Blanket/Cedar Chest for My Daughter's 16th Birthday!

[Brent Ring]

Finally, I am in the finishing stages for a blanket/cedar/hope chest that I have been building for my daughter since just before the holidays. It is a combination of Black Walnut frames, base and top, with bookmatched elm panels on the front, and a continuous grain elm board for the drawer fronts, which photos will be coming later, after I complete the finish. The dust frames are chestnut and oak

This design is one that my daughter chose out of a lot of different options. It is somewhat closely based to Tim Malyszko's chest project found at:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=58860&highlight=blanket+chest

I partially prefinished the panels, so as to avoid glue-up problems during assembly.

The dust frames were reasonbly easy. I ended up building a couple of routing straight edge jigs to route the dadoes, hinge and lock mortises. Getting the dust frames to fit completely correct took a lot of work.

The chest is lined and the drawer bottoms are completed with cedar slats from the Borg.

I used my Incra jig to make all of the dovetails for the drawers and base. I also purchased a pin nailer from HF, and am reasonably impressed with its reliability so far.

Like I said earlier, the chest is now in finishing stages. The top is a bit smaller than I would have liked. I had lots of opinions from my wife and daughter thru the design. I won't gather so many opinions next time. :)

The finish is/will be a 50/50 BLO/MS with glossy WIpe-on poly, per my daughters instructions. I mandated poly based on how she is with furniture, and she wanted gloss - so gloss it will be. All comments, questions, and especially suggestions are respectfully requested.



I will do a better job next time of drawing a project of this detail out comletely in sketchup to as to not have to spend so much time figuring things out on the fly.

[Brent Ring]

The pics descriptions - In the first post:

1. Upside down - looking at the supports for the bottom.
2. the three continuous grain book-matched front panels - they drank oil like an old car!
3. Corner supports for the bottom - screws from the base hold the base to the chest itself
4 and 5. Are the drawer runners - I forgot to note that these are sugar maple, and will be waxed.


In this post:

6. The front of the chest - right-side up - with the base attached. There is some small trim/moulding that will be attached to the base as a transistion to the case carcass.
7. The inside - prior to lining with cedar. This shows the upper dust frame and a drawer slid in underneath
8. A larger view looking from the other side - with a little lite reading material inside. You can also see the tongue and groove panel connectivity. Space balls were used for the panels. Interesting things!

Hope this helps.

[Tim Malyszko]

It's looking great. Your daughter will love it.

On a personal note, this is very exciting for me also as this is the first time one of my projects inspired someone else (at least that I know of).

I can't wait to see the finished product. I absolutely love the bookmatched elm panels.

My only suggestion I have is to use quality hinges on the top. The top I made was extremely heavy and the fist set of hinges I purchased were tremendously strained after a couple of weeks of use.

Excellent work.

[Brent Ring]

Tim,

Thanks for the comments - I chose to use a 36" Piano hinge. I had some concerns about smaller hinges myself. My daughter chose the design from about 10 different options, and the only change, other than some subtle sizing differences, and the arches on the base, is the dark rails and light panels. She thought your overall design was awesome.

[Jim Becker]

I'm thinking that your daughter is going to get a very special piece!! Nice work!

[Brent Ring]

Here are the final pictures of my daughter, Elizabeth's 16th birthday gift. The first pictures are of the half blind dovetails used for the drawer fronts. Next are the thru dovetails used for the back of the drawers. The bottoms of the drawers are made from aromatic cedar slats. The next picture is of the back, followed by the thru dovetails used on the base. All dovetails were cut using my Incra jig. THe next picture is of the front of the chest. More pics and details coming...

[Brent Ring]

Here are some more pics of the chest... right side ( my wife loved the knots on this side), left side, open with the lid stay ( I purchased one from Lee Valley, and this lid really need two - I have one more to order), the front of the chest showing the locking area ( I made a routing mistake here:mad:), and locking location on the lid. More pics in the next post

[Brent Ring]

These last pictures are of my daughter and myself with the chest...

The glossy polyurethane wipe-on finish (4 coats everywhere, except the lid, which received 6 coats) and choice of hardware were my daughters. I will spend a bit of time rubbing out the finish a bit.

I learned a lot during this.

One - I love Whiteside router bits. After using cheap ones on other projects, I purchased whiteside dovetail bits and spiral upcut bits, and they are awesome.

I learned alot about grain patterns and speeds while routing. I kept the router speeds down throughout this process and had no extra sanding due to burn spots. I also realized the larger the board the more surface area to catch if you are routing with the grain, and therefore I needed to setup positional jigs to hold the boards in place while doing some of the half-blind dovetails while routing the drawer fronts. I should have photographed that stage.

The elm really absorbed the 50/50 mixture of BLO and MS. That mix also added a bit of a yellowish hue to the elm. I would probably reduce the amount of BLO going forward for elm.

As always, all constructive commentary and suggestions are welcome.

[Brian Effinger]

That is a really beautiful chest, Brent. I'm sure your daughter will treasure this forever, and probably pass it down to her children.

[Dewey Torres]

Holy guacamole my friend! That is a true beauty of a piece! Love it. Thanks for sharing with us:D Your daughter looks as if you hit the mark. Family heirloom!

[John Thompson]

It turned out well, Brent.

Sarge..