The Cherry Blanket Chest (a.k.a. Blanket Chest #2)

Sometimes in the shop, things get a little out of order. You might recall that I had a blog entry posted in June about Blanket Chest #1, a dense, heavy affair made almost entirely of white oak. That stuff was some of the toughest wood I’ve worked. It was from a local sawmill (as opposed to the other stuff I was using, which was from a more-distant-but-still-local hardwoods supplier who buys from many mills), and was really, really heavy. I was worried that maybe it wasn’t dry, but no, it was dried correctly–it was just dense and tough. I should have known during the construction phase that the stuff I had was going to be crazy tough. A short while after I had the carcass test-fitted and sitting on some sawhorses, one of the horses shifted and a leg buckled, sending the chest to the concrete floor on one of its corners. Nothing broke. It had a slight dent on the corner from where it landed. It barely even moved out of alignment. Oof.

So about the out of order thing… While working on the finish for the oak chest, I started a second chest for our bedroom. This chest was to be made of cherry that I got from the same sawmill as the oak, and I was trying a more traditional approach to the design, using proportions for dimensions and doing the layout with dividers instead of numerical measurements.

After getting a bunch of stock flattened and planed to final working thickness, I set up a couple of dividers to the plan I had drawn and got to work with layout, cutting parts to length, and glue-up of panels. I would be at a loss without my Starrett layout tools. I love those things. It just feels like I could build anything when I pick them up.

While working on the build for the oak chest, I discovered one important tablesaw jig that I didn’t have for the new saw: A panel cutting jig. I had made a crosscut sled for the old saw, originally to overcome the problems of an inaccurate and inadequate miter gauge. By the time I got the new saw, I had abandoned the crosscut sled and purchased an Incra miter gauge with an extendable fence. It worked well on the old saw and the new saw, and did pretty much everything I needed it to do. Except, of course, for one important thing for big solid-wood furniture: Trimming solid panels. So I grabbed some good 1/2″ ply I had sitting around for jig-making, located a nice piece of straight-grained cherry scrap and milled a fence and miter runner from that, and got it prepared for final straightening. A panel cutting jig must have a track perfectly parallel to the blade, and a fence perfectly perpendicular to the blade. Instead of precision-fitting everything, it is a lot easier to let the jig cut itself to size. I picked a corner that I was going to call the “master” square reference, and used one edge to reference the attachment of the miter runner to the bottom of the sled, making sure that there was a little bit of ply that overlapped the blade. After that, I put the jig in the miter slot and let the saw cut the reference edge straight and square. Then I used that edge as a reference to install the fence at the top end of the ply panel. After that was finished, I waxed the underside (to reduce friction) and made a couple of test cuts. It worked like a charm, and now I was set up to trim big panels again!

Next on the list was to get the dovetail jig set up and cut a set of test joints in some scrap stock milled to the same thickness as the working parts. This way, I could get the jig settings dialed-in before cutting the panels that had taken me a huge chunk of time to flatten, plane, glue up, clean up, and prepare for milling.

Satisfied that the test joints went together and worked, it was time to mill the working parts. This always makes me nervous, of course, because a mistake here can mean a pretty large piece of firewood….

Tails first:

Cherry can sometimes have some tear-out during milling. I wasn’t worried about this little bit. If you look up to the right, though, you can see a little chunk missing from where there must have been a small knot or something that tore out during routing. I chose to leave that there instead of trying to fill it.

After milling all of the tail boards, it was time for the pin boards:

After a little bit of time at the router, all four sides were milled for the dovetails. In this photo, you can also see that the sides have a dado milled in them near the bottom. I don’t have any photos of this step. This was done with the dado stack on the table saw, and is there to capture a tongue cut into the bottom boards.

With all of these parts cut and ready to roll, it was time to work on the case bottom. This is the only part not done in cherry. I use poplar because it is locally inexpensive, easy to work, quite stable, and (in this case) not seen. I cut the boards to rough length with a jigsaw, then went to work flattening them on the jointer and then planing them to finished size.

The bottom boards have a tongue and groove milled between them. They are laid out to not completely fill the bottom opening. This allows for some wood movement. The tongue and groove lends a little bit of stability to the long edges, but maybe more importantly it keeps the bottom from having any open gaps when the bottom boards shrink. Also, one can see the tongue cut into the short ends that will be captured in the side boards of the case.

Time for a test fitting! This will also give us a cut line for the bottom boards. The two narrow ones will be left as-is. The wide one will be ripped to width after getting marked for width during the test fit.

While preparing for the test fit, I found one of the side boards had developed a slight cup to the inside. This is not a huge problem. The dovetails will hold it in alignment after assembly, but to assemble I need to hold it a little more flat. Clamps and a caul…

A little light application of blunt force later, we have three sides and are ready to fit the bottom boards.

The tongues on the sides of the bottom boards were intentionally milled a little thick so that I could fit them during assembly. Things sometimes move around a little bit after milling, and this makes sure I don’t have a bottom that rattles too much or slides around willy-nilly. I used my awesome Veritas rabbet plane to tune the thickness and shoulder depth on each board.

