Walnut Toy Chest

[mattfc]

It's been a while.. so here is my latest project. Due to the generosity of friends and family, my baby daughter now has far too many toys and the living room was becoming a health and safety hazard, so I have built a toy chest.

Wood:
Started of with some 1" rough sawn waney edge walnut. Waney edge is not problem with my TS55, just cut a straight edge along each plank. Then I switch my TS55 over into the CMS module and cut a parallel edge. I have a Metabo portable thicknesser, and due to the rough saw nature, have to plane about 1.5mm of either face, leaving a finished stock of about 22mm

Tools:
-For this project I used my TS55 with guiderail and in CMS mount.
-Metabo thicknesser
-OF1400 and Leigh D4R for the dovetails
-Domino for various bits
-Festool Jigsaw in CMS mount
-RO150 for sanding

Construction:
For the curved lid, I cut using the TS55 in the CMS module, a numbers of strips about 40mm wide. I cut with an angle on about 2.5 deg (so as to achieve a coopered effect)

Then I used the domino, 3 per strip again cut at 2.5deg to join and glue the strips into a curve

Then I made the end pieces of the lid, dovetail jointed the sides, so I have a square frame to fit the curved part of the lid onto. I then hand planed the curved panel to get rid of the ridges and make it a uniform curve, using one of these lovely block planes

Next was to glue the curved panel into the lid frame I made above. I then rough cut the curve on the end panels of the frame to follow the curve of the lid and finished by using a bearing guided bit on the OF1400

Finishing:
I sanded with 120, then 240, 320 and 400 with a finial finish sand using the 1000 mesh discs. Then I used a cloth and polished in Tung oil.

End Product

and then added (routed) some handles

 

[Aegwyn11]

Very very nice work. So did you finger joint all the panels together? Thats kind of what it looks like. Any particular reason?

Also, I love the huge dovetails

 

[Neill]

Mattfc,

I am in the process of building a toy box for my Grandchildren.  I'm now sorry I opened your post.  After seeing yours, mine is going in the trash.

Marvelous craftsmanship.  Your baby girl now has a treasure that she can pass on to her children.

Neill

 

[bonesbr549]

Simply fantastic.  The wood finish is great and the joinery superb.  It would be nice to see an inside shot!  What type anti slamming hinges did you go with for safety?  I've been considering building one of these for my nieces twins, and have seen several different types but have not decided on a particular type yet.  Just curious. 

 

[mattfc]

Very very nice work. So did you finger joint all the panels together? Thats kind of what it looks like. Any particular reason?

I did use a jointing bit from CMT as it creates super strong joints that can handle quite a lot of abuse, and also creates a very strong glue surface, enough that any expansion of contraction won't show on the faces of the box... plus I quite like the look of the squiggle!
CMT Bit details:

 

[JJ Wavra]

Beautiful project!  I too love the dovetails.

JJ

 

[mattfc]

Simply fantastic.  The wood finish is great and the joinery superb.   It would be nice to see an inside shot!  What type anti slamming hinges did you go with for safety?  I've been considering building one of these for my nieces twins, and have seen several different types but have not decided on a particular type yet.   Just curious.  

I will get round to taking an inside shot soon. I took a slightly leftfield approach to the hinge, after looking at piano hinges with stays etc, and went for a Blum hinge designed for lift up flap style kitchen doors, see Blum Aventos  

as it offered the following functionality which is great:-
-Assisted lift (adjustable) so makes it easy for the little ones, don't need much strength
-Auto stop (so however far you lift it, it will hold that position
-The all important soft close (and dampered closing), stop those little fingers getting crushed

and their blurb for the hinge

• Easy to open
  Stops at any opening position
  Silent and effortless closing, thanks to BLUMOTION
  Provides easy access to cabinet interiors
  Small program, wide range of applications
  Quick, easy assembly and removal thanks to CLIP technology
  Stability, even with wide fronts
  Integrated tension adjustment for door weight
  Easy, 3-dimensional door adjustment
  Works for both frame and panel cabinet applications

 

[sw1211]

Very nice, too nice to keep toys in.  Hopefully it won't get too abused, especially with the toy toss into the toy chest from across the room, that's how kids like to "clean."

