Shopsmith Forums

Hi All,

I thought I'd post some new and old stuff. Lately I learned that a favorite seller has re-opened, a couple of years after the sad passing of the original owner. This is a great place to get chest hardware:
http://machinistchest.com/site/


I'm working on another chest, now selecting woods for a new front panel. Here's some progress:

I love to talk about that center-panel wood choice. The same board I bought at ACE hardware about 4 years ago has yielded all the following panels. It was a beautiful figured piece of Red Oak just hidden in their pile of hardwood. The SS bandsaw has freed it to serve many!

I've always loved seeing wood boxes of any kind. Any kind of wood storage box for tools or anything else appeals to me.

Great looking chest.

As work continues.....

Here is the fit-up of the Frame and Panel. Note, there is a small "worm hole" about 1 inch to the right-of-center of the top frame piece. Only a FOOL would mistake that mark for the center of the panel...and that's what I did!


I had cut a 1-1/8"-diameter Forstner hole off-center. I first tried plugging the bad hole with a round patch-piece, which looked horrible. So I put a bigger rectangle patch centered over that whole area. Here I'm trimming away excess so I can plane it:


Finally, getting back to the intended result (as much as I can!)....

[quote="nuhobby"]As work continues.....
Only a FOOL would mistake that mark for the center of the panel...and that's what I did!





I had cut a 1-1/8"-diameter Forstner hole off-center.



nuhobby do like I do and just blame it on the camera man!


Great job on those chest!

That is some beautiful work (and a great save ).

What does the inside look like?

Thanks for the kind words! I still have to apply felt to the interior, which is a main top-till and 7 drawers below. (This was originally a Union brand chest, similar to a Gerstner.) I have both red and brown felts in stock to do the job. Most traditional would be a billiard-green, though.

I was just looking at these today. Are the plans still available?

Hi Paul,
I have no design plans because for some self-punishing reason I'm only doing Rebuilds of decrepit chests.

There may be a plan-set you'd like on www.machinistchest.com .

Also, Gerstner & Sons is now selling Kit Chests of a couple of sizes, for a good deal less than their finished chests (but not cheap by any means).

Here's a view on the inside -- this chest restoration is almost done! I went with the brown felt.
My wood finish isn't really suited for the garage, so it's more of a collector's chest than a machinist shop chest. It's just a light coat of Formby's wiping varnish, followed by dark brown wax to fill and tint the whole thing.

By the way, the whole restoration has been a bit of a lesson in wood and humidity effects! A long story on what all had failed from the original joinery, and what all I did about it. Just today I put in all the drawers to take the photo, and one drawer kept springing back at me! One of the side runners in the carcass was bowing out at the frontmost part. I shaved it down with a block plane...


Chris