New Tool Chest Build

**Pittwater Pete** · 28th June 2015, 07:50 PM

Before I begin, forgive me if I make any mistakes as I have never posted on forums before. I have however, been a regular reader of this forum and am now ready to join in.

I thought I would begin with a smallish Tool Chest Build that I am making as a gift for a Builder Mate who is retiring in a couple of weeks. My aim is to create a chest to house his nicer hand tools and I would like to route his name on the inside of the lid. He has a bad back, so I'm trying to keep the overall weight under control.

I have two sheets of 9mm thick A bond plywood (2400 x 1200) laid up with Jarrah veneer good on one side and a downgrade Jarrah back. I intend to mitre and epoxy glue the entire chest. I will also be using the veneered plywood to create plant on stiles and rails and then bead with solid Jarrah inlay mouldings. The base will have a solid Jarrah moulded and scalloped plinth and an inlay moulded top with profiled surround.
image.jpg
The drawing is just my initial thoughts and I have already changed the mouldings that I intend to use. I will be running these mouldings on a spindle moulder using custom ground cutters that I already have. But I'm not up to that yet.
image.jpgThese are the front, back and two sides with the mitre joins cut. The pieces are joined with masking tape, mitre point to mitre point, for ease of glueing. You can't see the tape as it is laying face down on the bench so that I can pre-sand the interior of the chest. Festool random orbital sander with a 3mm orbit and 240 grit sandpaper.

image.jpgThis shot shows the mitre ready for glueing.
image.jpgThis shows the front, back and two sides laying face down on the workbench, taped on the unseen face. You will notice later that I have the downgrade veneer positioned so that it will end up on the inside of the chest after the glue up.
image.jpgI have mixed a small quantity of epoxy and glued the mitres and then carefully lifted the four taped pieces and folded them into a box shape and then taped the last remaining mitre. Epoxy is great because it gives you plenty of glue up time and leaves an extremely strong and waterproof joint. On the downside, it is an overnight dry and is difficult to clean up when wet as it is not water based and it's a bugger to get off your hands. Once dry though, it sands easily and has good gap filling properties.
image.jpgTo ensure that the chest ends up nice and square, I have glued and nailed the base into position. No need to worry about the exposed ply edges as it is going to be coved by the plinth later on.
image.jpg image.jpgNow it's time to prepare the plant on stiles and rails. For this I needed to veneer the edges of the plywood that will show a slight quirk once the inlay beading goes on. For this I'm using 0.4mm veneer strips. only the long edges need doing since the ends will be mitred and glued.
image.jpg image.jpgNow it's time to glue the plants on. Careful cutting on a mitre saw with a sharp blade made this a simple exercise. A few clamps or some tape here and there, where necessary, is all that's required until the glue dries.

That's as far as I got today. I will continue the write up as I proceed.

Pete.

**NCArcher** · 28th June 2015, 08:22 PM

Excellent Pete,
Welcome to the forum.
Keep the pics coming. Everybody loves a WIP with lots of photos.

**Arron** · 28th June 2015, 08:29 PM

Hi Pete. Interesting project - couple of questions though.

Where did you get the veneered plywood? Alway interested in suppliers.

Never heard the term 'plant on' before. Does that mean just stuck to the outside?

No clamping in the glue up of the body. Just tape and epoxy. Is that right?

Cheers
Arron

**DaveTTC** · 28th June 2015, 09:07 PM

Wow great post. I will be back to read in detail later

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

**Pittwater Pete** · 28th June 2015, 09:18 PM

Hi Arron.

I get my veneer panels laid up by Consolidated Veneers or Bruynzeel. Both in Sydney. Either of them will lay up whatever veneer you need, on any substrate, but they don't keep too much in stock. It needs to be ordered, so it takes a couple of weeks.

'Plant on' is a joinery term rather than a cabinetmaking term. As you suggest, it is a piece or strip of timber that is applied to another. Could be glued, nailed or both. The reason for use in this project is so that I can use the light weight of the plywood rather than using a solid Jarrah panelled construction, if that makes sense. Can you emagine how heavy this chest would be in solid Jarrah, especially with the amount of inset panels and mouldings that I'll be using?

The simple trick with the mitre glueing is the prior taping of the long points before you fold them into a box. This creates quite a bit of tension on the tape once folded. More than enough to hold the mitre closed and tight. It also forces the glue to the inside of the box and leaves the outside clean when you remove the tape once dry.

Regards

Pete.

**Willy Nelson** · 28th June 2015, 09:26 PM

Wow
Good Post, and you apologised for your posting ability.
I have hundreds of posts, and I still don't know how to add the photos in the bed of the text as you have done.

Good thread and I will be following this one, well done

Willy
Jarrahland

**Arron** · 28th June 2015, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by Pittwater Pete

Hi Arron.

I get my veneer panels laid up by Consolidated Veneers or Bruynzeel. Both in Sydney. Either of them will lay up whatever veneer you need, on any substrate, but they don't keep too much in stock. It needs to be ordered, so it takes a couple of weeks.

