After all the cutting and gluing of boards last week it was a goal of mine to have this toy box assembled by Wednesday. As the project started coming together I had to remind myself of the goal of being done in time. There is always this desire to take a little more time to touch up a few of the blemishes that show up here and there as you progress along. (Or maybe the desire to just take a nap in the middle of the day.) Then sometimes I feel that I am probably my biggest critic. As you build something piece by piece, it is easy to see the flaws and errors of the small individual pieces and to not see the good of the completed project. I have to say that my wife is very encouraging when I show her what I am working on. She always fails (or maybe it is that she always overlooks) the errors that have developed. She just is happy with the end result. (Hey, that must be why she married me.)
To start out with, we took each of the ends and drilled holes in order to screw the ends to the sides of the box. I drilled those holes using the drill press so that each hole was an equal distance from the outside edge. After the holes were drilled, I countersunk each of those holes so once the end was screwed to the sides I could put wooden plugs over the screw heads so that they would not be seen. The sides set up about an inch higher than the legs of the ends. To keep this spacing in line, I trimmed a couple of scrap boards an inch thick to set under the sides on while I attached the ends to the sides with screws.
On the inside of the ends I attached a 1/2 inch strip of wood to the edge using carpet tape. Carpet tape is tape that is sticky on both sides. You can temporarily stick two pieces of wood together using carpet tape. Later when done, you can separate those pieces without injury to the wood. As you can see it worked well enough that I could clamp the two boards together holding them in the correct place while I drove the screws. (It is like having an extra arm.) It does not show up on the picture very well, but near the bottom of each side there is a 3/4 inch cleat that was attached to support what will be the bottom of the toy box. That cleat was attached with glue and screws. 
Once both sides were screwed to one end, I could measure and cut out the bottom piece. The plan did have demensions for the bottom piece but I like to wait until I'm ready to install it to make sure I have the correct measurement, just in case. The bottom is simply a piece of birch plywood. The plans called for 3/4 inch plywood, but I used some 1/2 inch that I had on hand. I glued it to those cleats on the sides along with adding a few screws. It felt solid. (What's another 1/4 of an inch anyway. I'm sure this will still hold a pile of toys.) 
Once I had the bottom of the toy box installed, I attached the other end of the toy box to the two sides with screws. To the left it shows where I started to put wooden plugs into the countersunk holes that I had drilled out for the screws. Sometimes you can make your own plugs from left over scraps but in this case I already had some maple plugs on hand. As you can see, some of the holes are plugged and some are waiting to be plugged. I try to match the grain pattern of the plug with the pattern in the board which is not always easy with soft maple. 
Next, I installed a couple of cleats near the top of the toy box. These will be used to set a tray on and the tray can be slid from one end of the toy box to the other. I cut the sides and the ends of the tray out of some scrap 5/8 inch thick soft maple that I had on hand. The picture to the right shows that I used a straight bit on my router table to cut a groove near the bottom of all four boards. On the side pieces you could cut the groove all the way from end to end, but on the end pieces you have to avoid going through the edge of the ends. This keeps the groove from being exposed once the tray is framed in. 
To the left, you can see the tray assembled. I used 1/4 inch plywood for the bottom. You just slide the plywood into the grooves that were routered out near the bottom of the tray. Then the four pieces are assembled using wood screws on the four corners of the end pieces. The tray is about 11 inchs wide and 14 inchs long. Since I was in the practice of hiding the screw heads by using plugs in this project, I used the same steps when putting the tray together. 
I don't know why, but the plan called for three of these little design things to be glued on to the front of the toy box. I cut them out according to the specs and glued them on, but I'm not sure what value they add to the project. Maybe just something to look at. (Kind of like wall paper in a bathroom I guess.) That is everything. The toy box was now assembled, but I still have not added the lid. I thought that I would varnish all the pieces before I attached the hinges of the lid to the box. Next to sanding, varnishing is my favorite thing. (Yeah, right.) Well, below is the finished toy box, blanket chest, or hope chest. I guess it will be the owner's call some day as to what it will become. I applied one coat of a wood conditioner and 3 coats of a water based varnished. I was surprised to see the maple darken a little as I applied the wood conditioner. The hinges used for this project are called "Lid-Stay Torsion" hinges. That means that the lid will stay open, closed, or in the middle. It works as a hinge and a lid support. When I built a toy box for my boys (a long time ago) they quickly learned to dodge the lid as it came crashing down. Still a lot of little fingers were caught between the lid and the edge of the toy box back in those days. (I wonder if they are still holding that against me yet today... Hmmm.)
Here it is. Of course, as with all my projects, there are a couple glitches that I will never confess too. But all in all it turned out great. (At least that is what my wife says anyway.) I think some little guy is going to be happy with his new toy box. Especially when it is filled with his toys. 
Hey!!! Where did that cat come from????
Looks Great! So how do we get on the list of projects? :-)
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