Blanket Chest

by The Shavingwood Workshop

31K30636

Intro: Blanket Chest

This is a chest I built as a gift for my parents, let me share my over view of this project and hopefully inspire you to make one yourself. I will try and cover all the information you need, but if I miss something let me know.

STEP 1:


I always recommend watching the build video to have a better understanding of the project

STEP 2:

The chest is a frame and panel design built with 1" thick clear pine stock, if you choose to use something else just adjust accordingly for measurements. The first thing I did was cut all of the parts that make up the rails and styles of the chest. The front rails are 36" long by 4" wide. The rear rails are the same length but the width is different, the bottom is still 4" like the front but the top rail is only 3 and 7/8ths. " This will make sense at assembly, but it is to create a off set for the hinge. The rails for the sides are 12" long by 4" wide. And the styles are all 21 and 1/4" long, the front and rear styles are 4" wide and the side styles are 3 and 3/4" wide.

STEP 3:

With all of my styles and rails cut to final size, using my hollow chisel mortising machine I cut my mortises. When I laid out my mortises I laid them out so that the bottom rails would be 4" up from the bottom of the chest and the top rails would be flush to the top of the styles. The exception being the top rear rail, this one would end up being 2 32nds short of the top of the styles, creating a off set for the hinge to sit in at assembly. My mortises for this are 1/2" wide by 1" deep and 3 and 1/2" long, the top rear rail being the same width and depth but it was 3 and 3/8ths long all mortises created center of the styles and rails.

STEP 4:

The tenons I cut on my table saw with my miter gauge. Using the fence as a stop I made my shoulder cuts then made multiple passes to remove the remaining waist material. It was a one time set up to remove a 1/4" of material from all four sides.

STEP 5:

With my tenons cut, I cleaned them up and fine tuned them testing the fit until it felt good. Making sure to mark them to that specific mortise to assure no issues at assembly. ( a to a, and b to b ect. )

STEP 6:

Next I needed to cut a groove to accept the insert panels. This is just a centered 1/4" wide groove that I created using my router table. The grooves in the rails run from end to end, but the grooves in the styles are only from mortise to mortise. I did this by lowing the style on to the router bit center of the mortise opening then making my cut until I was center of the next mortise, then I would remove the style from the router table.

STEP 7:

The last thing I needed to do at the router table was create a 1/2" stopped grove in all four styles that will make up the front and rear panels. With the groove created I used my chisel and squared up the rounded end. This groove will be to accept the tongue of the side styles at assembly.

STEP 8:

To create the tongue in all four styles that help make up the side panels, I first cut a 1/4" rabbet in one edge of the style from one end to the other then repeated this on the same edge of that style but the opposite side. This left me with a 1/2" wide tongue. Then using my hand saw I cut the tongue to match the length of the groove, then removed the waste material with a chisel.

STEP 9:

The last thing for me to do with the styles was to cut a curve at the bottom of all the styles, this is just for aesthetics and really you could just leave them straight if you wanted to. I laid this curve out so the it starts 1" under the bottom rail.

STEP 10:

The insert panels are 1 inch thick. I cut a rabbet on all four sides, creating a tongue that is a 1/4" wide and a 1/2" deep. With panels being 1" thick this will cause the panels to sit into the chest to act as runners for the insert tray sit on.

STEP 11:

With all of the parts for the chest case done I glued it together. Applying glue only in the mortises and to the tenon's, the panels are free floating. I did glued up all four panels individually and let the glue dry over night.

STEP 12:

The next day I finished assembling the chest case, applying glue to the tongues of the side panels and also in the grooves of the front and rear panels, then clamped it up being sure to check that the chest was square from corner to corner.

STEP 13:

With the chest case assembled I started on the bead molding. First cutting my stock into 3/8" strips at the table saw, then shaping the bead profile at the router table. Once I had my profile shaped I cut the molding to rough length and then used my hand plane to create the miters, removing just a small amount of material at a time until I had a perfect fit. I then glued it in place using painters tape to hold it until the glue dried.

STEP 14:

Time for the bread board lid. The lid is 36" long with out the bread boards by 19 1/2" wide and 1" thick. The breadboards are 3 7/8" wide by 19 1/2" long and 1" thick. First I cut a 1/2" by 1/2" groove center of both breadboards with the table saw. I then made my shoulder cuts in the lid at 2 1/2" in from the edge, then with my dado blade I removed the rest of the waste material, and with my hand planes I cleaned up the tongue I created for a good fit in the groove I created in the breadboards.

STEP 15:

Once the breadboards fit good I cut my tenons, removing the waste material with my turning saw and squared everything up using my chisels and shoulder plane.

