Sea Chest Build Pics

[Mike Allen1010]

These are some pictures of an African mahogany chest with a coopered top and a nautical theme. I built a similar chest for a 30th anniversary that is described in a earlier post and built this coopered top at the same time. This Sea chest is smaller 14 x 14 x28.

I built the coopered top first because I can’t really predict what the curve will look like when it’s finished. The rest of the chest is built around the top once it has been cleaned up/surfaced.

Here’s the framework that captures the top joined with dovetails and with interior groove to house the coopered top.
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I’ve added some string inlay and carving to this chest. I’m a novice at both. Here is the Holly and tools I used to make the inlay/banding. One lesson I learned is I’m better off sawing inlaid objects out of 3/16 inch thick stock, rather than my earlier attempts to cut them out of veneer with an eX-Acto knife. This way there is less risk of planning through the inlay during final surfacing.
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I put a star at one side of the lid and a dolphin on the other, sawing them out with a bird’s mouth and fret saw. This would be much easier with an electric scroll saw, but not impossible by hand
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One of the most difficult parts of string inlay for me is getting consistent thickness of the stringing. There are dedicated hand tools for this, but I just clamped to the bench and used a block plane to get them as close to a consistent fit with the .040 inch groove the inlay cutter makes. The small syringe for putting glue in the groove is a “must have tool”, however it’s a huge headache trying to keep the small diameter nozzle from clogging with dried glue (lots of emptying, rinsing, repeat). Once glued in, I trim the inlay with a paring chisel and plane to final flush fit.
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Cutting top rails to consistent length to hopefully keep the carcass square.
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For the vertical stiles I used a shop made crosscut jig and got fairly consistent lengths.

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[Mike Allen1010]

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The carcass sides/front back are frame & panel construction. Plowing the grooves to house the panel. I have an old Marple’s plow plane from the 70s and frankly it’s one of the most difficult planes for me to use consistently. I spent a lot of time tuning and now can get fairly consistent grooves until I’m tired and then I usually screwed up.
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Laying out/Cutting the M&T’s that join the vertical styles to the rails. Because the tennon cheeks are show surface, I use the paring chisel along the layout Mark to build a fence force where saw cuts.
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Layout is more complicated that looks because once the frame and panel assemblies are glued up the carcass is joined with through dovetails at the top and bottom rails. That means the baseline for the tales on the front and back rails need to line up so that when pins are cut/assembled, the carcass vertical style will lay flush with the front and back. In addition the bottom rail is a quarter inch proud of the rest of the carcass.
Yeah I know that was impossible for me to visualize too so I had to draw a full-scale mockup to figure things out – still took me 30 minutes and two beers.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Pins are cut before the F&P carcass pieces are assembled, but tails are only Mark/cut after the F&P carcass assemblies are glued up. I didn’t do this last time and it was a real headache affecting the fit of the dovetails.
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This time all the joinery came out nice and tight (third time’s the charm).
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Here are the ebony handles.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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After fitting the lid to the back of the carcass and installing the hinges, a little planning got the lid to fit flush all the way around. If I were to do this again I would just build the lid and carcass as one assembly and saw them apart after glue up.
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Here is a “Leopardwood” till that slides inside the case with some inlay (which took forever).
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The last bit was carving a couple shells and a starfish to be applied to the case front – here’s the layout and shaping.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Some pictures of carving the applied shell. Excellent picture/descriptions of this are in “carving 18th-century American furniture elements” by Tony Kubalak, which I highly recommend.
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Next is the starfish:
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And the last shell:
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[Mike Allen1010]

As a novice carver one of the hardest things for me to learn was sharpening the carving tools. Here’s my set up: I made some lexan,,acrylic discs that fit on top of the Mikita motorized Whetstone and applied different grades of abrasive paper to the disks – for me this works well in combination with stripes etc.
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And some pictures of the completed carvings:
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Here’s some pictures of the completed chest

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[Mike Allen1010]

I forgot to mention the compass rose on the chest lid. In the past I glued in all the pieces individually which is a real white knuckle experience. This time I super glued the dark and light pieces of each triangle together and then did the final assembly – much easier.

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This is my last project for a while, need to be spending more time in the office, but appreciate the opportunity to share with my fellow Neanders.


Thanks for looking, Mike

[Kent Adams]

This is incredibly beautiful. I wish I had the skill to produce something like this.

[Mike Null]

WOW! Thank you for sharing your beautiful project with us.

[Chris Hachet]

Wonderful, thanks for posting these pics....

[Pat Barry]

Mike - very very nice project and thanks for all the great photo's to go along with your description. I'm super impressed by what you have done here. It seems just the other day you were posting your anniversary chest and now this one so close behind is super impressive. Congratulations, well done.

PS - this is the type of thread that is most valuable here in this forum IMO. Seeing someone who puts into practice their skills and knowledge and takes the time to document things so well. I congratulate and thank you and the others who take this approach. There is so much to be learned from this type of documentation

[Keith Outten]

Incredible craftsmanship.

Thanks Mike

[Brian Holcombe]

Beautiful work, Mike! That one will make it into the house!

[James Pallas]

Exemplary work sir! Your build posts are great. Thank you.
Jim

[Pat Barry]

I forgot to mention the compass rose on the chest lid. In the past I glued in all the pieces individually which is a real white knuckle experience. This time I super glued the dark and light pieces of each triangle together and then did the final assembly – much easier.

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Hi Mike,
Could you esplain how you cleaned out the material from the lid to fit in the compass point? I guessing the bulk was done with a router plane but that you carefully cut the boundary in first with a knife / chisel?

