Greene & Greene Blanket Chest

Status
Not open for further replies.

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Been working on this for a little while and only now starting to make some progress. Got the main sides of the case almost done. Still need to put a dado for the bottom into the sides and cut the mortises for the Ebony Plugs. But the big finger joints are now complete. This is the same project that Jeremy is working on. Got to see his during the shop crawl - looking good Jeremy.

DSC_0533_800x532_.jpg

 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
yours looks good too Ken!

I hope you illnesses are going to leave you alone?
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Made a little progress this morning before I had to mow the lawn. Got the dadoes to hold the bottom cut. The Birch Ply is about 1/16" short of 3/4" so I used 2 passes of a 1/2" down-cut spiral bit and the Festool Edge guide. I set a Woodpecker gauge to the thickness of the ply and the other end then has prongs to measure the width of the dado. Using the micro adjust on the edge guide I was able to home in on the exact thickness I needed for the dadoes. The short sides are though dadoes but the long front/back are stopped cuts so I used a chisel to finish up the ends of those. (The stopped cuts being the main reason to use a router and not a dado stack on the table saw.)

DSC_0536_800x532_.jpg




DSC_0537_800x532_.jpg


Sorry that last picture is out of focus - not sure where the camera thought I was looking. It's a test block of ply in the cleaned up stop cut.
 

joec

joe
User
I guess this is the plan from a recent Popular Woodworking article. I loved the hidden drawer in the base. I plan on starting this late this summer. I hope you will post more pictures as you move along.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
The plans are from the WoodWhisperer Guild site. The pay portion of their website. You can subscribe yearly or by project. I just signed up for the one project. The design may have also been a popwood article. With the Guild project you not only get PDF plans a Sketchup drawing and detailed videos of the whole assembly process. Plus access to their forum and Marc answering any questions you might have along the way.
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
Looking good Ken. What wood are you using? Marc Spagnuolo wrote the article for Popular Woodworking featuring the same project from the Guild.
 

joec

joe
User
Looking good Ken. What wood are you using? Marc Spagnuolo wrote the article for Popular Woodworking featuring the same project from the Guild.

So if it is the Popular Woodworking plan, I will be very interested in your method of doing the sculpted handles. I have read the article many times and am still stumped on this part.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
So if it is the Popular Woodworking plan, I will be very interested in your method of doing the sculpted handles. I have read the article many times and am still stumped on this part.

That is where the videos that are part of the guild project come in handy - there is almost one complete video dedicated to that subject. The technique they used on a router table looked kind of tricky so I may deviate from it somewhat and try some hand shaping. But will cross that bridge later after reviewing the video a couple more times.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Looking good Ken. What wood are you using? Marc Spagnuolo wrote the article for Popular Woodworking featuring the same project from the Guild.

I'm using some African Mahogany that I got at the last lumber run at Scott's place. What wood was yours. Looked a little like Cherry when I saw it. Meant to ask then, but forgot.

And thanks for confirmation on the article. Behind in my magazine reading.

I used the Domino for the first time making the mitered base. Stuck a domino in each miter to help align things during glue-up. Worked great.
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
I'm using some African Mahogany that I got at the last lumber run at Scott's place. What wood was yours. Looked a little like Cherry when I saw it. Meant to ask then, but forgot.

And thanks for confirmation on the article. Behind in my magazine reading.

I used the Domino for the first time making the mitered base. Stuck a domino in each miter to help align things during glue-up. Worked great.

I am using cherry. Mostly because it is what I had. I used biscuits for the mitered deck. They helped keep things aligned in the vertical dimension, but the miters can still slide. The domino would have been nice. I suppose two dowels would work well also.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Yep, that's the thing about biscuits vs. Dominoes. The biscuits help with keeping things flat but allow side to side variation. I wish I had the Domino during the side panel glue-ups and the making of the jig for the finger joints. But it is already beginning to pay for itself in time not wasted fixing mistakes.

Made some more progress this evening. Will try to get some photos tomorrow after work as I try to get the 11' x 14.5" x 1.5" cut down to manageable pieces. I'll be able to use it to glue-up the top with only two boards. It's too big to cross-cut on my 12" sliding miter saw and too unwieldy to cross cut on the table saw so I'll be using the MFT and track saw to cut it down to size.

