Wooden Machinist's chest WIP thread

[John L Sanford]

Just wanted to update. I received a very Generous gift in the mail yesterday from a forum member by the name of Jim Matthews. He sent me some walnut he had that he is not going to use. I was blown away when I opened the package. I never expected such generosity from him.



The widest pieces are 9.5", so I will have to change my box dimensions to make this work with the wood he sent. No big deal.

I also purchased a piece of quilted maple off of ebay. This will be used for the drawer fronts.



I'm excited. Now I have to see about getting the wood planed. the walnut will need to be 1/2", and the maple will have to be 3/8".

[Mike Svoma]

Nice job so far, John. Isn't Solidworks great? I use it for all of my project layouts, as well.

[John L Sanford]

Question: I thought about going ahead and cutting out some of the pieces I need out of these larger pieces of walnut. I have not had it planed yet. Would it be easier for the person doing the planing to have the boards whole like they are now, or would it be ok to take them the individual cut pieces?

[Todd Burch]

Whole, for certain. (unless they are planing by hand).

[John A. Callaway]

If that quilted is thick enough ( 1.25" or thicker ) , I would find a shop that will resaw it for you first, so you get double the drawer fronts....

[John L Sanford]

If that quilted is thick enough ( 1.25" or thicker ) , I would find a shop that will resaw it for you first, so you get double the drawer fronts....

John, The maple was 1.75" thick. My drawer fronts are .375". The guy I bought it from offered free resawing, and he uses a .125" blade. I figured it up and told him to make me three cuts at roughly .400"+ thick, and I will have three sheets of that stuff that can be planed to .375". That piece only measures 21.75 tall though, so some changes in the model are in order. The main changes are drawers that are 21" wide now vs. 25" (the lower ones), and also the box will be 9" deep instead of 10.5". I'm working on redrawing the model now in solidoworks. Since I lost the width by about 4", I am going to eliminate the center drawer. I didn't really like it anyway.

[John Miletta]

Ah Yes, The double panel, front and back was the truly only solid wooden machinist chest built in the old days. Later veneer was used for the back and lid... Looks like it`s coming along just fine... ...MC

[John L Sanford]

Thanks for all the support. The new drawing is almost complete, and I'll post some pics of it in a day or two. I'm really excited to get started on it.

[John L Sanford]

So here's a question I've had in the back of my mind since I started designing this thing. What kind of clearance do I need in the red circled areas of this picture?



The red circled areas are supposed to depict the drawer sides and case sides, drawer sides and vertical center dividers, drawers in relation to one another, and so forth. Right now, the box has been designed with zero clearance. I know this can't work, especially if the wood really moves like you all say it does. So what is acceptable? 1/16" around all places of contact? The factory made boxes look to be pretty tight. I don't want mine to look sloppy because of too much clearance. I know that grain direction has a part to do with this, and I plan to draw up a simple model detailing that as well, so you guys can point me in the right direction if I don't have the grain correct.

[Todd Burch]

If you fit to 1/16" on a dry day, you might be tight on a humid day. Your big center drawer, the fit between the two bottom drawers, and the two drawers 4th from the top will be the ones to watch. You could back-bevel, ever so slightly, the top and bottom edges of your drawer fronts to reduce chances of collision on a humid day. 1/2 of a degree or 1 degree would probably be enough. You could get by with only beveling the bottom edge of the drawer fronts if you didn't want to see the bevel.

[John L Sanford]

Here is the new model. This one has been updated to accomodate the wood sizes I have. Should get the maple any day now, and then it's off to the planer.

[John L Sanford]

Just to update..The wood is at the trim shop now being planed. I should be able to pick it up today. I'll try to get some pics up of it in it's new slimmer size

[John L Sanford]

Got the wood back. Here are some pics. Both 1/2" AND 3/8" walnut here



Then here is the maple. Three pieces at 3/8" and one a little thinner. I'll use it for another project



And these pics are a close up of some holes in the wood. I'm not sure if this is some sort of beetle or what. I can always fill these holes if I absolutely have to. I probably have enough of the walnut to avoid these areas though I think. Does anybody recognize this damage?

[David Keller NC]

What you're seeing is typically insect damage from wood-boring species (there are several common ones, there's no way to tell exactly which one from just the holes). In walnut, these insects only attack the sapwood - the heartwood remains untouched. This is one reason why most woodworkers cut the sapwood off of walnut.

Regarding your drawer fit - you don't need to leave 1/16" clearance on the ends of your drawers - wood doesn't change length along the grain with moisture changes. It's the drawer height that needs clearance. However, it looks like your drawers are going to be side-hung with dovetail runners. If that's the case, don't design in a clearance. Instead, make your drawers to be a perfect flush fit, then plane them down with a block plane or other method to get the clearance you need.

[John L Sanford]

Just to update, I have secured a table saw and gotten it to my shop. It does not have a fence, so I will be rigging something that will work and making some test cuts. Hope to start working on the cuts this weekend for some of the pieces, as I will have some time off of work