Wooden chest advice

Nail the bottom on.

In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest”, Chris Schwarz explains that the bottom of historical chests were subject to rot, from sitting on damp floors. Nailing the bottom boards on makes them easy to replace. And, strategically placed nails bend during expansion and contraction of the wood, so the wood is less likely to crack.

In the pictures, it looks like one or two boards make up these bottoms. I seldom get wood that wide, so maybe three boards is more feasible. Tongue and groove joint those boards together (tongues on the outside boards, grooves on the middle board, or vice versa), with room for expansion (I think 3/8” groove and 1/4” tongue ought to be plenty).

The pictures indicate that these bottom boards are oriented with the length running the width of the chest. So, you’d nail the edges of the outside bottom boards into the front and back boards (every 8”?), and the middle bottom board is just captured by the tongue and groove joint. And, one nail in the middle of the end of each bottom board.

In modern, conditioned living spaces the effects of expansion and contraction are not so bad. So this ought to work.

For authenticity, you might try to find cut nails to use for this purpose (and remember to drill pilot holes for the nails). Such nails are rectangular in cross-section, so you want to orient the nails such that the narrow dimension is perpendicular to the expected wood movement. In this application, the long dimension of the nail would be oriented along the width of the chest.

-- Jim Maher, Illinois

I have done some restoration on antique New Mexican pieces and would be surprised if the originals were anything other than nailed. I’m not sure that’s how I would do it today but that’s probably how they did it. Keep in mind that some of the choices they made were functions of limitations they had that are not applicable today.

-- Greg, Severn MD

I agree there were obvious limitations in the past. However, in the past, some solutions to problems were soundly based in: 1 – the technology available during the time and 2 – common sense. The bottoms were nailed on primarily because they were infinitely more simple to change when they got smashed up than they would be if they were glued or had joints that were mechanically attached to the sides. They knew they were going to need to change the bottoms eventually and they made allowances to do just that. I have an old box from early 1800s or late 1700s that had a nailed on bottom (cut nails). Our predecessors were pretty sharp :)

If you are in Western Mass (I am and read masslive also), Tremont Nail Company near Boston has all kinds of nails for your reproduction.

Good Luck!

-- Mike

Shiplap the bottom boards or tongue and groove nail the boards on one side only.

-- Bondo Gaposis

The premise for using nails shouldn’t apply if you don’t put it on a wet floor in the basement, so I’d glue it and screw it.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

I glue and screw.

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

Horseapiece, just some eratica to jdmaher’s wise suggestions because you mention being a newbie.

Don’t glue the tongue and grooves. Also, consider running grain for the end panels verticle.

-- "I dream of a world where a chicken can cross the road and no one questions its motive"' - Anne Nonny Mouse