STEP 16:

Next I placed the breadboard onto the tenons and marked the locations for each mortise then cut the mortises with the hollow chisel mortising machine. And after a little clean up I did a test fit and it looked good.

STEP 17:

At this point I drilled the holes to peg the breadboards to the tenons, off setting the holes in the tenons from the breadboard holes slightly towards the shoulder of the tenons. Then elongated the holes in the tenons to allow for any wood movement. And with glue applied to the center mortise and tenon only I installed the breadboard then applied glue to the pegs and installed them. After the glue dried I cut the pegs down and cleaned them flush to the surface with a chisel then a card scraper.

STEP 18:

For the bottom of the chest I cut a panel of 1" thick clear pine to fit the inside dimensions of the chest, attaching it with glue and a few brad nails to a 1 1/2" square support that runs the entire inside parameter of the chest attached flush to the bottom edge with screws. The screw holes are slightly oblong to allow for any wood movement.

STEP 19:

Time to install the hardware. I attached the lid using a piano hinge 34" long. It fit perfectly into the off set going from the top of the rear styles to the upper rail, and was then attached flush to the rear of the under face of the lid using the screws that came with the hinge. When installing the support for the lid I did use a washer between the support and the inside wall of the chest, my concern was that this is where the support would rotate when opening and closing the lid and I did not want it to do any damage to the chest from it rubbing against it. The hardware installed great and I love the pop the brass adds to this chest.

STEP 20:

The last thing to build was the insert tray, I made this from 1/2" thick clear pine. It is 18" long by 16 1/2" wide and 3 1/4" tall. I choose to assemble this tray with dovetail joinery, but you can assemble it any way you choose it is just a tray. I did not go into my process for cutting the dovetails for this tray because honestly this article would end up being twice as long if I did. With the tray completed it rests on the top edges of the insert panels where they extend into the inside of the chest, this allows the tray to slide from one end of the chest to the other.

STEP 21:

For the finish I used General finishes arm-r-seal, sanding between coats until I achieved the look I was after.

STEP 22:

Over all I'm really happy with the way the chest turned out and I hope it inspires you to build one.

STEP 23:

32 Comments

Peale 7 years ago

where is the link to the build video?

WoodenViking88 5 weeks ago

Hi, I've just searched and found your lovely blanket chest and clicked to view your video, but received a message that it's no longer there. Has it been totally removed or just renamed? I'm a bit lost as I've never done a project that large and would love to watch your video, please!

Peale 7 years ago

Aha! Now that I'm on a desktop I can see it. It's not visible on the mobile app. It appears as an image, even when you click on it.

Potterage 4 years ago

Hi Do you have proper drawings to work off?
The video and photos do not show all detail like the recess in the front and sides of the chest.

The Shavingwood Workshop 10 months ago

I'm sorry for this response being sooooo slow. I do not have anything else available for information on building this chest. But I am open to answer any questions you may have. The recess I did was a quarter of an inch with a half inch thick bead molding.
Due to things beyond my control I was forced to reboot all of my social media. So now I'm
working to getting the word out, all of my links for places like Facebook, Twitter ect. can
be found on the main page of the website. Thank you for understanding as I rebuild
my social media. www.shavingwoodwrkshop.com

StevenB276 6 years ago

I love the clear.pine, but have not found any in my area. Any recommendations? What size stock.did you start with? 5/4"

Pezzster 7 years ago

While absolutely beautiful work, this is WAY too complex and requires a ton of professional grade tools. The whole reason I got on instructables was to find doable projects. This is not something an average craftsman can do. This is way beyond.

The Shavingwood Workshop 7 years ago

Thank you. As far as the complexity of this project, it is just basic joinery that can be done using hand tools. The tenons can be cut by hand, the mortises can be created with a drill and a chisel... ect. That is how I learned to build furniture when I first started out, it took me years to acquire the equipment I have now. Don't be discouraged anyone can build this.

Pezzster 7 years ago

You really think this is doable with lesser tools? I LOVE the chest but when I saw the demonstration I thought "There is no way I can do that. I don't have half those tools".

Now this makes me want to try to make it and see if I can do it with my much smaller assortment of tools :-)

Thank you for the reply!

grantisimo 7 years ago

The woodworking in this, while complex, is perfectly doable with hand tools. These are the techniques that built the buildings of Japan, centuries before the Industrial revolution!

seamster 7 years ago

Beautiful work! The finished chest looks solid and very impressive! :)

random_builder 7 years ago

The finished product looks awesome! Great job!

followyourheart 7 years ago

LOVE it! It's so nice to see something made properly.

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