Another cherry thread...

[Bob Turkovich]

I'm building a cedar-lined cherry blanket chest that will have cherry veneer panels with solid wood banding. I'll be trying to match some solid cherry end tables that I made a couple of years ago. On those tables, I used a thinned shellac base coat, followed by American Finishes Wipe-On Gel Stain (Candlelite) and Wipe-on Satin Poly topcoats. I have been quite pleased with the appearance of the end tables (and they have glass inset tops so they are not getting much wear).

Are there any special tricks to ensure the end banding and veneer match? (I can tolerate a slight degree of darkness difference.) Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I don't have much scrap leftover from the veneer to do much trial and error (I'll be able to do a couple of trials...). Thanks.

[Howard Acheson]

How do you plan to finish the interior? Is the cedar going to be glued in on all surfaces or just some? You won't be able to use any oil or oil based finish on the inside surfaces as they will off-gas almost forever permeating any cloth or clothing items stored inside.

[Bob Turkovich]

How do you plan to finish the interior? Is the cedar going to be glued in on all surfaces or just some? You won't be able to use any oil or oil based finish on the inside surfaces as they will off-gas almost forever permeating any cloth or clothing items stored inside.

Aah.....interesting question. My plan is to not finish the interior at all.

I'm using an existing oak cedar chest as my template. I started this project over 2 years ago and the existing chest was made of plywood with oak on one side and cedar on the other. I visited my local hardwood plywood source and explained what I was trying to do. He recommended I use 1/2" cherry plywood laminated to 1/4" cedar plywood by using a special 3M adhesive. I put together my rough cut panels just before Xmas 2008 but had to store them - on edge - for a couple of days. When I got back to the panels after Xmas they had bowed - significantly (over 1" for a 48" panel).

I went back to the plywood supplier for advice (this was in my pre-Creeker days). He said I should not have used different thickness panels for my laminate (he knew exactly what I was doing when I bought the plywood). I surfed the net and found conflicting advice on steaming, etc. I ended up placing the panels on dowels with heavy weights to try and force the panels back to straight. After 6 months I got the bow down to about 1/16". I've stored them flat - without the weights - for the last 18 months and they haven't sprung back. I figure if I'm going to ever proceed, now is as good a time as ever.

I'm going to band the tops and sides of the front, back and side panels (as well as all four sides of the lid panel) and use Miller dowels to hold the four corners of the box together. I'll have solid cherry base moldings as well as a solid cherry "frame" on the top of lid to surround a cushion. As a result, none of the inside surface will have exposed cherry.

I guess I run the risk of putting bow back into the panels by finishing only one side but it's time to fish or cut bait with these panels.