New English Workshop - Dutch Tool Chest Course

[Mr Ed]

Hello All

I've not been posting here for some considerable time, but I did read the recent thread on the ATC course and enjoyed it, so I thought I would reciprocate by sharing my pictures of the Dutch Tool Chest course the following week. These are all from Instagram, which I used to capture things as the course went along and then completing the build once I got home.

You need to make a tool chest to take your tools to a tool chest making course

Ready to get started

Quick dovetail tutorial

Marking out

Sawing tutorial

Sawing

Coping

Cleaning the faces up

The Schwarz dovetailing

More coping

In the clamps at the end of day one

Cleaning up after gluing

Fitting the shelf

Beading with Mr Schwarz's Clarke and Williams side bead

Front lip fitted

Nailing on the back

With the fall front fitted

Has it come to this?

Back home in the workshop

All about the certificate

Cleaning up the dovetails

Fitting the battens to the fall front

A little adjustment

Skids on the bottom of the case

Coming together

Ripping the breadboard ends for the top

Ploughing the groove

Fitting the breadboard ends with pegs

Hand planed thumbnail moulding on the lid

Fitting the hinges

Lid fitted

Fitting the handles

Fitting the hasp

Done (apart from some paint and the internal fittings)

And finally, sitting happily in its new home

Hope that's of interest to someone

Cheers, Ed

 

[Paul Chapman]

Looks good, Ed - although having seen you cut dovetails, I'm not sure that you had much to learn.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Mr Ed]

Thanks Paul, I still learned a few things on the course and the overall experience was very enjoyable.

Ed

 

[Steve Maskery]

Excellent, Ed, thank you for sharing.
I really do feel like enrolling on a course the next time Chris comes over. I'm very much a beginner in this area.
S

 

[Doug B]

Looks good, Ed - although having seen you cut dovetails, I'm not sure that you had much to learn.

Got to see the almost completed box at the weekend & I can confirm the dovetails are very crisp 8)

I look forward to seeing it finished.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Looks like plenty of nice hand working taking place.

 

[Mr Ed]

Thanks Steve and Doug.

I know I've been gone a while, but do people only reply to threads if they know you in person these days? :lol:

 

[Mr Ed]

Looks like plenty of nice hand working taking place.

Everything by hand Peter - it's really enjoyable to force yourself to work in this way; it's an entirely different type of woodworking when there's no machines or power tools.

 

[JonnyD]

Nice work Ed .

Cheers

Jon

 

[morfa]

Lovely looking tool chest. Great job.

 

[deema]

Great chest.

I love your saw horse, can you put a picture up of it. It looks to be beautifully made and a very elegant design, it appears as though you can saw without stopping.

 

[Harbo]

Great pictures and story - excellent work.
What wood did you use?

Rod

 

[Mr Ed]

Great chest.

I love your saw horse, can you put a picture up of it. It looks to be beautifully made and a very elegant design, it appears as though you can saw without stopping.

Here you go

 

[Mr Ed]

Great pictures and story - excellent work.
What wood did you use?

Rod

It's Southern Yellow Pine, which is what was supplied on the course - pretty horrible to work with and not my choice. Personally I would prefer either Yellow Poplar or Eastern White Pine.

 

[deema]

Thanks for the picture of the Saw horse. I've now added it my things to make. I think its a really elegant design, I love it. Thanks

 

[Berncarpenter]

Hi ED
Good post mate like the photos . Were you disappointed that you didnt have enough time to complete your chest at the class or like me glad to get back to your own shop with room to move and a good bench ? Im not saying i didnt enjoy the class i did but i really missed my bench.

Had a bit of a bad time with the blunt punched nails ,they split the sides of chest.

When i got back home i pulled all the nails out filled the splits with glue and cramped them up.

Replaced with sharp flooring cut nails on the right

Like your saw horse that would have come in handy for mike seen here sawing dangerously close to his jewels .
He hadnt noticed that the board he was going at was only supported by 5mm on the end , good job we stopped him in time from what could have been a very nasty injury.

Cheers Bern

 

[Mr Ed]

Hi Bern

I didn't expect to finish, although personally I could have gone quite a but quicker (particularly on day one) which would have meant being more complete at the end. I suppose this is just how it is with courses - it'll never be the case that everyone is at the same level. The extra time did mean I could take lots of pictures and also be a bit more fussy with the details of the box, so I didn't really mind.

Getting back to the shop with my own bench (with a tail vice) and lots of space made me realise that although I enjoy the company of other woodworkers, I also like to be in my own little sanctuary as well.

The so-called nails were awful, but I only had one significant split on my shelf, which as a consequence of having a bit of spare time on the course I was able to glue and clamp over lunch on day two.

I had a feeling the sawhorse would be useful - I think most people ended up using it at some point, leaving a few modest battle scars to tell the tale.

I would have liked to do the ATC course, I just couldn't justify the time off work. I know Paul and Derek have some great ideas for next summers courses, so it'll be interesting to see what they turn out to be.

Ed

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Bern - it looks to me as if the cut nails have been used across the grain, this might be why your wood split?

 

[Mr Ed]

Bern - it looks to me as if the cut nails have been used across the grain, this might be why your wood split?

Well where the boards meet the sides on the ends of the chest you have a cross grain situation, so they're always going to be the 'wrong' way round for one of the bits. Personally I'd do what Bern did and have the wedging action in line with the grain on the bottom boards as they are the more vulnerable of the two.

Ed

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Personally, I'd have said to hell with history and used annular ring nails or screws - but that's probably why I don't make things like that.