3rd Machinist Chest refurb underway

[nuhobby]

You could call me an 'addict' for these things. I have several adult nephews with mechanical aptitudes, so I've started refurbishing machinist chests for them. Basically I find a chest for under $100, and spend over $200 in restoration supplies.... logical? -- no fun? -- yes!

Here were the two past ones in 2012:
https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=10604

Now I'm starting to get somewhere on the 3rd one. I bought it a few months back as an "old cube of grease," with the back-panel warped out of attachment, and various other troubles. I did a whole lot of hand-planing and scraping to get back to bare wood. Also I counted about 51 hole-plugs that I made with the Mark V. Each place needing a plug (each old rivet-hole) was drilled-out with a little block of wood used as a guide for my hand drill. I also made use of Shopsmith's long cam-clamps to hold parts in alignment for reassembly and drilling new hardware rivet-holes:
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As mentioned on another thread dealing with accurate sawing, these old chests really don't work well with solid backs -- they'll always crack or warp with humidity changes. In fact the premium grade chests often use plywood for the back, like this nice little kit:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Tool_C ... t_Kit.html

I like to use lapped boards with a little bit of gap to make the replacement back. And, often as not, something isn't totally square so I really waste time to try to pre-cut the board exactly to size. I just install the board "long" and then have fun manually cross-cutting it. In principle I don't often use handsaws and "[plane] shooting boards" for general work, but if something is built like this then it's very fun to trim it down to a nice flush mate.:
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So, this one is now where I'd call it 50% done. I need to fix the bottom drawer which has "wallered out" grooves, and I need to make a better-looking front panel. Then ultimately install new fabric liners, corner hardware decorations, mutiple latches, etc.

[mrhart]

Those are way cool sir, where do you stumble accross these in the first place?

[garys]

Those are way cool sir, where do you stumble accross these in the first place?

Yes, where do you find them? I love old wood boxes, furniture, and anything else built from nice wood. I've never been lucky enough to find a nice box like yours. About 25 years ago, I decided to build one of my own.

[nuhobby]

Yes, the old ones are hard to come by. Of the 3 I've obtained, 2 were from eBay and 1 was from an antique store. I go for basket-case condtions in order to keep the price down.

With all the work in stripping the old ones, it's questionable whether I'll do it again. I like garys's chest! I also could be talked into buying the new Gerstner "kit" linked above.

[nuhobby]

I wanted to try out some finish and stain work to see if the iron stains on the front would be less obvious. Between some color and some new locks, luckily it came out pretty well....

I also added not only some corner-straps to match the original construction, but also some extra "vise flattened" straps to help hold the cross-grained unions which previously had caused trouble and wood breakage. I decided to leave those tongue/groove joints "dry" (no glue) and reinforce them with straps so the chest would be strong when lifted by the handle:
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Next, I have to repair the side grooves in the bottom (biggest) drawer, which had been worn very wide. Here I managed to fit some hardwood strips for repair, and used a 3/8" drill bit to get things decently spaced and clamped for the glue:
[ATTACH]20165[/ATTACH]

[charlese]

Man-O-Man, Chris! You are a true craftsman with loads of patience. The extra work you have done to restore things like those chests is really admirable:D . Not only the wood restoration work, but also the finished patina! The appearance of that chest as well as your first one clearly shows the true appearance of a beautiful chest with some history!

Good Work!:D

[maggeorge]

Great restoration on the beautiful find! Your passion for fixing those old hard-to-find tool chests is just so impressive. Great job!

______________________
-www.sawblade.com

[nuhobby]

Back to power tools now....

I put a lot of narrow grooves and rabbets on the oak planks using 1 kerf width on the SS table saw.

For the middle panel, I used what I believe is Kentucky Coffee Tree wood; I've had it for a long time. I used the bandsaw for resawing, and the overarm router to profile the edges.

More to come sometime later; SWMBO want special treatment on this Anniversary weekend .

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[JPG]

Nice looking piece of tree!

Had not previously encountered it.

P.S. My 'Anniversary' is Thursday!

[nuhobby]

I've had to go slow with a lot of busy work+commuting days, and just not much time in the shop.

Here is the new front-panel "in white" compared to the broken original with its very flimsy, ill-proportioned center panel:
[ATTACH]20289[/ATTACH]


Here begins the time-consuming process of gluing new lining into all the compartments. I just use white glue and carefully clamp each operation. I believe the Gerstner & Sons factory still uses hide-glue. I suspect hide-glue would dry faster and have less need of pressure clamping, so they know what they're doing. Anyway, I'll keep plugging the slow way...
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