The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

I just liked the look of the chest.

Building this chest would really stretch my woodworking abilities. I have a lathe and the turned legs are not a new challenge.  I have cut some hand-cut dovetails before, but I do not know if I can make them as neat looking as the pattern, so this will be a challenge. I have never done any inlay work, so this will definitely challenge and stretch my abilities.

I found the museum where one of the two original 1747 chests are located. This chest has the initials of the person who received the chest, as well as the date of birth of the recipient, as was the custom in 1747.

I always enter my projects into Sketchup first.  This process helps me to better understand the design and construction of the object, as well as find any errors in the pattern.

I actually found several errors in the magazine pattern. The first error was that a quantity of one side piece was required in the BOM (bill of material).  You need two side pieces for this chest.

The 2nd error was that the 1/2" dimension is not dimensioned correctly.

The 3rd error was the dimensioning of the bottom area of the chest was incorrect.  I emailed the magazine editor. The email chain is below:

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Because the londonberry pulls were much higher priced than the same basic pulls at Horton Brass, I got the pulls from Horton brass.  I also got some antique cut nails to nail on the bottom from Horton. I'm going to get the escutcheon's from londonberry because Horton does not carry the exact same style.

You can order from Horton's web site directly, but you can not order from londonberry's site directly. You have to order by phone.

My daughter and I went to Bloomington, Illinois, to the Restore Store. People bring used stuff to this place, they sell it, and the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.

In this store, we found a stack of left over hardwood flooring boards. Upon closer inspection, it looked like mahogany, not oak.  I was able to buy about 100 feet for $25.

Researching on the internet revealed that most mahogany flooring is made from Brazilian mahogany.

The hard finish on 1 side must be removed.  I used my belt sander to remove a lot of the finish before running it through my planer. Internet articles say that one of the problems of using flooring is that the finish side is very hard on planer knives.  The floor boards have 2 grooves in the bottom. By the time you plane both sides, you end up with about 9/16" thick stock.  The plans for Hannah's chest call for 9/16" thick mahogany, so this worked out ok.

Here is a photo of some of the flooring material:

Since this project puts me in uncharted waters, with respect to my woodworking skills, I decided to practice, and make a small box.........before I make the full-scale size box.

 This will let me improve my hand cut dovetail ability, plus learn how to inlay wood.

 My first small box of hand-cut dovetails did not go well.......but by the 2nd box I got quite a bit better...

I first scratched a circle using the Lie Nielsen compass style cutter. I was surprised in that the blade has 2 V cutters, which start to cut 2 v-notches, not a flat-bottom groove. You have to go deep enough where the v-notches start to disappear and you get more of a flat bottom. I ground the pointed end of a 16-penny nail a little narrowed than 1/16", so I could scrape and make the groove more flat-bottomed.

I used the router table to make the straight lines with a 1/16" wide router bit.

I did have to warm up the 1/16" wide holly inlay in hot water to get it to bend for the circle without breaking. I used a scrap piece of wood and a hammer to tap the inlay firmly to the bottom of the groove.

I had to soak the holly inlay strips in hot water, so they would bend around the circle without breaking. 

After using the belt sander to sand down the inlay, it turned out very nice!

I grabbed a piece of mahogany, eye-balled it, and said to myself, it is long enough to make the 3 trim pieces. I should have measured! When I got the 3 pieces done, I came up about 3/8" short on the main front piece!! I had to start-over with a longer board.

The pictures below are of the 1st attempt. On the 2nd attempt, I scaled the trim down from 1.25" tall to 7/8" tall......because it looked better on this smaller box.

I copied the author's technique, in that you take the fancy bit, and gradually raise it up......with the trim board vertical. Then you round-over the edge with the trim board horizontal. The last step is to rip the thin molding from the larger starting piece. My flooring board stock has 2 grooves in the back. I ripped the board at one groove, to leave the full 3/4" thick section needed for the big chest.

This little box really turned out nice.  If I had it to do over, I would have selected a better looking front piece. When I started out, I was just practicing my hand-cut dovetail joints, and later I decided to make it into a box. The grain is a little dark on the front piece.

If I using the flooring mahogany for the real larger Hannah's chest, I will have to carefully select which pieces to use, since some pieces have ugly grain.  The grain on the lid is gorgeous, for example.

When Installing the hinges, I broke another 1/16" pilot drill bit. With this hard of wood, you have to feed a little ways, then back out, then feed again.

All-in-all, I'm glad I practiced on this box, before building the entire Hannah's chest project.