I made excellent progress on the medium tool chest last weekend.  It now has a ship-lapped bottom and a lower skirt (with a simple chamfer).

My miters aren’t perfect, but because it will be painted a dark blue, I can fix gaps with water-based filler.

I cannot describe what a joy it was to use the clout nails and headless brads from Tremont Nail.  I had never used real nails before and am amazed at how well they are holding.  I messed up the spacing a little bit when driving the the clout nails into the floorboards, but I’m not worried.  And the headless brads were mostly for anchoring the corners of the skirt (with hide glue giving the real holding power).

Putty and french marks.  What a hack job…

As for the shiplapping, it went exactly as planned.  I used a rabbet bit (with 7/16 bearing) in my trim router and made a huge mess, but the laps were crisp and fit well.  I left 2 business cards worth of space between each board when fitting them to the carcass.

Habitual blasphemy!

Next on the to-do list are are the rot strips, drawer runners and laminated lid.  I have several pieces of now-acclimated box store common pine from which I can rip out some quarter-sawn strips, which should make the laminated lid very stable.

That will have to wait until the weekend, though.

JPG