an inch, I think so from now on I'll do a little more than a 1/16th to account for it and have less waste. I left the third board thick because I'm lazy and figured I wouldn't have anything to do with that thin waste strip anyway, I have lots of those.

So, now I have a bottom and a lid panel for the box. These are just over 7 inches wide each and I need 2 at 12 inches. Obviously I'll need to cut one more and I might have been able to squeak all four out of the single board but I wasn't confident in my resaw skills to try for it.

Pics are the "full length" board (after it was actually cut), the short board at the bandsaw (notice the new pivot fence from last big post). Third is the three panels after cut and then finally after planing. Unfortunately it looks like I need to clean the lens of the camera...


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

A little progress is better than no progress. Glad to see that you were able to get some done today Frank. Looking forward to the next post. Keep it up buddy!!!!!!!!!


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

You got more done on your project than I did today on mine. :thumbsup:

Frank, what band saw do you have and what is the resaw capacity? I'm thinking I need to get a real band saw soon cause my baby 9" saw is worthless for resawing.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

johnnie52 said:


> You got more done on your project than I did today on mine. :thumbsup:
> 
> Frank, what band saw do you have and what is the resaw capacity? I'm thinking I need to get a real band saw soon cause my baby 9" saw is worthless for resawing.


Johnnie, I got a ridiculous deal on a Meber BWS P400. It's an Italian saw that I found on craigslist. Here's my original query thread to the fine folks of WWT asking about the saw:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/tool-question-11024/

The resaw capacity is a little over 9" and it's basically a 15" saw. It's akin to a Laguna, if that means anything to you. (I didn't and still don't know much about different brands other than the "entry level" Grizzly & Rikon type equipment.)

Based upon some of your other threads, I'd suspect you're looking for a Grizzly or Rikon 14" in around the $600-800 range, which will give you similar capabilities as my saw. They won't be quite as big or "solid" as mine but will be more than sufficient to do the same level of re-sawing I have done so far, perhaps even a little bit larger. Look at that thread I linked and Bill (woodnthings) also gave me some really good setup advice. The only thing I'm thinking about doing to the saw now is replace the guide bushings/bearings with some graphite blocks, though I'm not sure I want to spend that kind of money. (I'm kind of cheap about my tools...)

I highly recommend looking on craigslist or similar sites for used equipment, especially these days. You can get remarkably good deals on quality tools that way.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Another update, finally.

After some delays with the birth of a new baby, work on the basement (wiring, and concrete cutting amongst other things) and holidays I finally got some more work accomplished on the box. As it stands now, I've glued up some panels using my thin strips. These will likely end up being drawer bottoms or till trays, I haven't decided yet. After that I did some more re-sawing to glue up some side panels (no pic of the glue-up yet). 

After that I did yet more re-sawing with a new set of issues. The board started pinching the blade so I took a piece of scrap and made a wedge to keep the kerf open but the damage was done and I had a poor cut. Pics show the clearly uneven cut after finishing. The yellowheart has some sap or something that really likes to burn if you cut very quickly at all. When I told the wood dealer what I was doing he said "that will keep you warm" and now I know what he means. The pic shows whatever it is that is burning and how quickly (about 4 inches of re-sawing 7 inch wide boards) it gunks up the blade. It doesn't show the garage full of smoke I have after a 24 inch resaw, though. Once finished sawing, a few passes through the planer and the board was the requisite 1/2 inch thickness to match the other panel that will become the box bottom. 

Unfortunately, the two panels really don't want to make a clean mate even after ripping again on the table saw and trying to joint them with the router. I'm considering a jig for the table saw to try and get a truly straight cut because I seem to have about an 1/8 of an inch bow somewhere and I can't figure out why. All cupping/twisting has been removed and when I put a square against my table saw (or router "jointer") everything lines up square. Mate the two panels together though and there's clear daylight between them. A dilemma worth investigating and I'll share my answers here once I find them.

I did some adjusting and re-sawed the original board again to get a much better panel, which will become the front rail of the box till.

I decided to move on to new things and cut out the bloodwood inlays which will go on the drawers fronts and the side panels. Those turned out a little better. I considered cutting wedges and re-glueing them with alternating grain patterns for the fan folds but decided against it for expediency and concern that they wouldn't come out as I envision.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Once finished with the inlays I went back to the front rail piece and I ripped it on the table saw to the 2 1/2 inch width required and then passed it through the planer a couple times to get the right thickness. After that it was on to the router because I don't have a better way of doing rabbets or dados. The rabbet was 1/4 inch wide by 1/4 inch deep with a 3/8 inch shoulder. Simple solution... a 1/4 inch straight bit set for 1/4 inch height. That gave me the required rabbet size and then I attempted to do the shoulders by flipping the piece over. I screwed up the shoulder on one end. I'm going to wait until the sides are ready and test fit to see if I need to make a new piece. I think I will most likely need to, but if I do I'll re-use this piece as two of the smaller drawer fronts. For the future, I will figure out some stops instead of doing this "freehand" and I may need to figure out a zero-clearance insert for my router table too.

