Two Cherry Cedar Chests

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

I have been making 2 cherry cedar chests, one for my granddaughter's
high school graduation and the other I have sold.

I just got a coat of Seal-A-Cell on them today but just with that
they turned out pretty good.

These chests have 3 drawers each and I changed from the first
one I made and made the drawers out of cedar partly because I thought
it would make a nice contrast and give a little more cedar aroma and partly because I was running very short on Cherry. Wonder what partly
was the chief factor.

The sides of the main box are all dovetailed along with the riser at the
bottom. The drawer section has 45 degree miters at the back corners and
a 1/8 inch tongue and groove top and bottom along with the drawer dividers. The drawers are also all made using thru dovetails as well.

This is the first project that I have used Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal
as a finish but I figure if it's good enough for David Marks then by golly it
sure is good enough for me.

Here the chests are this morning before I applied any finish.

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Got them all apart and one coat of Seal-A-Cell on now.

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The inside of the main box.

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Thanks for checking them out.

Gene

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Nice projects, Gene. I've not kept track of the number but I've made what seems to me to be an unending stream of cedar chests. They've all been made of solid cedar or I make an oak panel type chest with a cedar bottom. I've been wanting to make one with drawers in the bottom as I never have but don't want to take a chance with trying to sell one on speculation. I've only made one from cherry and took special pains with it and have kept it.

What are the dimensions of the chests? I find I don't have any problems selling one that's 42" long (3 1/2 feet), but if I make one that's 48" (4 feet) it seems I practically have to pay to get someone to take it off my hands. Strange the difference of six inches makes.

[Gene E Miller]

Nice projects, Gene. I've not kept track of the number but I've made what seems to me to be an unending stream of cedar chests. They've all been made of solid cedar or I make an oak panel type chest with a cedar bottom. I've been wanting to make one with drawers in the bottom as I never have but don't want to take a chance with trying to sell one on speculation. I've only made one from cherry and took special pains with it and have kept it.

What are the dimensions of the chests? I find I don't have any problems selling one that's 42" long (3 1/2 feet), but if I make one that's 48" (4 feet) it seems I practically have to pay to get someone to take it off my hands. Strange the difference of six inches makes.

Richard,

The overall lenght is about 46 inches and the width is about 22 at the
base. I made these 2 about 2 inches bigger in all directions than
the first one that I made last summer. I kept the drawers the same
depth and put the additional height in the main box. I have a looked
at a lot of commerical cedar chest such as Lane and most of those
are about 46 inches long and vary between 20 and 22 inches high and
20 to 22 inches wide.

Gene

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Thanks for the dimensions, Gene. I make the box on mine 18 inches wide and 16 inches high. The bottom is nailed on and routed flush and then I put base moldings/feet on, which, with the lid, makes the overall height a little over 20" and with the width of the base moldings and lid about 20" also. I will have to measure some "new" commercially made ones. It's odd but I have an old Lane made entirely of cedar which was built either in the late forties or early fifties and the box on it is only one foot deep on the inside!

It's odd about the size (length) of the chests. As I said, and this has happened more than once, if I built one on speculation that was 48" long and although they eventually did sell I was beginning to wonder. Make them 3 1/2' and no problem. But if I get an order about one of every three is for a four footer.....one of the first ones I built was an order for a little over five feet long.

[John Thompson]

Very nice work and I like the idea of drawers at the bottom. Strange.. but I have never seen drawers on the bottom before. But then again.. I suppose I don't get out much.

Well done...

Sarge..

[Michael Pfau]

Hi Gene the chests look great. Looks just like the one I built a few years back.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=18179

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

Well I got the chests finished today.

It's a good thing as I need to leave next Wednesday to haul them
up to Indianapolis where my Granddaughter is having her graduation
next Friday.

I think they turned out pretty well. This is the first time I have
use the General Finish of Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal on a project.

I have 5 coats of the Arm-R-Seal over the first coat of Seal-A-Cell.

I now have room to finish up about a half dozen of the little projects
that are waiting to get done.

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[Brent Ring]

Gene,

Beautiful Work! Not to derail it, but how do you like the 2x4/Pipe lumber racks I see in the background? I need somthing better in my shop that will hold a bit more lumber, and wondered how you like those, and were they easy to install? How expensive was the pipe?

[Gene E Miller]

Gene,

Beautiful Work! Not to derail it, but how do you like the 2x4/Pipe lumber racks I see in the background? I need somthing better in my shop that will hold a bit more lumber, and wondered how you like those, and were they easy to install? How expensive was the pipe?

Hi Brent,

I made that lumber rack with just a few 2x4's framed up. Then drilled a
series of holes for a 16" length of 3/5 black pipe on a 3 degree angle.

I made a couple of solid shelves out of 5/8 OSB with a solid wood frame
on 3 sides so it slides over the pipe and will hold shorter lengths of lumber
as well as not letting anything sag.

I also made a swing out sheet stock carrier that is hinged on one end
and has a caster on the other so it will swing out and I can get to
an area behind it that has shorts standing on end between the 2x4 frames.

The pipe I picked up at the local lumber, hardware supply store and
they cut it to length for me. I can adjust the shelves because I made
the holes about 4 inches apart that go from the top down to about 3 foot
off the floor. Works out pretty good for me but I still end up with lots
of cutoffs on the floor and no where to put them.

Gene

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work, Gene!