sgregory Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Well this was my latest and largest scale projects (Christmas present to my son) and by the pics I am sure you can see how the dimensions got away from me a bit! I started this project by pricing out quality toyboxes and realizing that I can do this myself! Of course in hindsight I see many areas I should have improved upon or done with different material / techniques. I am rather a novice in this field and work with some pretty limited materials. I finally found an awesome place (I needed to have my top drum sanded after gluing) and found a plethora of exotic and beautiful stock woods. This was made with red oak planking as well as red oak plywood. (before i realized how much edge gluing benefits my labor) I am interested in what you all have to pick apart here and see what I should have / could have done better / different! Thanks! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Steve the toybox is beautiful. It is also huge. (I like the photo of your son inside it) Question: Did you use slow close hinges? If not, you may want to consider either that or creating a relief in the top of the front panel to allow for little fingers not getting pinched. Just a thought. Take care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayWC Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Steve the toybox is beautiful. It is also huge. (I like the photo of your son inside it) Question: Did you use slow close hinges? If not, you may want to consider either that or creating a relief in the top of the front panel to allow for little fingers not getting pinched. Just a thought. Take care. Just put a door in the front instead. His little boy can walk in, look around, see what he wants and walk back out. LOL. The box is huge, but looks nice. I would also recommend a hinge like Rockler has for sale which is either slow close or it stays put where you leave it to avoid smashed little fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I had a toy box that size when I was a kid. It was on wheels so one of us could get inside and get pushed around. It also had a little hinged peep-hole at one end so that we could close the lid and play army tank or submarine or space-ship. Oh - we also kept toys in it, sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 i built a toy box for both of my grandkids and used the rockler soft down hardware, my grandaughters toy box still works fine, but my granson is a little rough on his after he managed to break his softdown feature i put on the torsion hinges from rockler so far they have a passing grade in the granson department. here's a link for the hinges http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21288 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 oh and i'm sorry i think your toy box turned out great i think your gandkids will probly get some use out of it. good job. dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgregory Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Thanks a lot for the input on the hinges! I had such an assortment to chose from I ended up overwhelmed and stuck with the basic brass. I was approached by several people that wanted me to build them a variant of this so I was wondering what pro's had to say about the prototype. I may even pull these hinges and go with those slow close ones on my prtotype! Thanks again for the kind words! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noumenon Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Your son must have a lot of toys As this is your prototype I have a couple of suggestions based solely on my opinion on things you could do differently as far as construction, design, and finish. I'm also going off what I can make out in the photos along with not knowing what tools you have besides the table saw and miter saw in the background. To add a little more architectural detail I would mirror the bottom beaded or fluted molding around the top along with using the same dimensions sizes for the smooth corner trim. This will help cut down on the flatness and give the piece more dimension along with having the corner edge die into the corners of the pieces above and below making a more fluid edge. This also gives you a frame that you can rabbit and have the plywood panels sit in hiding the plywood edge and allowing you to do away with the strips inside the chest for support. I definitely agree with the comments above about the hardware which could save a trip to the hospital. From the picture it looks like you surface mounted the hinges so on your next project that you use butt hinges I would try your hand at mortising them with a chisel which is a good way to start developing your skills with chisels. Practice on some scrap first. These few details will add a higher level of joinery and fit and finish to your next chest. The finish looks like a semi-gloss or gloss polyurethane which when used on an open pored wood like red oak really emphasizes these pores and gives a more overall plastic look. Glossier thick film finishes along with the shiny brass hardware on oak reminds me a lot of the 80's to mid 90's which plenty of people still love, but I find the majority of people have trended back towards more natural looking finishes. Oil varnish blends are nice because they're easy to apply and you can slowly bring the luster up a coat at a time. As for the bright brass looking hardware I liken it to bright chrome in that for me it has to go on certain pieces that will go in a certain style of home. Now I say to each their own and I say go with what you like, just giving you some things to look at and experiment with. I don't know if you have checked out Marc's Wood Whisperer podcasts, but if you haven't you should. He has one showing him mortising out for a butt hinge with a chisel, one talking about a oil varnish blend he likes, and several constructing a chest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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