Hope I'm not starting to sound like a Festool commercial, but you gotta love the versatility of their stuff. It just works very well for me and saves me time. And time is my most scarce commodity right now.

Just to show I'm not opposed to other brands, I used the DeWalt Palm router to make all of the 1/8" and 3/16" roundovers on the boards. Really like the DeWalt Palm router. And Freud Quadra-Cut roundover bits. No tearout even in the brittle Mahogany.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Well I did my first panel glue-up using Dominoes and the MFT table to keep things flat and aligned. Seems to have worked very well but the proof will be in how much additional sanding will be needed at the joint.

DSC_0551_800x532_.jpg



DSC_0554_800x532_.jpg



Earlier I finished laying out and mortising all of the square holes for the Ebony Plugs.

DSC_0542_800x532_.jpg


I kept my sharpening supplies set up and handy during this operation. I think I re-honed the 1/4" chisel about 4 or 5 times while making the mortises.

DSC_0541_800x532_.jpg



I was then ready to dry fit and drill all the pilot holes for the screws. Lots of clamps holding things square.

DSC_0545_800x532_.jpg



I used West System Epoxy for the glue-up - the slow hardener gives me about 40 minutes open time and this was a complex glue-up of the case body. I had already cut and fitted (by hand with a #5 low-angle jack plane) the plywood bottom.

DSC_0550_800x532_.jpg



This is the board that will become the top. It is 14-1/2" wide and 11' long. It wouldn't fit my 12" Miter Saw and was too awkward to cut at the table saw. The cross-cut track on the MFT made short work of it.

DSC_0540_800x532_.jpg



While the top is clamped up and the glue setting, I set the case on end to get it out of the way for awhile.

DSC_0553_532x800_.jpg


Things are coming along - still a lot to do. And I haven't decided on the finish quite yet.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Pulled the clamps off a while ago and after a little clean-up with a scraper, I can't feel the edges of the two boards where they meet. I've now cut it to the final 39x24" dimensions and after I cut the long tenon on each end will sand it smooth starting at 120 and ending at 220 grit. The two boards came off the drum sander at 80 grit. In other panel glue-ups I usually have to start at 80 to get the joint evened up and lose some overall thickness in the process.

Very pleased with how this glue-up went compared to previous ones.

I'll probably make the mortise in the Bread Board ends next so I can fit the tenon to the mortise. Just prefer to do it that way. Seems to work for me - make the tenon slightly oversized and then sneak up on it with either a sled and dado blade on the table saw or with a shoulder plane. Usually end with the shoulder plane to tweak the final fit.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Things are coming along very well since I took a week off work to spend in the shop. I spent today gluing the slats into place that allow the base, deck and case to be joined together. This was a little fussy getting the overhang to be exactly the same on all sides before drilling the pilot holes. Here is the finished case, deck and base all attached to each other.

DSC_0555_800x532_.jpg


I haven't cleaned up the shop after completing today's build, but hey, my shop always looks like this so no difference.

DSC_0556_800x532_.jpg


While the glue was drying for several of the cleat glue-ups, I worked on shaping the handles. They are roughed out now and just need a lot of sanding to round over all of the rough edges.

DSC_0557_800x532_.jpg


Oh, I set the top on top of the case just to give an idea of what the finished box will look like. It is not yet attached. That will be one of the last steps after finishing everything. Sure wish I could figure out what I'm going to do with the finishing details.

Wood Whisperer used a water based dye to darken the African Mahogany and then many coats of spray lacquer. I really like the look and ease of application of Varnish Oil. My problem is I'm only going to have a day or 2 at the most to complete the finishing before having to hit the road. It will have several days after that to dry, but I'm not sure I want to smell Varnish Oil the whole trip to Indiana. So maybe I'll dye or not - have several samples to try, but I kind of like wood to be its natural color and the Mahogany will darken with age.

Considering using my new HVLP equipment to spray a Garnet Shellac finish, but I've never done that before. Shellac dries quickly and I can get several coats applied in a day if the weather cooperates - no indoor spray booth.

Still puzzling out my options for finishing. Also still have what seems like hundreds of Ebony plugs to make.

Getting down to the deadline.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Any finishing suggestions - especially if based on using African Mahogany would be greatly appreciated at this time.

What have you found does and does not work well. Especially given a limited time frame.

The wood has some beautiful grain patterns - I hate to minimize them in any way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top