Video - Oak Blanket Chest

[John Nixon]

I recently finished a dovetailed blanket chest as a wedding gift for my good friend. I think it came out pretty nice.

I was able to get it into his house while he was away on his honeymoon. He and his new bride really loved it! It's a great feeling knowing that they will have this gift and cherish it forever.

I made a video about the entire process.
Here's a link to the video. Check it out, and leave a comment telling me what you think:
http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/index.htm?BCHST.htm (http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/index.htm?BCHST.htm)

http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/OakBlanketChest/images/PA200036.jpg (http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/OakBlanketChest/images/foto1.html)

Best Regards,
John Nixon
www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com (http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/)

[Eric Larsen]

Nice video. Nicer chest!

[Michael Short]

Great wedding gift. Thanks for the video John.

[John Nixon]

Thank you Eric and Mike for checking out the video.

Here's another picture of the chest from the top that shows off the quartersawn white oak veneer in the center panel.
http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/OakBlanketChest/images/PA200057.jpg

[Bryan Berguson]

John,

That was a nice video of a nice chest. Very timely for me to see it too as I'm building a chest for my wife for Christmas. Always neat to see other construction techniques.

Bryan

[John Nixon]

Thanks for watching the video Bryan.

Are you going finish your blanket chest in time for Christmas? I seem to do it myself every year - I take on more than I can handle and I'm working on stuff all the way up to Christmas eve. This year is no exception.

[Bryan Berguson]

I HAVE to finish it before Christmas - It's a Christmas present for my wife! I'm waiting on some slower setting glue to do the main carcass glue up. That should be here Tuesday.

The sides are done. The top and bottom are glued up but need to cut and planed to final size. Top will have breadboard ends. The only pieces I haven't cut out are the bottom/feet pieces.

My biggest problem is that I'm great at starting projects but lousy at finishing them. I can't do that with this one!

Bryan

[Dave Ray]

John the chest is/was well built, the video is informative and a learning experience, thank you. Happy Thanksgiving

[frank shic]

john, great video! thanks for sharing with the rest of us. on question, though: when are you going to add a festool domino to your arsenal? :D

[Jerry Olexa]

Nice video...good job!!

[Norman Pyles]

Great video. Thanks for sharing.:cool:

[Ralph Okonieski]

Outstanding work, video and blanket chest!

[Bob Feeser]

John,
I'm impressed with everything stem to stern. Exacting woodwork, using techniques steeped in experience, and even groundbreaking soon to be traditions. (That's a serious compliment)
Did you lend your innate skills to creating the video as well, or did you use the expertise of someone who is as proficient at video making as you are at woodworking?
Creating a video, with a sense only accomplished with multiple cameras at different angles, or did you mix it to be equivalent to that level of video making? Your fans want to know. :)

[Elizabeth Yocum]

John - a great gift. I'm sure it will be treasured for a very long time.

Your video for the blanket chest and all your other videos are top notch. I look forward to more installments from your shop.

[Rick Levine]

Great work! Both the chest and the video. You are really going to give Norm and David a run for their money, especially considering the production budget they both have.

[Dave Malen]

and a beautiful chest. Good tip on that Katana bit with the bearings on top and bottom.
Thanks,
Dave

[John Nixon]

I HAVE to finish it before Christmas - It's a Christmas present for my wife! I'm waiting on some slower setting glue to do the main carcass glue up. That should be here Tuesday.
Bryan

Hey Bryan, did you finish on time? I'm still wrapping things up for Christmas. Well, not literally yet - I have to finish the woodworking before I wrap them, but I'm cutting it close!!

[John Nixon]

John,
I'm impressed with everything stem to stern. Exacting woodwork, using techniques steeped in experience, and even groundbreaking soon to be traditions. (That's a serious compliment)
Did you lend your innate skills to creating the video as well, or did you use the expertise of someone who is as proficient at video making as you are at woodworking?
Creating a video, with a sense only accomplished with multiple cameras at different angles, or did you mix it to be equivalent to that level of video making? Your fans want to know. :)

Thanks for the compliments Bob!
I've been learning this video thing as I'm going. I could probably benefit from some formal knowledge, but it's been largely expirementing.

