Project Information
My daughter and son-in-law gave me the gift of my first granchild, Ian, eight months ago. Last week I gave Ian this cherry toy chest.
The sides are all 1/2" cherry plywood inset into rabbets formed on solid cherry rails and stiles. The overall outside dimensions are 39" wide, by 20" deep, by 22" high. The front and rear rails and stiles, and the side rails, are 3 1/2" wide and 1" thick, so the side stiles were made to be 2 1/2" wide so that when the sides were joined to the front/rear assemblise, all would have the same appearance. The top was made a bit differently, as its undside shows when opened, so I made it as a raised panel, so that it has the same appearance from the outside and inside. The top was made to overhang the box by 1/2" all around, so its rails and stiles were made to be 4" wide so that they would align with the front, back, and sides. The top was hinged to the carcase using Rocklers' Toy Chest torsion hinges for safety, and a hand hold/air hole (again for safety) was routed into the top of the front. As the Rockler hinges require 3/4" material, I used a chisel to mortise them into their locations on the 1" thick back rail. All edges were rounded over, and it was finished with two coats of thinned shellac, followed by two coats of rub on polyurethane.
I made extensive use of my Festool Domino Joiner, with each of the front/rear/sides/top using 8 dominos (2 in each joint), and an additional 20 dominos (5 into the front and 5 into the rear on each side) being used to join the sides to the fronts and rear, for a total, in all, of 60 dominos used for loose tenon joinery. The bottom of the box is 3/4" plywood (oak that I had in the shop stained with cherry stain), set into dados cut into the sides, front and rear before the sides were joined to the front and rear.
Interestingly, the photos taken in the shop did not show the cherry to be as "red" as the photos taken at my daughter's home, due to the different lighting in the shop. There was just an article about that in Fine Woodworking.
The sides are all 1/2" cherry plywood inset into rabbets formed on solid cherry rails and stiles. The overall outside dimensions are 39" wide, by 20" deep, by 22" high. The front and rear rails and stiles, and the side rails, are 3 1/2" wide and 1" thick, so the side stiles were made to be 2 1/2" wide so that when the sides were joined to the front/rear assemblise, all would have the same appearance. The top was made a bit differently, as its undside shows when opened, so I made it as a raised panel, so that it has the same appearance from the outside and inside. The top was made to overhang the box by 1/2" all around, so its rails and stiles were made to be 4" wide so that they would align with the front, back, and sides. The top was hinged to the carcase using Rocklers' Toy Chest torsion hinges for safety, and a hand hold/air hole (again for safety) was routed into the top of the front. As the Rockler hinges require 3/4" material, I used a chisel to mortise them into their locations on the 1" thick back rail. All edges were rounded over, and it was finished with two coats of thinned shellac, followed by two coats of rub on polyurethane.
I made extensive use of my Festool Domino Joiner, with each of the front/rear/sides/top using 8 dominos (2 in each joint), and an additional 20 dominos (5 into the front and 5 into the rear on each side) being used to join the sides to the fronts and rear, for a total, in all, of 60 dominos used for loose tenon joinery. The bottom of the box is 3/4" plywood (oak that I had in the shop stained with cherry stain), set into dados cut into the sides, front and rear before the sides were joined to the front and rear.
Interestingly, the photos taken in the shop did not show the cherry to be as "red" as the photos taken at my daughter's home, due to the different lighting in the shop. There was just an article about that in Fine Woodworking.