Project Pics: Shaker Blanket Chest

[Ben Arnott]

Looks great so far. The Cherry is beautiful! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Ben

[Jeff Craven]

Hey I love this thread! And that quote above made me laugh quite a bit, it SO made me empathize with you!

Is this the design from hmm, woodwrights shop? Or maybe Norms? I seem to recall videotaping a similar chest where the sides were all dovetailed and the bottom wrap around plinth had that odd mitered dovetail design on the top?

Great to see you plugging along on it, and I'd love to hear more about that bench, especially if you built it--looks great either way. Keep posting, I'm rooting for ya!

The design isn't anything in particular. I just found a bunch of different versions of shaker chests and choose the features I wanted, then simplified it. I didn't want the complication of building a drawer, so I made it a little shorter than some of the designs. I think the traditional way was to apply a molding between the plinth and base, but I wanted to do the mitered dovetail, because I was comfortable with that.

I did build the bench, it was a class offered by the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop, so it was built in one week, about 50 hours total, alongside 10 other students doing the same thing.

[Jeff Craven]

More progress!

[Jeff Craven]

And now glued up the base. Now matter how many clamps I own, I will always use them all.

[Donny Lawson]

Looks like a new "Maple" top to me. I would love to have some maple like that for me a nice bench. Also, I wish I could make dovetails like that too. That's something I can never figure out.
Donny

[Jeff Craven]

[Martin Shupe]

Nice work! I have a partially finished chest that needs a base. I have a couple of questions....

1) I don't see a rabbet on the inside of your base, so what supports the chest?

2) It looks like you cut the base dovetails first, then cut the curves on a bandsaw? How did you keep the straight parts straight?

3) Are you going to glue up the base, and the route the cove?

4) How will you attach the base to the blanket chest?

Sorry I have so many questions, but you look like you know more about this than I do.

Thanks!

[Jeff Craven]

I've never done this before, so I am improvising. My plan was to glue up the base, then bevel the top edge. Then I'll glue the base to the case, and add corner blocks on the inside for more support.

[Mark Blatter]

Waiting to see how you do the lid. I built three similar (one for each daughter) and each one had design changes as I learned and progressed. I didn't like the idea of a base as I thought it was more of a dust catcher, but I still wonder if that was the right way to go.

Do you plan on putting a lock on it? How about a shelf on the inside near the top?

Waiting with anticipation for the final pics.

[Jeff Craven]

Embarrasing thread bump. It still isn't finished. I got a little distracted the past few years. I just cut the lid, profiled the edges and started fitting the hinges.

[Will Boulware]

Looking good! Keep it up! If it makes you feel better, it took me 18 months to build a workbench, so you're among friends here!

[Mike Cruz]

Jeff, this is classic! Glad you not only got back to the project, but that you weren't TOO ashamed that you wouldn't keep the thread alive. Good for you. The chest is looking good. Looking forward to the completed pics. Of course, that'll be in 2017 or so, but I'm still looking forward to them!

[Rick Moyer]

October 2007 til now. You're making me feel better about my procrastination woodworking. It "only" took me two or three years to finally getting around to completing the clock I made. Thanks for keeping us up to date. Looks good and you'll be happy with it whenever you get it completed.

[Jeff Craven]

I made a little more progress, attached the lid and made the bottom out of cedar.

photo 1 (10).jpg

photo 2 (10).jpg

photo 3 (6).jpg

[Scott M Perry]

Man - them's​ some hinges! Great project - enjoying the thread.