Epic shaker blanket chest

[mdbuilder]

After a bit of a break from the chest of drawers, time for a new project.

 

I've got the 4 main Panels glued up and sanded flat. Started cutting dovetails tonight. This will be a semi machine cut process. Tails are cut with a Ridge Carbide blade ground to a 7 degree top angle. Also started by loading up a dado blade and cutting a very shallow rabbit on the back side of the tail boards which will assist with alignment when marking the pins. Once marked out I will cut the pin sides with a hand saw, remove a good chunk of the waste with a coping saw then clean up the rest with a mortising bit in the router with the bearing riding on the sawn pin walls.

[mdbuilder]

So, I started cutting the tails on the first wide board, that went fine until I made the cut going in the wrong direction on the end tail. I did cut a wedge off a piece of scrap I could glue back on but in the end I just flipped it around and cut it going the right way. One tail on the bottom will be a bit wider, most of it gets covered with the cove molding transitioning from the base anyway.

Next I did a sample on scrap to test the pin cutting method and depth. That's when I discovered the mortising bit I thought was a 1/2" deep was actually 3/4 and will be unusable. There will be a 2 day delay waiting for another Amazon order. I set the depth greater to get the bearing riding on the pins and gave it a shot, works fine except the pins stick out a 1/4".

[mdbuilder]

Gotta love Amazon, mortising bit with a half inch cutting depth arrived today. Works great, 1 corner down and three to go.

[mdbuilder]

2nd corner down. Next up tomorrow is to cut the tails on the second long  side and do corner 3 & 4.

[mdbuilder]

We have a box, corner #3 is a bit too tight and needs some tuning. Need to work on the frame and panel bottom while I wait on a bandsaw blade for cutting the curves on the base.

[mdbuilder]

I've got the parts cut out for the bottom, little bit of sizing still to do. The three panels need to be narrowed so there is some expansion room available 

[Chestnut]

This is coming together quickly. So is your one leg vise adjustable or sliding? I like that setup but how do you account for different width work pieces?

Can you come to my shop and help keep me this motivated. I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things.

[Mark J]

Yes, the bench vises need a little more explanation & demonstration.

[mdbuilder]

On 10/8/2021 at 8:08 AM, Chestnut said:

This is coming together quickly. So is your one leg vise adjustable or sliding? I like that setup but how do you account for different width work pieces?

Can you come to my shop and help keep me this motivated. I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things.

Yes, the left vise is fixed and the right one slides along the whole width of the bench if you need it too. You can lift it up a half inch and remove it as well. The bottom rail of the bench has a 45 degree chamfer front and back so it is an upside down V shaped. The bottom of the vise chop that slides (back chop) has a V cut in it to mate. The top has a rabbit which mates with a groove in the underside of the top. I'll snap a few pics tonight.

[mdbuilder]

 

Here is a pic of the bottom of the sliding leg vise from one of my earlier threads. white wheels are skateboard parts to make it operate smoothly. 

[mdbuilder]

This is the fixed leg vise

 

[mdbuilder]

Sliding to and fro...

[Mark J]

That's pretty dang clever.  Is it your invention?

[mdbuilder]

No, not my invention. When I built it in 2010 Roubo's were all the talk. I'm sure the idea came from either one of Schwartz's blog posts or the bench crafted site. The whole roller skate wheel thing on the bottom was me adapting cheap commercially available parts and shop made fixtures to duplicate the functionality that bench crafted was selling for several hundred dollars.

[pkinneb]

Blanket chest??? All I see is shop porn 

I love your tool cabinet!!

[mdbuilder]

On 10/8/2021 at 5:31 PM, pkinneb said:

Blanket chest??? All I see is shop porn 

I love your tool cabinet!!

LOL!

 

[mdbuilder]

Here are a few more current pics of the sliding vice, the upper rabbit fits in a groove routered into the underside of the top. There is also a piece of angle iron up there to reinforce the front edge.

[mdbuilder]

Back to the chest, got the panels sized down a bit so there is some room for side to side movement. I'll glue it up tomorrow and cut the stopped dado's in the case panels. After sizing and rabbeting the bottom it'll be ready for glueup.

[Coop]

Looking darn nice! What finish will you apply? 

[mdbuilder]

Gonna go with the same finish I used on the chest of drawers, shellac on the inside, Danish oil and satin waterlox on the outside. Waterloo is the expensive component and I have quite a lot leftover from the chest project.

[gee-dub]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:39 PM, mdbuilder said:

Tool Chest project

In my other workbench thread SAC asked for some info on the wall han . . .

Looking even better with age.

[mdbuilder]

Cutting 5/16"*5/16" grooves for the bottom. Rabbits next then glue up

[mdbuilder]

Final fit check, need to fab up some cauls for glue up. For now, time to cut the grass

[mdbuilder]

Glue up in progress

[mdbuilder]

Working my way around the corners doing cleanup, the lid sits flat on the top.