So last night I got home, put Mathieu to bed, puttered around the house a bit and it was garbage night so put those to the curb, then I headed out to the workshop. My plan was to dissassemble one side of the box then rip off a side of the box by running the whole thing lenghtwise on my table saw. So I took all the screws out but remember when I said carpenter's glue holds wood together better than nails (or screws), well here's the proof.
May be a little hard to make out but the first board I took off actually broke as the edges of the boards were glued together and that joint was actually better than the actual grain of the wood. A glued joint is definitely not your weakest point. So I thought so what, I can just cut 2 pieces to replace this face but the more I tried, the more evident it was that this thing would not come apart as I wanted.
So here it lies in the corner, now a scrapped pile of wood. It's a shame as I should have just left it as is and used it as a nice storage box as I now ended up starting the box from scratch.
I don't even remember why I bought this 90 degree clamp and I know I had definitely never used it but boy was it ever perfect to start a box with. I predict I will use this clamp again in the future and when the wife saw it she also started dreaming of all the projects she could use this for. Just goes to show, this thing has been hanging on the wall in the workshop for a few years and I'm just discovering it's usefulness.
This time around, making the box a little shorter (with one 1X6 and one 1X4), I decided to stagger the boards, 1X6 for bottom board on the face and back and the 1X4 as the bottom board for the sides. Seeing how strong the glued joints were on the let's call it the prototype, I figured it made structural sense to have staggered joints.
Now doesn't that look nice. I drilled 2 holes in each side that once this thing is painted, we'll run some rope through and make a rope handle on each side. I also broke out the palm sander and with some 80 grit paper sanded the joints on the lid and this thing turned out way better than I ever hoped for. Still need to fill in a small crack with some wood filler and it may not come out as good in a pic but I am more than pleased with this lid.
Obviously when the munchkin saw this this morning he ordered his mother to paint this "tout de suite". I'm taking him with me this weekend for a reno project I'm doing and on one of my inevitable trips to KBS or Home Depot, we'll pick up some hinges and a latch so when we get home Sunday we can complete the chest. I'll post some pics of the finished product.
Till then, as always, thanks for dropping by.
A.
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