After the fiasco with the router I decided it was time for something simple so I found some scrap ply and made a little facing edge for it. This will become the drawer divider panel that sits in between the smaller drawers. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the side panels cut to the right dimensions and can start cutting out the inlay spots. (What's that called anyway- the place/hole where an inlay is inserted?) Maybe I'll also have figured out the best way to route the finger joints for the sides and bottom and gotten my other two panels jointed well enough to glue up as the bottom panel.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Nice progress. I understand the yellowhart is a real challange? Your issues with jointing on the router may be caused by the setting of the fences. If they are not coplanar (or rather paralell) it will cause a bow on the board.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Glad to see a post on this Frank. I thought that it may have been forgotten with all of the excitement at your house. Glad to see that you are back at it. I've never worked with this type of wood, but I guess it is like anything, there is a learning curve. I'm thinking that the shoulders on your piece shouldn't make a difference. They are embedded in the side walls of the chest and by the looks of it, you messed up the right side. It should (hopefully) be concealed. Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to seeing the next installment of your progress.


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## blessed1079 (Nov 29, 2011)

Love that Frank!


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Kenbo said:


> Glad to see a post on this Frank. I thought that it may have been forgotten with all of the excitement at your house. Glad to see that you are back at it. I've never worked with this type of wood, but I guess it is like anything, there is a learning curve. I'm thinking that the shoulders on your piece shouldn't make a difference. They are embedded in the side walls of the chest and by the looks of it, you messed up the right side. It should (hopefully) be concealed. Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to seeing the next installment of your progress.


Ken, I hope you're right. I think I may be able to get away with it, but there's just a hint of the "tear out" that might be visible on the front face of the panel. We'll see. Live and learn, right? I've never tried to do rabbets like that on the table. I usually just clamp a guide to the piece and do it that way, but I tried something different this time.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

If all else fails, there is always wood putty... 

Its coming along nicely Frank. Its good to see that I'm not the only one here who has to work around mishaps and foul-ups. 

Sorry for the delay in responding, I've been busy getting the new band saw adjusted and the mods done to it. I got the wheels under it today now all that is left is the riser block and then readjust it again...


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

We left off with some glue ups and minor dilemmas but I decided to overlook the dilemmas and move on to new things. I had glued up the sides as a single panel so today I cut them down to the appropriate size after some scraping then made the cuts to install the inlays. I finished getting one cut to size well enough to fit the inlay but there are some obvious gaps. I would normally use thickened epoxy to put these in but this time I'll be filling those with glue and sanding to see if I can hide them reasonably well. The epoxy always leaves an obvious line, which I'm hoping will be better hidden using the glue and sanding trick. The second is cut but needs some cleanup to actually get the inlay in and it will be a tighter fit.

I had some small panels glued up from my thin strips that I was thinking might be able to be drawer fronts. After scraping them clean I'm thinking they'll be better as drawer backs since the glue lines are more obvious than I'd hoped and the grain's not carefully laid out to hide the sections. I'm not totally decided on it but it's a good bet these won't be facing pieces. I find for scraping glue I like the carbide scraper thingy better than a traditional scraper held in my hands. I can really put some weight behind it and get a clean scrape without really working about taking any of the wood with it, at least initially.

I also glued up two more of the smaller panels today. With the two new glue ups I'll have enough for all the drawers (either front or back) with one more that can be used for a couple of drawer sides.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Just some pics of the glue ups and the inlay inserted into the side panel.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Very nice. The inlays give it something unique and really dress up the sides.


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## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

that is a great contrast, well I guess it is more compliment than contrast but either way I love it.....can wait to see how this turns out....and congrats!!!!


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

So, with the first side panel inlay fitted (but not glued in) I went to work on the second side inlay. Unfortunately, as often happens with my projects, something went wrong. The inlay broke while test fitting so I needed to glue it back together. Before that I finished fitting it, though, so once glued it should drop right in and I'll be able to glue that one up.

In the meantime, I started routing the channel for the till and the front rail. Again, issues. One of these days I'll learn to make a practice run before I use my "deliverable" parts. As shown in the picture the setup was right, but the execution not so much. My left side panel (the one with the broken inlay) is obviously going to be my problem child. A little run-out on the router that was due to wandering. Nothing a little bit of "error correction" can't cover up, but it's better to be right the first time. 
A quick dry fit showed I need to make the shoulder on my front rail a little deeper on the left side.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

The right side panel proved to have much better results and the earlier issue I had with the front rail turned out invisible on the right side. Woohoo. Some minor fixes and I'll have a perfect fit. And it's starting to look like something!

