long panel cedar case

[Charlie Sneed]

My client wants a long cedar box with a hinge top. Basically a very long cedar chest at 105'' length to sit on the floor under some windows in a pool room for storing towels and also for people to sit on. 19x19 for the height & depth. I'm looking for the strongest design for joining these long vertical side panels. Anyone have a good idea? I'm thinking joining an 11'' and a 5.5'' with dowels or maybe tonge & groove or spline. Or would it be better to rip two at the same width (like an 8'' to an 8'' with a 3'' top)..? I'm very new to this craft and welcome any advice for this long-box project. Thank you..

[Mark Ball]

Here is a cedar and birch blanket chest I made a few years ago. I used 1" stock for the rails and styles and 1/2" birch ply for the panels, connected using tightbond II with I think 1/2 inch stub and groove joints. It is really strong, and to get the additional length, you could just add a few more panels. I got the 1" cedar from big box cedar decking, which is 5/4, and milled it down to the proper thickness and width. It turned out real nice, and was very inexpensive to do. Hope this helps

Edit

For the legs, I ripped a 4X4 cedar timber into 4 equal parts, which also saved on the $