Tool Chest Lid – Part 1
2011.07.04
As previously stated, the pine for the tool chest came from a local lumber yard. However, I splurged on a piece of 1x10x8 “select pine” from the homecenter to make the floating panel for the lid. This is probably Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), native to coastal Canifornia but commercially grown in vast plantations in New Zealand and elsewhere. I cut two oversized lengths from the board and glued them together to make the panel.
While that was setting up in the clamps, I began working on the rails and stiles. I chose this board because the edges were rift and quartersawn, tighter grain than usual, and the somewhat pale color would be closer to the panel. Unfortunately, I could not entirely avoid all the knots, and had to settle for one knot which I decided to put on the back or lower rail. The knot was larger and looked worse on one side than the other, so I planned to put the worst side to the outside / top, where it will at least be somewhat obscured by paint.
With the two rails and two stiles roughed out and edges planed, I began plowing the grooves for the panel joint, using my plow plane. After plowing the back rail, I began chopping mortises for the through tenons. Convention is to chop them first, then plow the groove, but I wanted to be special. Note the mortising photo is showing the outer edge, so there is no groove.
2011.07.17
I continued today with the mortises and tenons for the lid. The tenons are large, just a little too long for my carcase saw as seen in the photo. They are haunched on one side to fit into the groove of the adjoining mortise board. Otherwise there would be a gap along the outside edge where the groove exits. I plowed the grooves on the stiles after completing the tenons. Although I had been careful when setting the plow plane fence, I knew the groove would probably not be perfectly centered on the edge. Therefore, I consistently registered the fence on the outer / top face of each board, so the groove would align all the way around.
Dust Seal