This is the 3rd and last post in this build thread. I somehow misplaced the camera card so don’t have some of the final build pics. Also some technical problems with my Photobucket account so only small pictures. Chest carcass was completed in previous 2 posts/threads, this is primarily chest tops and final inlay.
I modified the original design to make these chests smaller and lighter. As one is a gift for my twenty something nephew, thought this version might be better for his apartment space. As part of the weight reduction, main carcass sides, top panel were re-sawn, book matched with the final thickness of about 7/16”.
One consequence of this design choice is I wanted to maintain the full 7/8” thickness of the breadboard ends for the top to ensure flatness, which means the breadboard ends project both above and below the horizontal surface of the panel. In the larger size versions, this isn’t a problem as the breadboard ends are outside the perimeter of the carcass and therefore don’t affect the fit of the top to the carcass. In this “lighter version”, I want to the breadboard ends to overlap the sides of the carcass for additional strength, which means I had to add a filler strip to the bottom side of the chest top panel to compensate for the additional thickness of the breadboard ends and ensure a gap free fit to the carcass. [ATTACH=CONFIG]418769Rather than measure to get the length dimension for the filler strips, I use sliding story sticks to transfer the dimension directly to the stock.
Laying out the width of chamfer on the slightly proud breadboard and using one of my favorite LV layout tools.
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Cutting and inlaying the cocobolo accent set wrap around the edges of the breadboard ends and chest top was mostly a and “eyeball” exercise in scribing the mortise directly off the layout piece and chiseling delicately.
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Here are the finished tops with initial coat of Watco oil/varnish and my nephews name carved into the bottom of the chest top. Surface coat was brushed on lacquer for durability. The rest are pictures of the finished chest.
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Overall a fun project, but now I have 2 chest I have no room for. One is a Christmas present that hopefully I can deliver early. The biggest challenge for me is what to do with the other chest?
I would like to try and sell it to at least recoup my material costs, but don’t know really how to go about that. This is an important challenge for me because I’ve already built pretty much full sets of furniture for both our boys and as empty-nesters looking to downsize, I’ve got no place to put any future furniture projects. I think this means I want to continue woodworking I have to figure out what to do with the projects when they are done.
My future daughter-in-law is encouraging me to post them on at Etsy (which I understand is an online marketplace for “craft” items). Although I have little interest in anything involving online commerce, because my professional life has been spent largely in sales and marketing and because I’ve already pretty much given away as much furniture as friends/family are willing to take, I’m wondering if there is some “low effort” way I can sell this chest and other future woodworking projects. I very much appreciate any advice and suggestions.
Thanks for looking, all the best
Mike
PS: I can't figure out how to move the pictures within the text so they line up with descriptions. If I recall correctly, they used to be little picture thumbnails you could drag and drop around but I don't see those anymore? Am I doing this wrong?
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