Tool Box # 2

Just some old hard wood maple laying around

This week was spent making the drawers for the tool box that I started.    I will have to say that I found this "drawer" part of the project a little more challenging.    Some of that is my own fault.   From the looks of pictures and the video that I had seen of the making of this tool box, these drawers should be made out of 1/2 inch plywood.   The problem is I did not have any more 1/2 in plywood in my wood scrap pile, but I have lots of maple piled up from a tree we took down last spring.

   So I cut those rough boards in the picture above down to size and ran them through the planner until they were 1/2 inch thick.   It was a little extra work, but the price was right.   The second issue I ran into was that I decided to use dovetail joints when putting these drawers together.    I haven't made those for awhile and the thought process went something like this:   "Oh I can do that - no problem - Oh let's see -  how did that work again?   Oops!   Hmm I must of forgot something...   gosh darn - that maple wood is hard.  Oops!"

    Anyway I did get all the pieces finally cut out.   Dovetailed each of the four corners of each drawer.    I ran a dado along the bottom of each piece  to insert a quarter inch plywood drawer bottom.   On the outside of the sides of the drawer I cut a 1/2 inch dado 1/4 of an inch deep.    The plan was to glue some slides on the side of the box in which these drawers would use as support to slide open and close.    Try as hard as I might to keep all pieces marked as to which side was the outside, which edge was the top, and which boards were the front and the back I could not avoid making  an incorrect cut (Or two).
   The picture above shows my little homemade 1/4 inch thick slides glued to the inside of the box.  Also it shows some hardboard spacers I made to use to keep the spacing the same on both sides of the box.   (I tell you what! I was about as nervous as all those republican presidential candidates facing
Donald Trump at each debate.)

     I mentioned in my last blog that I was building a prototype for this cycle.  It has been an education.   I would say that while I think the dovetail joints will be plenty strong, I will probably consider some other joinery if I make another one of these in the future.   The wood in the drawers is 1/2 inch think and by the time you make cuts for the drawer bottom and the slide on the side - the dovetails get a little chewed up.

   Here is what I have so far:  a lid on the top and three drawers on the bottom.   My next step will be to open up the billfold and buy some hardware.   I will need handles on the sides,  knobs in the front of the drawers and the lid, hinges for the lid and some kind of chain to keep the lid from falling all the way back.
   We will be taking a little vacation trip for a couple weeks (Gotta get away from the cat) so it may be April before I get back to this blog with a picture of the finished prototype tool box.  

     Once I buy the hardware and add up my bills I will see if there is a future for any more of these to be built in the Dag wood shop.