WIP John's Tassy Oak Tool Chest

**johnredl** · 6th June 2013, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Uncle Al

I have just caught up with this project. I would probably go for a brass piano hinge, and a brass stay of some sort.

A framed lid might be better, less chance of warping, or at least cleats on the underside.
I think you should have handles at each end, maybe Jarrah, plus a mate to shift it around the workshop!. It must weigh a fair bit now, it is going to be darn heavy with a lid, a tray or three and half a dozen tools or so.

I'm impressed with the hand cut dovetails, something that I am not about to tackle in the near future (Too many opportunities for error in my case).

Good luck with the project, it will last a lifetime or two.

Alan...

Thank you for your comments Alan.

Really Brass? I honestly hadn't thought of that, I had black iron in my head. Hmm...I'll definitely give that a thought. I do have a piano hinge lying around. Maybe some brass chain to match as a stay. Stay tuned!

I had planned on doing a framed lid. Chris Schwartz explains it well in the woodwright episode where he goes through his toolchest with Roy Underhill. I think I'm far too OCD to have a warped lid! I'm thinking 100mm Jarrah as a frame and an oak panel, and Jarrah handles.

**johnredl** · 6th June 2013, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by Ozziespur

Very nice. Do you hppen to know how much it weighs (thus far) ?

Ok...puff...puff...I struggled it onto the scale it weighs - 38kg (with top skirt attached)

I wonder how heavy Chris Schwartz's white pine model is?

**Claw Hama** · 9th June 2013, 11:33 AM

Lookin very good so far, I have my Great Great Grandfathers, pine, Cedar, chest about 170 yrs old. It b..very heavy and then there are all the tools. Hope you're going to have wheels on it

(haven't read the whole thread)

**johnredl** · 27th June 2013, 11:03 PM

Well not a huge amount of progress as I'd run out of jarrah to use as a frame for the lid. I found did find some 100x85 flooring joice's at a salvage yard for $4.50/m! Naturally I bought 3 pieces giving a total of 9m

Luckily the 4m or so piece is jarrah, so I'm back to blunt ending my planes with my end goal being to convert it into 20mm boards. I found some old nails belted into it...very hard to get out also!

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**johnredl** · 16th July 2013, 11:15 PM

I've started to work on the frame and panel lid. The jarrah, having been successfully cut into submission, is now ready to be made into the frame of the frame and panel toolbox lid.

Although I've watched Chris Schwartz's movie a few times on how to make his frame and panel toolbox lid, it just looks too difficult. So rather than cutting a through tenon with a 45 degrees mitre on the top, I've decided to go with a basic mortice and tenon with draw-bore pins.

I don't recall ever having cut an 85mm x 7mm x 25mm deep mortice before, so grabbing an offcut, here's the start of my long, long, long mortice and tenon task:

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**Christos** · 16th July 2013, 11:51 PM

Little at a time and before you know it's done.

**johnredl** · 22nd July 2013, 11:58 PM

I discovered why its a good idea to have a 'Plan B' tonight! The other day I got terribly excited and routed the slots in the frame to take the panel. I also routed the corresponding bits in the panel. Makes sense doesn't it? Have a couple of hours at home alone so why not? Problem is that I should have chiseled the mortices prior to routing the channels. After all its pretty hard to mark a mortice on a flat piece of edge when someone's created a channel in it!

So I've ended up going with Chris Schwartz's 45 degree through mortice (not sure if that's what it's called mind you). As it turned out it really wasn't that hard, here are some pics of the 1st corner that ended up basically 90 degrees

Would someone please tell me what the name of this joint is please?

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

**Berlin** · 25th July 2013, 09:50 AM

Mitred bridle joint

Looking good :2tsup

Matt

**johnredl** · 2nd August 2013, 02:31 PM

The brass hardware just arrived now and I couldn't wait to share a pic. I found it all at 'Whitechapel' in the USA.

Also, I bought a Veritas tapered plug cutter yesterday, here is a pic of a quick patch up on the lid.

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**Shedhand** · 2nd August 2013, 03:41 PM

Looking good mate. Maybe if you went just a little slower the kids will be old enough and strong enough to carry it round for you.

Cheers

Sheddie

**DSEL74** · 2nd August 2013, 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by johnredl

Ok...puff...puff...I struggled it onto the scale it weighs - 38kg (with top skirt attached)

I wonder how heavy Chris Schwartz's white pine model is?

Think of it as an antitheft feature!

**johnredl** · 2nd August 2013, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by Shedhand

Looking good mate. Maybe if you went just a little slower the kids will be old enough and strong enough to carry it round for you.

Cheers

Sheddie

I don't that there's a single person on this forum that'd think that this project could go any slower! The only WIP that took longer was Groggy's workbench!

**johnredl** · 2nd August 2013, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by DSEL74

Think of it as an antitheft feature!

A reason not to sell my house I guess

**johnredl** · 15th August 2013, 11:40 PM

Some progress!!

Well, don't get too excited, but I've just now finished applying the 1st coat of Wipe On Poly to the lid.

Not only has it given me a sense of achievement, but the old Jarrah flooring joists has quite nice grain.

Here's a pic:

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**johnredl** · 25th August 2013, 11:52 PM

The draw runners are in. Although, rather than take the easy route and screw them in, I opted to glue. Only problem is that I didn't have a clamp with a deep enough throat to reach. So after some humming and staring, my wife asked if there was a reason why I couldn't set my Groz clamp heads backwards so they push instead of clamp. Eureka! So a few off cut pieces of pine and a had a bunch of customised clamps!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1377434752.882760.jpg

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I'm using a 3/4" runner under the bottom draw, a 1/2" under the middle and a 1/4" under the top. I found a guy on YouTube that was using those dimensions for his toolchest and apparently it works fine.

Total toolchest weight: 50kg!

Thread: WIP John's Tassy Oak Tool Chest

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