 

[chrisrosenb]

That is beautiful. Great work.

 

[micky]

beautiful wood....
beautiful work.....
congratulation 

 

[RogerF]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing and describing.

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

mattfc,

What a gorgeous piece of furniture you've created. Did you sit down and design it first or did it come together as you worked? What company's jig did you use for the dovetails? If you did them by hand then I humbly bow to the Dovetail Master. Seriously, that is woodworking at its very, very best standard. Congratulations.

 

[mattfc]

What a gorgeous piece of furniture you've created. Did you sit down and design it first or did it come together as you worked? What company's jig did you use for the dovetails? If you did them by hand then I humbly bow to the Dovetail Master. Seriously, that is woodworking at its very, very best standard. Congratulations.

Hi Peter HS,
No, I tend to make the design up on the fly, normally have something new in terms of technique I want to try and then go from there. I am pretty new to woodworking hence the interest in try new methods. Dovetails using Leigh D4R

So some background, in terms of woodworking I have been doing it as a hobby for the last year only. My father is a builder by trade, so grew up being quite practical. I moved late last year and then finally had a garage to get some equipment. I had a look around at what some of the better stuff is as I wanted to buy something good once, rather than crap tools many times. Fatefully I stumbled upon Festool and then this group and did my research, after which I took the plunge in the form of a big upfront hit on getting properly kitted out (MFT3, KAPEX, TS55, RO150, HS850, OF1400, Domino, Jigsaw, Midi Vac plus CMS modules)

So I had the tools, next plunge was wood. I found a company on eBay that sold job lots of offcuts, but in pretty big quantities (they are called Henry Venables). I got close to 1 cubic meter of prime walnut that came in the form of 1? rough sawn waney (bark still on) edged planks (all about 1m to 1.2m.. hence the offcut comments). The price was great, worked out at about ?22 per cubic foot, but the planks needed plenty of work to make them usable. I bought a Metabo thicknesser, so I could planes both sides of the planks and get them to a uniform thickness, and then used the TS55 to rip off the waney edge, and the TS55 in the CMS to table saw the other edge parallel, giving me wood to start working with.

The next step was to start working my way through the different tools to get used to them. Prior to this I had just used drills and a circular saw, no router etc so it was going to be a steep learning curve.

1) My first project was to get some time with the jigsaw (See http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=5837.0)
2) Next was to use the KAPEX, Domino and TS55 (See http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=5938.0)
3) Now I wanted to start advancing my techniques with some more curved work, and start using my OF1400 (See http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=6179.0)
4) And finally try a different technique for curved panels, and get some time with my Leigh D4R dovetail jig (This thread)

In terms of next steps, I picked up a vacuum pump on e-bay cheap so have started to build it up to make a vacuum clamp and press (e.g. getting the electronics sorted to auto cycle to keep a constant pressure etc), and am looking to buy a bandsaw (current candidate Hammer N4400) to start making my owner thicker veneers to use on some exciting bent form projects (always looking to add new methods to my arsenal)

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

I missed your reference to the Leigh jig when you first started this thread. Doh!

If you can turn out that kind of stuff after only one year then gaw'd knows what you'll be producing in year two! Lucky you to have a garage to work in. I'm still waiting for a break in the weather (rain and lots of it) so I can get my MFT out in the garden and finish off the trim around the builtin wardrobe I've done. Tomorrow if all goes well there is a dark rumour there might be a clear sky. I don't need much time just dry time. Since I got my Festools I've found it much easier to do things faster and better. My wardrobe will never match the quality of your toy chest. Then again, you'd have a hard job trying to hang lots of shirts, etc in yours. ;D

Edit: I looked at your links to your candle holder, bookshelf and table. That's a great advert for Festool quality. I also liked your "Heath Robinson" solution you used clamping the table together! You have an unconventional approach to problem solving. It works, and that's no maybe. I'd love to see a photo of your CMS router setup. All I've seen so far are the somewhat static photos of the components in the Festool catalogue and not the fully assembled CMS. Could you post a photo the next time you have it setup? Opinions, good or bad?