I decided my thin panels would definitely become drawer bottoms, so I cut those to size for the two large drawers. Hopefully today I'll get more time to at least finish building one of the drawers. I still haven't determined the best way to do the finger joints for the side panel to bottom panel construction, but I'm getting there.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Wow, this project is really testing your patience Frank. You are showing some serious problem solving skills and the project is looking great. Keep er going buddy. I'm looking forward to this one. You have 21 days to complete it!!!! Go man go


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Coat and gloves frank? Are you wearing some kind of protective clothing or is it really that cold in your shop?

The project is looking good... cold or not. :thumbsup:


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Thanks, guys. Johnnie, yes it's a little cold. I mostly get to work in the early mornings and evenings, which are dropping into the high 30s and low 40s these days. I'm a scrawny wet rat most of the time so I need all the insulation I can get. The gloves are mostly for splinter protection but also somewhat for warmth. 

Ken, not really testing my patience so much as forcing me to try and learn to fix my bad habits. My results, so far, are actually pretty much par for the course for me. I get away with an awful lot of carelessness that I suspect folks like you don't tolerate from yourselves. This project is making me realize (and document) how much I really let slide, which will hopefully be a source of learning and growth for me in future projects.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

And now for the rest of the day's work:

After my post this morning, I got some more work done on various parts. I went back to my bottom panel and attempted another method of jointing the boards well enough to get a nice seam. I took my framing square and made some square markings on the panel boards then clamped a guide to the boards and ran my router along the marked lines. In theory, this should create a perfectly straight joint but practice doesn't always work out how theory says it should. At this point, I've tried the table saw, I tried "jointing" with the router on the table, and I've tried "jointing" with the router and a guide. Nothing worked and I haven't figured out why I keep coming up with uneven edges. As such I gave up and glued the panels as is. They didn't turn out quite as bad as the edge would have led me to believe, but not what I'd hoped for. This will be the bottom panel of the box, though, so I decided to not spend any more time on this piece as my deadline is fast approaching. (Even faster now since my sister is supposed to be visiting in a week and a half, which means I no longer have until Christmas to get this finished if I want to give it to her in person.)

After making the decision to proceed with the bottom panel I marked the side panels for the finger joints. I still haven't decided the method I will do this, but if I use the router I'll have to buy a new bit so I marked them just in case I decide to do it by hand. I will use 3/8 inch fingers instead of the 1/4 inch the plan called for because it will cut my efforts by a third, which wouldn't be a big deal if I were using a dado stack on a table saw but is a huge difference if I end up cutting these by hand.

I glued up the inlays for one of the large drawers and one of the side panels, so tomorrow I'll be able to assemble the first drawer and get some of the finger joints cut, hopefully. Then I'll do the finger joints on the bottom panel and the basis of the carcass will be assembled.

I need to get a 3/8 inch router bit (for finger joints) and a 1/8 inch router bit (for drawer bottom and till bottom dados) and perhaps a couple of other bits. The remainder of this evening I'll reread the plans and see if there are any other tools I'm missing.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

rest of the day's pics...


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Looking great Frank. Love the inlays for sure.


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

I know what you mean about the edges not lining up. I tried a table saw, a router, even a hand plane, nothing ever worked. I finally broke down and bought a bench top 4" jointer and then I got nice glue-ups. I recently bought a 6" jointer to replace the 4". It makes short work of machining rough sawn 8/4 lumber.

The project is looking really good, despite the problems.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

*Bump!!!*

What's going on with this one Frank. Any news?


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*are you here frank?*



Kenbo said:


> What's going on with this one Frank. Any news?


U R MIA....AWOL..... gone underground? captured by the "occupy" gangs? WHZUP? :blink: bill


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Perhaps his ship has finally come in and he is going home to alpha-centory


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Sorry, gentlemen. I have been in bed for the last 6 days with massive dehydration and fever and got nothing done for the last couple of weeks my MIL was in town. Today's actually the first day I've looked at a computer since last Thursday. I'll get back to it when I'm back on my feet...

Rest assured, though, I'm still here; just typically slow progress getting further interrupted as usual.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*get well soon!*

:sleep1::drink::scooter: bill


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

So you're saying that your MIL made you sick? Heck that's normal....

Sorry you're feeling poorly. Hope you feel better soon.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Wishing you a speedy recovery Frank. I hope all is well and that you are back on your feet and making dust soon.


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