I am a one man show. I setup the camera for the shot and shoot it. I've gotten better with knowing what shots I need to shoot to make a scene. I used to shoot way to much footage. I still do (sort of). I had roughly 3 hours of footage for the 23 minute blanket chest video.

To achieve the multiple camera angle effect, I will typically shoot the same operation more than once and then edit it together to appear like a live transition. This isn't too much of a hassle when you're milling the 4 of the same thing...you just move the camera (or zoom) between shots.

To be honest with you, it's a lot of work. People seem to like my videos and I've received a lot of positive feedback / encouragement, so I intend to keep going.

The future -
I plan to continue making project based videos where viewers can get a feel for an entire project and see some of my techniques for building it.

Thanks again for your reply.

Best Regards,
John

[James Hart]

John,

Beautiful piece and a great video. I have to ask whether the decision to recess the lock was made sometime after the case construction was under way. I almost fell off my chair when you put the whole case up on the router table.

Very nice,

Jim

[John Nixon]

John,

Beautiful piece and a great video. I have to ask whether the decision to recess the lock was made sometime after the case construction was under way. I almost fell off my chair when you put the whole case up on the router table.

Very nice,

Jim

I agree Jim - not my best move. It was definitely a lack of planning on my part. The lockset hadn't arrived yet and I decided to move ahead with constructing the carcass. In hindsight I should have considered an alternative.

The stock for the front of the blanket chest is 3/4 inch thick and the mortise for the lockset needed to be a heavy 1/2” wide and just under 2 inches deep. That leaves less than an 1/8” wall remaining after I’m done cutting the mortise. Believe me, I thought about this one long and hard.
Here’s some of the methods I considered

1.) Get out the chisel and chop it out by hand.
2.) Build a simple jig that would guide my plunge router handheld.
3.) Use a Forstner bit in the drill press. I have an old Shopsmith, and I think I have the clearance could get the carcass underneath the bit.
4.) Mortise it on the router table employing the motorized lift.

Here’s why I didn’t go with #1 – 3:
1.) I’m not really keen on chiseling mortises. Some of my apprehension is my chisels and the rest is my lack of experience in this technique. I also find it time consuming (probably because I’m not that good at it).
2.) I didn’t like the idea of that much bit sticking out of my handheld router (2 inch deep mortise). I also didn’t like the idea of building another jig.
3.) The material remaining in the wall of the chest was too thin to risk doing it with a Forstner bit because sometimes they wander.

I went with #4 because I have successfully done deep mortises with this method before. This situation was unique in the fact that the piece was rather large. The concept was the same – to know the boundaries of the mortise and move the piece within those boundaries while advancing the bit upwards. I did this by marking the center of the mortise on the blanket chest and positioning the chest on the router table aligned with the center of the bit. Then I marked that piece of masking tape you see in the video with the left and right boundaries of the mortise. After that, I just need to keep the chest against the fence and move it left to right within the lines on the masking tape.

I am open to alternative suggestions and techniques for this (do it before you build the carcass, dummy). I was at my limit with the size of this piece, where I wouldn’t want to use this method if the piece was any larger.

Thanks,
John

[Bryan Berguson]

Hey Bryan, did you finish on time? I'm still wrapping things up for Christmas. Well, not literally yet - I have to finish the woodworking before I wrap them, but I'm cutting it close!!


I'm close, really close... I need to attach the lid to the case (piano hinge is on the lid already) and mount the lid supports. Then the hard part, I need to figure out how to wrap it and get it upstairs Christmas Eve without tearing the wrapping off! I thought about just putting a red bow on it but I'd rather it be wrapped.

Pictures soon.

Bryan

[Ken Massingale]

Beautiful work as usual, John. thanks for the video.
Can you provide the MLCS part number for the DT template, please? I'm looking for one to use on the router table.
Thanks
ken

[John Nixon]

Beautiful work as usual, John. thanks for the video.
Can you provide the MLCS part number for the DT template, please? I'm looking for one to use on the router table.
Thanks
ken

Hi Ken. Thanks for watching the video.

The MLCS through dovetail templates are the same whether you use them on the router table or with a handheld router.

They are the first ones on this page
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/dovetailjig.html

You can get the small and large templates, bits & guide collar for $89. That's not bad at all.

If you haven't seen my video on the templates, take a look - you will get a really good idea what's involved with setting up and using them:

http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/index.htm?MLCSDT.htm

John