First board in…

… and the rest!

Now I can mark the width of the last board and rip it to its finished size.

To save room for movement, I cut it about 3/16″ short.

And with that, the last board was added and the test fit was basically completed. I took this time to make sure everything finished square, to check for any major defects, and to see where I was going to have to plane joints level.

After the test fit, I made sure everything was marked so that it went back together in the same order again, then knocked everything apart to do some other joinery tasks. First on that list was the mortise for the lock. In the white oak chest, I did this with the chest glued together. That was a pain. This time, I did it before glue-up, which made life a lot easier. First things first, I had to lay out the lines. I marked them then used my marking knife to score them a few times so that the chisels had a good landing spot.

On the oak chest, I drilled-out most of the waste in the deep part of the mortise with a drill bit in my brace. That worked OK, but it had some accuracy issues. This time, I tried a technique I had seen elsewhere and used a small backsaw to score the area to depth.

… then went to the chisel to clean out the waste and true-up the edges:

One can see how much the cherry has already darkened on the outside just by being in our basement, which doesn’t get much natural light. It will darken nicely after finishing I’m sure!

The lock was then test fit to its mortise, and then I took my mallet and gave it a little whack on the back plate. This imprinted the location of the pin in the keyhole, which then was used as the mark to drill-out the top hole for the keyhole. Then I drilled the bottom hole and removed the bit in between with a coping saw.

Making the keyhole:

After that was done, it was time for glue and clamps. The bottom boards are fitted dry. Dovetails get glue. Then it is clamped, double-checked for square, and left to think for several hours. The parallel clamps are doing the majority of the work here. The little bar clamps at left and right are helping to flatten-out that little bow and ensure that the middle of the joint is getting good pressure for glue adhesion. Honestly, these dovetails are so nicely fitted that it probably didn’t need clamps at all, but I know that the science of this glue makes it work better with pressure applied. If I was using something old-school like liquid hide glue, I bet I could skip the clamps and have a fine glue-up.

Next on the list of to-dos was planing all of the joints flat. There wasn’t a big problem with edge alignment, but I always cut the dovetails just slightly long so that I can flush them after assembly. If they’re a hair short, that’s not possible. I just used a little Stanley block plane that I’ve had forever. It was OK when I first bought it. After I learned to sharpen it, though, it really is an awesome little plane. It gets used a lot in my shop.

After everything was smoothed, it was time to pin the bottom boards. I actually intended to rabbet the front and back to prevent any air gaps between the long edges of the bottom boards and the front and back of the case. On the oak chest, I didn’t put the rabbet in, and instead just used some cut nails to pin the tongue on the short sides of the first and last board, leaving the middle board completely floating. That way, the front and back edges should stay snug against the case sides, but there’s still plenty of room for movement. Well, on this chest, I forgot about the rabbet until I had the glue-up already started, and the bottom boards already cut to size. Oops. So I did the nail treatment, and expect it will be fine.

Now it was time for a lid. While I had the case test-fitted together, I verified my measurements (using dividers, of course 🙂 ) for the top. While the case was in clamps, I had machined and glued-up a panel for the lid. I planned to do the same breadboard edges on this lid as I did on the oak chest. Here’s the lid blank sitting on top of the chest while I remove glue squeeze-out and flatten the joints:

Over Christmas break, I had the lathe out to make this year’s Christmas gifts (wooden ornaments!), so I took the opportunity to turn some bun feet for this chest. They ended up being more like tulip feet. That’s just the profile that appeared when I started turning these, so I went with it. I had previously glued-up the blank from two slabs of some thicker cherry stock. I trimmed the corners at 45o on the table saw, then chucked it into the lathe to rough out and then add some profiles.

Instead of doing them individually and parting each one off, I left them together in one blank so that I had a good visual reference from piece to piece. As a novice turner, this helped immensely. Here, the short thick sections are ready to be turned down to the tenon size (3/4″) that will fit them into the bottom boards in the case. After I was happy with the profiles, I grabbed a skew chisel and turned the tenons to 3/4″.

Now, you’re probably saying, “Hey, there was a fourth foot in the first photo!” Yes, you would be correct. I parted that foot off after turning its tenon so that I could check the fit before finishing the rest of them. I also sanded all four of them in the lathe, which made life easier later.

Here begins the saga of the lid. One might recall that I said I was going to do breadboard ends on the lid. Well, I went to measure and prepare joinery for those ends, and found that in the several weeks since I had made the panel for the lid, it had bowed and twisted slightly. The twist wasn’t a problem, but the bow was. I couldn’t figure out how I was going to get the joinery cut in a way that would let me assemble breadboard ends in a way that also flattened the bow securely. I was kicking myself for not doing this joinery after I had the lid dimensions set. If I had done it then, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Argh. So on to plan B… I would let the lid run out to the edges without breadboard ends, and add a couple of battens to the bottom to pull it flat (and hopefully keep it that way). So off to make some battens! Some scrap cherry, a compass, the band saw, and a rasp, and they were basically ready.

