One of my oldest friends and his wife are having a baby this spring, and early on I decided I wanted to build them something special for their home. After a lot of research and looking at various designs I decided on a toy/blanket chest. I pulled inspiration from a bunch of places and settled on a rail and stile design with plywood panels.

Lumber

Made my first ever trip to Downes and Reader in Stoughton, MA. Its a local hardwood provider, and I was beyond impressed. They had stock of all thickness and variety. I picked out some S4S 4/4 White Oak. Most of it was 1″x4″ but I also got the thick board pictured to use for the top of the chest.

Initial Cuts

My entire setup is pretty new, including a Hitachi 12″ Miter Saw I recently received from a family member. I hadn’t spend any time squaring it up, so on this particular evening I went after it. The adjustments were relatively simple, and after some test cuts I was pretty happy with the alignment. I cut down all the stock to rough length and called it a night.

The Top

Unfortunately when cutting the long 12″ wide oak board, I discovered a split that ran through one half. Luckily I was able to keep the two halves together, and get some glue into the split. I hit the glue joint edges with my Stanley #7C hand plane, and got the glue up done with my panel clamps.

After it had dried for a day or two, I took it out and used a combo of my Stanley #4 and some card scrapers to get the whole thing flat and smooth.

Slots

Feeling fresh one morning, I took on the table saw. All of the rails and stiles were ripped down to 3″ width, and then all the slots were cut. Initially I thought I’d use my router to cut the 3/8″ slots, but oak can be so splintery and given the number of slots that needed to be cut, I decided to do it with the table saw. I don’t have a dado set yet, so each slot needed 4 passes.

I set the fence to do the outside cuts and did all those first, then adjusted the fence to hog out the leftover middle, and finished all the pieces. Here all the rails and stiles are ripped to width, and slotted.

Tenons

All of the stiles needed to get a tenon cut on the end, in order to fit into the rail slots. I set up a jig on the router table and went at it. I was quite happy with the jig, as it allowed repeatable and safe cuts on the router.

Dry Fit

After all the tenons and slots were done, I dry fit the frames the ensure they’d all fit together properly. Success!

Panels

The panels are 16″ x 16″ 3/8″ thick baltic birch plywood. This was my first experience with baltic birch ply and it was great. It comes presanded and is very good quality. I picked this up at Downes and Reader as well, and had them cut the panel into 20″ wide pieces. European plywood comes in ~60″ x ~60″ square sheets, so this left me with three 20″ x 60″ pieces. I made a crosscut sled for my saw, and installed a stopper block at 16″ and was able to make quick repeatable cuts to get uniform dimensions on all 8 panels.

No pictures of the stopped block or cut panels unfortunately.

Once all cut, I dry fit all the sides and was ready to glue.

Finger Slot

As you can see in the images above, the front side of the chest has a finger slot in it, to allow for some space between the top and the side of the chest and prevent fingers from getting pinched. I used a pattern bit and a template to cut identical rounded corners.

Inside Finish

Once all the sides were glued up I sanded both sides with 150 grit, and then the inside with 220. I applied two coats of danish oil to the insides, taking care not to apply any to the surfaces that would be glued later. In the pictures below you can see the before and after of the oil application. This is always a fun part, as the grain and color of the wood really becomes apparent.

Joining the sides

The sides were to be joined with just a butt joint and dowels. The butt end of the front and back would join to the faces of the ends. I made a simple jig from some scrap oak to ensure that the dowel holes would be perpendicular and consistently spaced.

After all the holes were drilled, I applied to glue, inserted the dowels, and got everything clamped up. Finally the project was taking shape!

Bottom Ledge and Installation

After the glue was cured, I removed the clamps and began gluing on the ledge which would support the bottom of the chest. These ledges were the offcuts from ripping the rails and stiles, and were the perfect size for this.

The bottom is 1/2″ sanded plywood. I didn’t have a good way to clamp this while gluing, so I weighed it down with pots of water. Creativity points?

Finish

I sanded the outside with 220 and applied two coats of danish oil.

Hardware

Once the oil cured (1-2 days later), it was time to attach the top with the hinges, and to install the handles. I used two Rockler torsion hinges, each rated for 60 inch/lbs. This still wasn’t quite enough power, and the lid will only stay when its opened beyond 60 degrees or so. I’ll add two more hinges eventually. The handles are 3″ cup handles with the same rustic bronze finish.

Delivery

Of course, there was a blizzard the night before the baby shower when we were driving up, so I had to do some extra packaging. But it was a success and the chest stayed dry and intact. It was a nerve wracking 4 hour trip to say the least.