Hardware

[John Wagner]

I am just finishing a blanket chest ( that is a hope chest for a girl who has been married for 20 years) ! The chest is of 3/4 oak ply, with solid oak trim, and the lid is solid red oak. Obviously the lid is heavy and I have it attached to the chest, but the lid supports I have tried, just don't so the job. I have now drilled several holes in my beautiful oak and still not happy with the results.
I have ordered from Rockler and Woodworkers Supply. Can anyone give me another source for heavy duty supports?? I am looking for antique brass to match the rest of the hardware. Any help will be appreciated.
John Wagner

[Paul Johnstone]

I bought one of these for a chest I was planning to build:

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=905-669

Don't know how well they work though. If you've already tried that style and it didn't work well, I'd appreciate the information.

www.wwhardware.com (http://www.wwhardware.com) has some too, if you search for "lid stay", but that website is hard to search for things.

Let me know your ultimate solution, I'd be interested.

[Lee Schierer]

I am just finishing a blanket chest ( that is a hope chest for a girl who has been married for 20 years) ! The chest is of 3/4 oak ply, with solid oak trim, and the lid is solid red oak. Obviously the lid is heavy and I have it attached to the chest, but the lid supports I have tried, just don't so the job. I have now drilled several holes in my beautiful oak and still not happy with the results.
I have ordered from Rockler and Woodworkers Supply. Can anyone give me another source for heavy duty supports?? I am looking for antique brass to match the rest of the hardware. Any help will be appreciated.
John Wagner
The lid supports I've used had to be sized for the weight of the lid. It was necessary to weigh the completed lid and then order the lid supports as they came in several weight ranges. You would then use one or two depending on the weight of the lid. When I did that they worked just fine.

As far as the extra holes go, what you need is a plug cutter and matching sized brad point drill bit. Look in your scrap bin and find pieces of oak that are the same face grain as the area of the holes. Carefully drill a 3/8" or half inch hole over the screw hole and then cut a plug to fill the hole from face grain. If you are careful cutting and drilling the plug will be next to invisible when you get done.

[John Wagner]

Thank you. I had purchased this exact support from a "box store" but had no clue that the springs came in different strengths. I ordered a pair from Woodwokers Supply and got the strongest they had and it is working.
Appreciate your help. J Wagner