The one in the back was an extra I made to experiment with a few edge profiles. After I settled on a simple round-over with bead, I ran them on the router table, then set them on the top and marked them for drilling countersunk and counterbored holes for brass woodscrews.

Before securing the battens, I took this chance to smooth the joints on the bottom of the lid and get it pretty much ready for final finish. After I screwed these battens in place, flattening would be a chore. Cabinet scrapers are awesome.

I really need to build myself a bench. Smoothing and planing with the workpiece wedged against my router table is not a good way to work faces.

After preparing the bottom of the lid, I got out the clamps, drill, bit, and went nuts. The yellow thing is the end of a beeswax candle. I rub the screw threads on that before I insert them to make that job a little easier (and less prone to busting a screw head, especially with brass hardware).

Installing the battens brought the lid flat. It still has a slight twist to it, but I think it will be OK (and will likely work itself out after it sits under its own weight for a while).

Now that the lid was flat, it was time to chop mortises for the hinges. I got real Brusso brass hinges for this chest, and I’m so happy I did. They were not cheap, but they are excellent hardware. For the oak chest, I used three hinges, as that lid was massively heavy. This lid isn’t nearly as heavy, so I just went with two. To mark them, I use a technique I learned somewhere (wish I could remember where!). I set the lid on the case and align it for where it needs to be. I put the hinges folded in place between the case and the lid where they are supposed to be. Then, with my marking knife, I hold everything in place and stab it along the outside edge of the hinge leaf. I do this for every hinge I’m installing. Then, I remove everything, keep track of which hinges were in which spots, and then use the hinges themselves to trace out the mortise outline with my marking knife. This ensures that everything stays aligned, and makes it possible for me to cut all of the mortises without having to test fit or temporarily fit any hinge pieces. I used the dividers to set the spacing from the edge of the case.

While I was chopping mortises in the lid, it was also a good time to chop the mortise for the lock plate. As with the oak chest, I marked and installed this the same way. With the hinges temporarily installed, I closed the lock on the lock plate, then closed the lid with some force down on top of the exposed lock plate. There are two locating pins in the back of the lock plate that marked the lid for me. Then I disassembled everything, held the lock plate to the marks it made, and scored the outline with my marking knife. Then it was just a matter of chopping and a few test fits to make sure it was right.

The last bit of joinery that had to be cut were the holes for the feet to attach. Each one had a 3/4″ turned tenon on it, so I just used a 3/4″ flat boring bit to make some holes. Each foot was then test-fitted and marked so I knew which one had been fitted where, then all of that was disassembled and the chest moved over to the finishing area in the shop.

And then, it was time for finish. I had tested a few finishes as I got closer to this step, and decided to use a custom oil/varnish blend. I used enough thinner to make it a wiping varnish. A few coats and then a finish buffing with some high-grit sandpaper, and we had a nice, close-to-the-wood matte finish. I used a little more varnish on the top to give it a bit of protection.

Of course, I forgot to take any meaningful photos during this stage. I’m sorry. It was pretty boring, though. Wipe on. Let dry. Go back the next day to buff with 400 grit paper and wipe on again. Let dry. Repeat…

When the finish was done, I attached the feet, which had been finished separately:

They’re just set with glue. The ones on the oak chest are holding up fine. If these ever give me problems, I’ll pin them from the top with a cut nail. If they really give me problems, I can always throw a screw into them, too.

With that, the chest was done! I had to re-install all of the hardware, install the lid, do a little final fitting on the lock so that it worked freely, and clean up a few finish mistakes. After that, it was hauled upstairs!

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. There are a few things I wish had turned out differently. One is the whole breadboard ends thing for the lid. If that had worked, there would be no sapwood showing up there. Also, the board in the front has a light streak in it. I don’t mind it, but it wasn’t supposed to be there. The opposite side of that panel looks better, but my power planer is having some serious problems (rollers are chewed-up and not replaceable–probably from all of that crazy hard white oak!), and it had some nasty tear-out on the other side of that panel. Instead of scrapping the panel, I kept it and am calling it my “country” chest. The other issue I had was that I got a few bits of tear-out while smoothing the top. I really want to get myself a decent smoothing plane. After that, I switched to cabinet scrapers for the rest of the top panel smoothing, but my thumbs still haven’t forgiven me. A decent smoothing plane would have made quick work of that without as much (or any) tear-out.

I also added a chain stay to the lid, just as I had with the oak chest. With the lock on the front, we can lock it when there are children in the house.

Now, on to the next projects! First on the list is a real bench for myself, and some workshop furniture (basically peg board and shelves for tool and jig storage). Then on the list is a medicine cabinet for the downstairs bathroom, something of a linen press for the second floor hall, another basic chest, a couple of window seats, and I want to make a simple podium desk for myself at school… At least I’m not bored in the shop!