[Mike Allen1010]

This is incredibly beautiful. I wish I had the skill to produce something like this.


thanks Kent for your very kind comment. I'm not a professional and don't have any particular talent, in fact these days my hands are pretty shaky and my eyes are certainly not what they used to be – I had to do most of the carving with the magnification visor.

I'll admit I'm pretty proud of his chest, but it is certainly not beyond the reach of you or anyone else here on the Creek. None of the tools or techniques here really anything exotic, like most things practice is what helps the most. I probably been carving and doing inlay for not more than two or three years. In that time I certainly screwed up many, many times. My earlier attempts at projects like this weren't nearly as well executed, with lots of mistakes and flaws, but at the end of the day they still ended up as things I'm glad to have around the house. Most of mistakes and errors guys like us fret over in the building process, aren't apparent to anyone else.

FWIW, I would encourage you to aim high – if you see a project you like to attempt, give it a shot. IMHO, nothing improves your gain like playing against better competition (okay that's a tortured analogy – my bad).You can always start small and use less expensive lumber – you'll still learn a lot, have fun and end up with something that gives you a lot of satisfaction every time you walk by. It's okay, go ahead run your hand over the finished surface and smile, everyone else will too:).

All the best, Mike

[Chris Cohick]

Wow ... words fail me. That piece is just, wow.

[Mike Allen1010]

Hi Mike,
Could you esplain how you cleaned out the material from the lid to fit in the compass point? I guessing the bulk was done with a router plane but that you carefully cut the boundary in first with a knife / chisel?

hi Pat, that's an excellent question. Fitting the narrow point of the inlay triangles in the compass rose into the excavated recess is one of the biggest challenges for me. I have tried these several different ways and there are a couple things that seem to work better for me:

1) Using thicker, solid inlay material (thicker than say typical commercial veneer) is helpful because the narrow points of the triangle are less likely to crumble when you try to fit them and they are easier to shape with chisel/sandpaper to get a good fit.also with the inlay material is an eighth of an inch thick, you have less risk of planing through the inlay during final surfacing (I hate when that happens!).

2) I you spray adhesive to attach a paper picture of the inlay object to the substrate. The first thing I do is outline the outer perimeter of the object with a sharp knife and chisel/gouges where they fit. Once the initial outline is been established, I scrape off the paper and use magnification and X-Acto knife to crisply outline the tight corners. A little chalk dust in the initial outline makes this easier to see. Finally I use a dremel toolwith a "color" attachment like a tiny router to remove most of the waste any interior of the recess and trim to the final margin with knives and chisels etc.

3) when cutting out the material to be inlaid, it's fairly easy to stay outside the layout lines and then once it's been cut out use the appropriate chisels/gouges etc. to trim the sides into a slight taper. When you add the glue and press the inlay into the recess with a clamp, the taper helps wedge everything together so there is a crisp margin.

I don't want to give the wrong impression, I'm certainly no expert and inlay always takes me three times longer than I think it should. I think a good way to start is with simple shapes that don't have a lot of tight corners. With a little practice you get the hang of it.

All the best, Mike

[Mike Allen1010]

Beautiful work, Mike! That one will make it into the house!

Thanks Brian, I'm huge fan of your posts.

You clearly know the LOML well! There were many years and many projects where the standard response from the Boss was "that's lovely, why don't we keep it out here in the garage until we find a place for it". 20 years later, many of those projects are still in the garage being used as shop furniture or have been given away.I can't complain, she was absolutely right about most of those – some pretty ugly stuff:eek:.

I'm feeling pretty good about this one because I'm planning to put it in my office. Next time the boss tells me I'm a knucklehead, I can find solace in telling myself "I might be an idiot, but at least I still have this cool chest"!

Cheers, Mike

[Pat Barry]

[/I]

hi Pat, that's an excellent question. Fitting the narrow point of the inlay triangles in the compass rose into the excavated recess is one of the biggest challenges for me. I have tried these several different ways and there are a couple things that seem to work better for me:

1) Using thicker, solid inlay material (thicker than say typical commercial veneer) is helpful because the narrow points of the triangle are less likely to crumble when you try to fit them and they are easier to shape with chisel/sandpaper to get a good fit.also with the inlay material is an eighth of an inch thick, you have less risk of planing through the inlay during final surfacing (I hate when that happens!).

2) I you spray adhesive to attach a paper picture of the inlay object to the substrate. The first thing I do is outline the outer perimeter of the object with a sharp knife and chisel/gouges where they fit. Once the initial outline is been established, I scrape off the paper and use magnification and X-Acto knife to crisply outline the tight corners. A little chalk dust in the initial outline makes this easier to see. Finally I use a dremel toolwith a "color" attachment like a tiny router to remove most of the waste any interior of the recess and trim to the final margin with knives and chisels etc.

3) when cutting out the material to be inlaid, it's fairly easy to stay outside the layout lines and then once it's been cut out use the appropriate chisels/gouges etc. to trim the sides into a slight taper. When you add the glue and press the inlay into the recess with a clamp, the taper helps wedge everything together so there is a crisp margin.

I don't want to give the wrong impression, I'm certainly no expert and inlay always takes me three times longer than I think it should. I think a good way to start is with simple shapes that don't have a lot of tight corners. With a little practice you get the hang of it.

All the best, Mike
Thanks Mike!

[Robert McNaull]

"I might be an idiot, but at least I still have this cool chest"!



This gave me a good chuckle, cool chest it certainly is! Beautiful work Mike and thanks for sharing the pictures/process.

[bob blakeborough]

I really like this! Thanks for sharing...