'Plant on' is a joinery term rather than a cabinetmaking term. As you suggest, it is a piece or strip of timber that is applied to another. Could be glued, nailed or both. The reason for use in this project is so that I can use the light weight of the plywood rather than using a solid Jarrah panelled construction, if that makes sense. Can you emagine how heavy this chest would be in solid Jarrah, especially with the amount of inset panels and mouldings that I'll be using?

The simple trick with the mitre glueing is the prior taping of the long points before you fold them into a box. This creates quite a bit of tension on the tape once folded. More than enough to hold the mitre closed and tight. It also forces the glue to the inside of the box and leaves the outside clean when you remove the tape once dry.

Regards

Pete.

Ok, thanks. i'll be following this one too, as its a bit out of the ordinary.
Cheers
Areon

**DaveTTC** · 29th June 2015, 12:23 AM

A good read Pete

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

**Pittwater Pete** · 29th June 2015, 09:59 PM

I got a little bit more done this arvo before SHMBO called. I cut a few strips of American Black Walnut to edge strip the top edges of the chest. Black Walnut is very hard and as it's the top of the tool chest, it will wear well over time.
image.jpg image.jpg
Before I glued the edge strips on, I gave them a quick run over with a sharp hand plane to get rid of the saw marks. I could have sanded them but a sharp plane is so much quicker.
image.jpg
Then a bit of glue and the odd 15mm 'headless pin' just to hold the strips until the glue dries. I like headless pins as they are only 0.8mm in diameter and are almost invisible when the job is complete. I could have taped them on, but that leaves a lot of residual glue to clean up later. If you pin, your can clean the glue off whilst still wet. Both methods work well, but in this instance, I was impatient, so pinned them.
image.jpg
image.jpgTomorrow I will use a sharp block plane to trim it flush with the veneer.
Anyway, that's it for today.
Enjoy your week. Pete.

**Arron** · 29th June 2015, 11:24 PM

Hi Pete
here's a question I cant help wondering about.

If you start with 9mm plywood, and cut mitres in it, then 'plant' more 9mm plywood on the outside (also mitred) - and if you do your corners by simply gluing the mitres together, then do you really end up with a construction that is going to be strong enough to provide the service you would expect from a toolbox?

I'm thinking the plywood where it is mitred is made of alternating layers of long grain and end grain. Say 50% end grain, 50% long grain. When two timbers cut at 45 degrees are glued together then the resultant join is stronger then an end-grain join - a bit stronger but not a lot stronger. So if the end grain leaves of the plywood are not contributing much strength then we are reliant on the long grain leaves - but only 50% of the 9mm material thickness is long grain - so about 4.5mm worth of reliably glueable timber exists across each of the major corner joints. This does not seem like much strength.

Where am I going wrong ?

cheers
Arron

**Pittwater Pete** · 30th June 2015, 08:55 AM

Hi Arron.
You are definitely not going wrong. All your comments are valid and correct. A mitred join is not as strong as say a dowelled or dovetail joint. Because I want the chest to be lightweight, and have used plywood to achieve this, I can't use dovetailed (would see the ends grain of the plywood) or dowelled joints (material too thin). To get the strength of the joint that is required for a tool chest, I have used epoxy to glue it up and then after I have applied the planted on stiles, I intent to route in some sliding dovetail (not sure if that is it correct name) using a lighter coloured timber, probably Canadian Hard Rock Maple ( see my initial sketch above). Additional joint stability will also come from the plinth and top surrounding mouldings which will be dominoed, dowelled, pinned or something. Aditionally, I will epoxy glue in the additional interior pieces that are needed to support the interior tool tills. This will add a significant amount of additional strength to the mitred joint. I'll do this prior to applying the plant on stiles so that I can add a few hidden dowels (just for you).
I appreciate your interest in my build.
Regards.
Pete.

**Pittwater Pete** · 4th July 2015, 06:54 PM

Got a bit more done today.
Cut, solid timber lipped and glued in the internal supports for the tool tills.
image.jpg

Run the inlay moulding and lid edge moulds on the spindle moulder.
image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg

Drilled in a few dowels for extra strength to the mitre. These will be hidden under the plant on stiles.
image.jpg

**DaveTTC** · 5th July 2015, 07:44 AM

I may have to visit sometime and get a refresher on spindle use. Moldings look great

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

**Pittwater Pete** · 5th July 2015, 08:47 AM

No problem Dave, I'd be happy to give you a refresher on spindle use.

Pete.

**Phil Spencer** · 5th July 2015, 11:36 AM

This is a tool box I made to hold the tools I made 40 years ago in the first year of my apprenticeship

Boxes_6.jpg Boxes_6a.jpg Boxes_6b.jpg

Thread: New Tool Chest Build

Thread Tools

Search Thread

New Tool Chest Build

Similar Threads

New Tool Chest

Tool Chest

Tool chest

Help with Tool Chest

tool chest

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions