Very nicely done. I would have never guessed it was red oak. And the dovetails are very nicely done.
The curly lid thing is a pain, ain't it. One solution I know of is to add a couple of shallow battens just a little thicker than the lid at each end of the underside of the lid just clearing the four walls of the carcass. If you glue one end of each of these battens, perhaps 1-1/2" to 2", to the lid, and secure the center and opposite end with slender dowels glued into tight holes in both lid and batten, it may not entirely resolve the problem but it will go a long way to keeping the lid flat. Ideally, you would attach these battens when the lid is 1/2 way through its curve cycle to average out forces.
The downside to this method is that you loose a bit of space inside the chest, but I think that is better than a laughing lid.
I know this flies in the face of the valid principle of not restraining wide panels to avoid shrinkage cracks, but if the battens are attached as I suggested there is enough wiggle to avoid cracking. On the other hand, if you glue the battens over their entire length, the results in a few years may be less than ideal.
I have a couple of cedar boxes bigger than your tea chest made this way. Plainsawn wood, not quartersawn. They were made in Japan pre-war for the artillery design department of the Imperial University of Tokyo (now Tokyo University) and held precision measuring instruments. I salvaged them from a rubbish bin when I was student there about 30 years ago. I fitted them to hold chisels and have lugged them around the world and subjected them to severe humidity swings from equatorial tropics to the deserts of Nevada and the dry winters of the US Midwest. The lids move a bit, but they always close tight. I had expected them to self-destruct a long time ago, but they are not cracked at all. I would not be surprised if they lasted another 75 years. I imitated these when making the boxes for my carving tools out of sassafras wood. They too are holding up very well after 11 years.
Stan
Last edited by Stanley Covington; 02-26-2013 at 8:07 PM.
My first hand tool project was a work bench. Douglas fir top and SYP base. The lumber yard near me had some nice 16' Douglas fir 4x6's which yielded a nearly 96"x 22" top. I wanted larger timbers for the top so there would be fewer pieces to joint by hand. Second project was the anarchist tool chest. Prior to the work bench I had never really done any woodworking. Just home maintenance. I spent a year slowly acquiring the tools needed to build the bench. I have two young sons and so I didn't want any power tools that could hurt them. My youngest really likes working with me! The time we have shared building stuff wouldn't have been possible if I had bought loud, dangerous power tools...
I moved from a large pole barn shop, into a corner of a cellar "Dungeon Shop", and HAD to ;eave the big power tools behind. First project of the new shop was a small table for a Kitchen Office spaceSDC14280.jpgThat had to match an existing chair. 90% hand tool work. Used a lot of tricks I learned back in High School Industrial Arts Class, back in the late 60s. Even the tapered legs were done with just a couple hand planes. Just finished a "TV Table" using the same "tricks" to make itSDC14401.jpgfrom old, reclaimed lumber. Next "Project"???
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