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If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with it to the end. Sorry this post was so long but as this is really the accumulation of about 3 or 4 nights worth. My loving wife has been patiently waiting for me to finish this chest so we can catch up on Breaking Bad and I think I owe her an episode or two tonight. As much as I want to finish things up tonight I don’t think I’ll be able to. Now all I need is the lid which is currently clamped and waiting. I took off an additional 1/8″ and that made things fit just right. I measured the height at 9/16″ and marked my case to cut out the notches but when I fit them they were still too high. One of the last things I did today was to install the strap hinges to the case itself. I put it back on and everything fit nice! Anyhow, I took off the one catch and took off about 1/16″ Today I made another trip to Home Depot to get the remaining wood and decided to cheat in the thinner stock pieces and bought some already 1/4″ and 1/2″ pieces for the locks and battens. This left me short of wood for the lid, locks, and battens. Speaking of which, up until today I’ve used pretty much every scrap and have not purchased any additional poplar. The board I used to get my full width for the front-fall had a little twist so I hit the catches when I tried to insert the locks. Like I had mentioned in the beginning, I used all dimensioned lumber from Home Depot and did basically no milling to any boards just so I could speed up this building process. I made the four lock catches out of one piece of wood that I cut the 2″ wide dado in…īefore cutting them into individual pieces. After I fit the fall-front to fit vertically I clamped it and marked it out the same way I did the back panels. This got me excited for the home stretch. At this point I was dying to see what it would look like with tools to I did some glamor shots. I added the opposing groove for the shiplap and finished up the back. Then I used a flush-cut pull saw to get the right fit rather than measuring. I clamped it to the back of the chest and screwed everything in place using the whole board. I used my skewed rabbet plane to cut a rabbet a little more than 3/8 deep across a 5′ board. I added the front to the carcase and took a step back to admire my work from the front It probably would have been easier to do the notches for the panel battens at this point as well but I did it once they were already installed on the fall-front. I also cut out the rest of the notches for the fall-front locks while I was at it. It’s hidden under the lip so ugliness doesn’t matter. So I unscrewed the lip and marked my areas.Īnd I was on my way to a decent looking stopped rabbet. When I finished I realized I forgot to cut out the notch where the fall-front locks fall. Let’s start from where I left off.Īfter I took the carcase out of the clamps I jumped a little ahead of myself and attached the lower lip. In the past couple of days I’ve been able to make some real progress on the tool chest. (edit) As requested, here is a picture of the rear of the chest. Total time was about two weeks of nights and Sunday’s and cost was in the ballpark of $200 all from Home Depot. All my tools now have a home and are protected. I’d have to say that this project was more rewarding to finish than my bench. There wasn’t enough vertical clearance even after I dropped the square below the bottom of the front-fall. Notice I had to extend the notch next to where the right batten rests. I really used that extra 1-1/2″ in the top area to maximize storage. The mistake that I made in making the top compartment deeper by making the upper shelf shorter worked out perfect for me. Now for the best part the interior.īefore you mention it, yes I know I have a saw problem. It holds steady but I wouldn’t move the chest without taking it off or at least holding it during the move. I used some 550 cord threaded through the catches and hanging on a screw in the lid. I didn’t want them in the bottom of a drawer somewhere so what better place to store them. Other than the square I consider these my lesser used tools. Use that prime real estate for more tool holding. Initially I thought of just attaching it to the back but as I was brainstorming I came up with an even better idea. I had it leaning against the chest but kept knocking it over so I wanted to come up with a way to store it. The front-fall kept getting in my way if I didn’t have it sitting on my bench. I did give it my own personal touch that I haven’t seen elsewhere yet. It took just as long to add all the details as it did to build the entire chest. I can finally call this project complete!