While the glue dries I took the opportunity to do a bit of smoothing.

 

Edited October 11, 20241 yr by Handfoolery

All for now. See you next time.

Thanks for watching, liking and commenting.

Much appreciated.

Excellent work and progress Mike. Thanks for the detailed update. Glad your weather is holding out for shop time.

6 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Excellent work and progress Mike. Thanks for the detailed update. Glad your weather is holding out for shop time.

Thanks!

I work out back in winter if the temps are 30s or better and there isn't a foot of snow on my benchtop. The only thing is, I need to keep the pieces in the shed until I go to glue up. If I keep bringing unsupported pieces in and out of the cold bad things happen to them in a hurry.

Edited October 11, 20241 yr by Handfoolery

The lid for this box has a piece of trim around it, that combined with a skirting that goes around the box forms what is called a dust seal. I needed to cut that out.

 

 

The saw I'm using is the first decent hand saw I bought, from a local flea market.

It's a Nicholson, and has the aluminum medallion and saw nuts, and most likely was sold in the 70s or 80s. It has as far as I'm aware, no collector value. So I shortened the plate so that I could fit it in this box.

It's 8 tpi and filed rip. I'd prefer to have both a rip and a crosscut hand/panel saw, but there is not room enough for both, and most of the time when I need a saw without a back it is for ripping operations. But I can do a passable job with it at crosscutting, if I am careful when I start and end the cut. At least for the day to day of breaking stock down to rough dimensions.

I dearly love my old Distton and EC Atkins saws, but having a saw that fits the box and is already at hand trumps having to carry one out separate from the toolbox itself. And I'm loath to shorten my vintage saws because they may hold historical value.

Any thoughts on this subject are greatly encouraged, and I may start another thread on the subject if needed.

Once cut to length I needed to rip it to width.....

 

....and then plane in straight and square, and to final width.

 

 

 

Here I'm testing the fit of the single dovetail that will hold it together.

 

 

I think it turned out nicely.

Before I glue it in place I needed to bevel the center panel of the top.

 

 

 

 

 

Then on to the glue up.....

 

 

...and clamp 'er up.

 

 

 

 

And that is all for the moment.

I realize on the sides there is long grain and end grain. I will most likely put some finishing nails on either side just for added peace of mind where the end grain joints are.

Thanks for looking.

Edited October 14, 20241 yr by Handfoolery

Great progress. Looking good. Nice modification on the saw. Although, when you think about the saw, if it's circa 1970's, it's around 50 years or more old. Time sure flies by.

41 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Great progress. Looking good. Nice modification on the saw. Although, when you think about the saw, if it's circa 1970's, it's around 50 years or more old. Time sure flies by.

I feel that. LOL. Especially when it rains.

Super project!

Thank you.

I attached the battens to the bottom in preparation for installing the skirting.

 

 

 

I went with three of them because I wanted one in the middle to help to support the three piece bottom.

 

 

Then it was on to gluing up the skirting that goes around the top of the chest underneath the lid.

Squirt on some glue....

 

And use the best glue spreader, the one the Master created.

 

Clamp the front piece.

 

 

I then carefully removed each side piece. Did not want to break a dovetail pin at this point.

 

 

I put some glue on the dovetail joint first....

 

 

...then to the side piece......

 

 

Tapped it on home...carefully....

 

 

The same process was repeated on the other side....

 

 

Then, after cutting out and sizing the bottom skirting, I cut the Dovetails for it....

 

 

 

And, finally, glued and clamped that up in the same manner.

 

 

This work was done about 4 days ago, before my drill took a nosedive.

That is being sorted.

More to come.

Thanks for looking and coming along on this build.

Much appreciated.

Love all the dovetails and the addition of the skirt. 

1 minute ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Love all the dovetails and the addition of the skirt. 

Thank you. If yer gonna make a box, dovetails are a solid choice.

I was not planning on skirting or the 5 piece paneled top. I was worried about weight and being able to carry it out to the bench out back. It was going to be just a simple dovetailed box with a flat lid.

But the more I built the more I realized that if I was going to do this, I might as well do it as a traditional English chest. I'll buy a flipping dolly from Harbor Freight to get it out back if I have to.

There will be one largish sliding tray that will hold everything that doesn't go in the bottom. It should serve my needs for a long time, I think.

I will eventually upgrade a couple of my saws, and my grooving and rabbet plane, and get a router plane, when and if funds allow. They are pretty much the weak spots in my tools. But I don't need much more than those to build almost anything, and I made sure all of that will fit this chest.

Thanks for looking and commenting on my thread.