Bridal Chest

[Jim Gallo]

Hello all,

I have been lurking here for a while now, but I think I have only posted once. But I need some help, and I know if there is anywhere to get experienced woodworker's help, it is right here.

I am planning on building my future daughter-in-law a bridal chest for their wedding in October.

I want to make it out of frame and panel construction. I bought some sapele for the main structure, but I would like to make the panels out of a complimentary wood. Can you recommend a complimentary wood that will look good with Sapele.

I would like to use an exotic veneer on the panels, but I can't, because I really like the profile of my Freud rail & stile router bit set, and I wouldn't be able to raise the veneered mdf panel.
I have made a veneered mdf panel before, I surrounded it with matching hardwood and put the profile on the hardwood border, but that is really a PITA.

I could not find a plan that included the way I would like to build this chest.
I plan on making separate frame and panels, then connecting one panel to another, using dowels, with the dowelmax system.
Will there be a problem with wood movement using this method?


Also, I have seen F&P chests made with 2 long rails, with individual common stiles inserted into the rails. But to me, it looks like the common stiles (Two adjacent panels sharing one stile) would need to be coped, to mate up with the long upper and lower rails. Would this be correct?


I probably confused everyone with the way I'm describing this.

And what about the lid?
Should I make it with frame & panels. Or just laminate the boards to make a wide lid?
If I laminate, should I use breadboard ends, which I have never attempted?

I wanted to make a model of my design in Sketchup, and include it in this post, but have never used Sketchup before, and when I sat down to try it, I could get no further than making a basic box.

I am totally obsessed with my new hobby of woodworking and I love reading all the posts in this and some of the other forums.
Thanks for all the help that you offer to those of us just learning.

Sincerely,
James

P.S. Would someone be kind enough to make a sketchup model of what I'd like to do. I would pay for that service.
Sent from my iPhone
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