Sunday, April 16, 2017

Dutch tool chest build 2, stock preparation and dovetails.

There is a large dumpster filled with old pallets and boards used for packing materials just next to the ship, so rather unusual for me, I don't rely solely on palled sides for this build.
The sides are a bit less than 8" wide, so I only had to glue on a 4" board to get the desired width for my panels.
I found a nice 1x4" pine board that I have glued to the old pallet sides.

For the lid I have decided to try and make it completely out of pine, since it will be the most visible part of the project, and the pine I have found seems to be a bit more stable than the fast grown spruce used for pallet sides.

I planed the panels for the sides, the bottom and the shelf and decided which panel should go where.
The planing was kind of hard, because the panels took up all the space on my work table. I just had enough room to start the plane about 1" before the blade would get in contact with the wood. I can suddenly remember why I make mostly smaller projects out here.

I cut the sides to the required shape with a 30 degrees slop on the top and square bottom. The bottom was made next, and before I started on the dovetails, I tried to determine where to put the shelf .
The official plans have a suggestion, but given that I don't follow them anyway, I decided that I might as well try to figure something out myself.

I took my 1" chisel (the biggest chisel I have with me on the ship, and placed it on the side board. I added a bit of air above and below it, so I could have a similar tool sitting in the future tool holder, and still be able to close the lid. When I later compared the position of my shelf with the plans, it was almost identical.

A bit of work with a divider and the dovetails were stepped off. I made a small template that had a bold angle to it, I just eyeballed it, so I don't know what it is in degrees or in proportions.
But it would at least make the angles the same for all the dovetails.
As per my normal routine out here, I do the pins first, because it is easier for me to transfer the layout to the tail board with the work holding that is available to me.

The dovetails ended up being nice and tight. Now I just hope that the dados for the shelf will turn out OK too.

Stock before planing.

jointing the sides of all panels at the same time.

Laying out the position of the shelf using a chisel.

Dovetailing. 

13 comments:

  1. I think the pine looks good. I like that you do pins first due to your workholding options. There's no reason to be dogmatic about it.

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    1. I am astonished how nice a smell there is in pine. I might have to buy some when I get home.
      You are completely right that there is no need to be dogmatic about how to make the joint. if the joint fits then it is fine, no matter how you made it.

      But mortises are a different story, if you make them the wrong way you are doomed to eternal damnation in the purgatory. Some people see them as merely a squarish hole with straight sides, but there is so much more to them than that. So it is important not to make them the wrong way.
      I still haven't quite figured out how to make them correctly, so that is why I steer away from that type of joint :-)
      Cheers
      Jonas

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  2. Looking good, Jonas. Did you plane the glue-ups all the way flat? Or just to thickness and let the joinery flatten them?

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    1. Hi Jeff
      Thanks :-)
      I didn't plane the glued up panels completely flat. They are close to a uniform thickness, and like you suggest, I count on the joinery to flatten the cupping that is left.

      Out here my normal approach is to not spend too much time flattening. Instead I true up the sides after assembly. It isn't a text book solution, but it works really well given the limitations such as not having a flat bench top and not having ideal material from the start.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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    2. Textbooks are over-rated. "Works really well" is a smart choice.

      Delete
  3. Very nicke Project. Is it a "Full-size" Box like Chris described on bis Blog?

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    1. Thank you.
      It is going to be the "small size" tool chest, but a bit smaller than the one that Chris made.
      I can't handle boards that are much longer than 63 cm, and I also need to be able to get it home as luggage on the air plane.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Looks like your off to a great start Jonas. I'm really liking the bold angles on those dovetails. Your planing setup looks like an exercise in creative calming too. Nice.

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    1. Thanks Greg
      I might have gotten a bit carried away with the angle, but then ended up being tight, an I suppose that is the main thing.
      There is definitely some creative clamping involved given that the individual pieces are so big.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. Jonas, I forgot to tell you. The other day at work we received in a large shipment of fiber/concrete polymer direct burial boxes and they were on some very nice pallets. Before the guys in warehouse could throw them in the recycle pile I sawed off a nice amount of boards, some to be used to repair an old box, the others to be saved as an homage to my friend from Denmark :)

    Bill

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    1. Hi Bill

      That is great news!
      I am honoured that you thought of me while salvaging nice pallet wood.
      Do you have a project in mind for the wood, besides repairing the old box?
      Brgds
      Jonas

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    2. I think I may use it to make another small dovetailed box with a sliding lid. I have enough to make two as well as repair the old box. I am hoping to write a blog post about the box repair because the back story is pretty interesting.
      Bill

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    3. Sounds like a good idea with a dovetailed box.
      I am looking forward to reading your blog post.
      Jonas

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