Well, wife has been wanting me to build her a cedar/blanket chest for 5 years now - but it always seemed to be put on the back burner.  Recently the church asked me to make another set of cabinets and a bookcase, but before I set out on that project, I knew I needed to get her project done.  Actually I was able to work on both projects at the same time.

 

I always start my projects with a Google Sketchup rendition - I need plans!!!  Those of you that can build stuff without plans I applaud you!  You will notice what looks like a stick on the left - originally wife wanted a clothes rack incorporated into the cedar chest - we have a free standing one in our closet now - this would replace it.  She decided against it - I told her it could be easily added later.

 

 

Once I create the plan - I make a copy and "EXPLODE" the pieces to I have a general idea how to cut the pieces.

 

 

Then I proceed to cut and label all the pieces.

 

Here is a series of dry fits - for some reason the dual 22.5 degree angles on the front caused me some issues - not sure why - really not a big deal!

 

Started adding molding/trim to mimic our bedroom set (hence the angled front corners)

 

Lined the inside with cedar

 

And the finished product - prior to staining and polying.  We had extra drawer handles from our bedroom set - so I added them to make what look like drawers, but they are not.

 

 

Putting on bottom trim - you can NEVER have enough clamps - LOL

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 20206 yr by IrishWoodCarver
mispelled words

Man that's great stuff,....I love the design  

Beautiful work!!!  

Great follow along, great story, great job. Gotta think the Missus is mucho happy with you.

Sweet! 

Wow, that is nice work. I like your procedures. 

I'll second all the above comments. A beautiful piece!

John

That is Awesome!

 

Could I ask what extension/plugin you use to create your exploded Sketchup views?

23 minutes ago, lew said:

That is Awesome!

 

Could I ask what extension/plugin you use to create your exploded Sketchup views?

Hi Lew, to my knowledge there is no extension/plugin that will create the explosion - I did it all manually.  Each piece is either a GROUP or a COMPONENT - then I just manually separate them and use the measurement tool to show the sizes.

 

Many years ago, I sent a copy of a project I did to Google showing how I manually  separate the pieces and mentioned it would be a great idea to have a tool to do this - I never heard back - LOL.  Not sure if there is a plugin available or not - really have not looked because it is not that hard to do manually.

 

I did find a plugin called CUTLIST which is pretty good - here is a link to a youtube video I put together back in 2013 - not sure if CUTLIST has been updated since then.

 

 

Thanks! I have been using this one-

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=24390

 

I thought maybe there may have been others that you found. I use CutList, also. Really great but sometimes I forget to put the material names in the component ID and end up with more pieces than necessary but can usually get everything to work out OK.

That is a great looking cedar chest there Irish.

Well, slight modification.  The upper trim was flush with the lid making it hard to open, hence the gap in the middle.  Looking at it over and over I did not like the look, so I created a piece that fit the gap, but attached to lid.  Personally I think it looks much better now.

 

I like that idea!!

Looks good from my house.....

Thought I posted pictures of the finished cedar/blanket chest (well still need to poly), but I don't see them - maybe it was another site or Facebook.  Anyway - here it is.  Decided to not do anything on the 45 degree edge - just could not come up with anything - wish I had a cnc!!  LOL

 

On a side note, as long as I have been using Minwax poly, I never saw the "Special Instructions" that stated "not to use over red mahogany stain", well guess what stain I used!  UGH - still I think it came out nice.  Wife is VERY happy - so thats all that matters!

 

Edited March 22, 20206 yr by IrishWoodCarver
fixed mispelling and added comment

I bet the wife is happy Irish, that is just beautiful!

With the help of the wife, we got the cedar chest upstairs.  Took this picture next to one of our bedroom furniture pieces.  Color matches pretty good, and I included a zoomed in angle of the corner so you can see what I was trying to mimic.  Obviously our bedroom set is more elaborate than I can do with my current tools, hence the desire to get CNC to create some sort of design for the angled edges, but for now they will remain smooth.

Beautiful!

Looks great!

That is very nice, came out great!