Hope chest for the Niece

[John Pratt]

Finnaly found time to finish this hope chest for the niece (SIL requested). Carvings are her hobbies, side panel phrases requested by the SIL, and song line from her favorite song. Wood is Cherry with Walnut, Maple, and Blood wood accents. Lined with Aromatic Cedar. Finish is BLO, Shellac, Lacquer. Size is 40"L X 20"D X 26"H. Fun and quick to build once I got around to it. Sorry about the pic quality. I'm no photographer

Comments and critiques always welcome.

[John Pratt]

Pic of the other side panel.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Your niece will be a very happy person.
Very nice chest, what are the size of it?

[Lee Schierer]

Your niece is one lucky young lady..Very nice work.

[Don Jarvie]

Tell us more about the carvings? Did you work off pattens, freehand, etc.

Very nice chest.

[gary Zimmel]

I'm sure you made your niece very proud.
Great job John.
As others have said, little more info on the carvings would be nice.

[John Pratt]

Appreciate the comments. The carvings are CNC. There were some problems with this during the build most of which caused by my inattention because I did most of the work on it after work when I was probably not in the right mind set. I make it a rule not to use power tools when I am tired, but most of the issues were with hand tools. Some of you may read the other thread about my screaming bloody murder when I mortised the hinge on the front of the chest when I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. It was a mighty fine mortise though and good practice for when I had to redo it on the proper side. There are a few things I would change (like any project) and of course I know where all the minor mistakes are. I definitely need to work on my finishing skills a little more and I might have done the top a little different. The top is 5/4 thick and joined by T&G. It is heavy but the lid supports make it seem fairly light. The lid supports were another challenge because the direction were a little misleading and this is the first time I have used them. I really don't like the feet at all, but since I was somewhat lazy getting to this project and a timeline was set upon me by my SIL (Niece has a B-day coming up) that this was a simple solution.

[Martin Shupe]

John,

I really like the writing and the shape of the letters.

I have often thought it would be fun to take a letter carving class, just for this purpose.

Do you have the CNC, or did you find someone locally to do it for you?

If someone did this for you, how much does it cost?

Thanks.

[John Pratt]

Martin - I have the CNC and all the carving was done on this (words and pictures). I wish I was skilled enough to do these by hand, but alas, I am not. The CNC had a big learning curve for me because I am pretty much tech stupid. I had some help designing the patterns on the front, and then it is just a matter of letting the CNC do the work and cleaning it up afterwards.