Hello all,
1st post here. I’m looking into building a chest as a present for my girlfriend. I’ve done some woodworking in the past, but not for 8-10 years. I have a basic idea in my head of how I’d like it to look, but am looking for advice on the best place to research different plans available. I’m about to do a google search, but thought I’d start by asking the experts. Thanks!
Replies
Define chest, blanket chest,chest of drawers, chest-on-chest????
Blanket chest or trunk I guess you could say. What I want to do specifically is put a cushioned leather seat or top on the lid. I think I'll have to rivet the leather in place and not sure how to construct that part of the chest. I'm not sure if I'm being clear at all in my description, but hopefully you have an idea of what I'm talking about.
By "rivetted" I think what you're talking about is what upholsterers refer to as gimp strip, i.e. a cloth or leather strip with (hidden) gimp pins, or nailed and banded/nailed and piped edging which uses domed brass nails. You'll probably need to get a book on upholstery out of the library, but the techniques are fairly straight forward and there aren't too many tools involved. A blanket chest/bedding box is basically two sides, two ends, a bottom and a top so the simplest (and probably most) common form is just that - six pieces of timber dowelled or dovetailed together with the top hinged at the rear. Only thing I'd recommend is that if you are going to upholster the top you'd be as well to avoid very hard finegrained timbers timbers because they can be a nightmare to knock the upholstery nails into or MDF which has a tendency to split and for the nails to work loose after a while (umlike particle board, OSB, etc).
Scrit
Scrit,
Thanks for the tips, and you're right, the domed brass nails are what I'll be using. I wasn't sure how to secure the leather, but that is the look that I am going to go after. I didn't even think about checking out the library, but that is a great idea.
Do you have any specific ideas about what design you want?
Scrit
Not really, no. I'm just starting to look around at different ones available. The chest will be a fairly simple one as my woodworking skills are fairly limited, however I'll have a friend who has built many nice pieces assisting me as needed. I thought the leather top would be relatively easy to do and give it a bit of flair and a nice touch.
Leather cannot replace the look of real wood.and will not look as nice over the years as wood.
I thought Leather top was for writin' letters which we never do these days?
Make the leather covered cushion first as a separate unit.
Start with a board of glued up soft pine Chamfer the outer edges to remove the sharp edges.
Add the padding with a little glue to keep it from sliding. Cut the leather extra wide and long. Use a magnetic tack hammer and temporarily tack the leather in place'with plenty of material overhanging.
Tack into the underside (not the top) To stretch the leather and to remove wrinkles, take out one corner tack and pull the corner diagonally to remove any slack. Re tack while stretching.
Remove the other corner tacks and continue stretching and re tacking Now remove the top center tack and repeat re tacking.
In short order it will look great With a sharp knife cut off any over hanging leather. Add a 1/2"thick x 2-5/8""surround strip mitered around the whole seat of the same wood the trunk is made of.
It should fit a little lower than the top surface of the cushion and extend about 1-1/2 " below the board's bottom this will hide the tack heads and hold the cushion in place.
Now make a chest to fit the 'drop down' seat Good luck You might want to make tufts ; that is, tack in from the top a few equally spaced domed brass tacks to create a professional series of tufting.
Don't go overboard (maybe two rows of three square tufts?) Stein.
Edited 12/18/2005 1:56 am ET by Steinmetz
Edited 12/18/2005 1:57 am ET by Steinmetz
Thanks for the tips. For now the project is on hold, I'm working on a different gift, but the chest will probably be a gift at some point in the future.
A basic blanket chest doesn't need a lot of plans to build--mostly you need to figure dimensions and construction technique for the carcase--dovetailed box, frame/panel with M/T joints, finger joints, or even butt/rabbet joints in the corners...etc., etc.
Attached is a pic of a bench that I'll be delivering Tuesday to the client. It didn't take much time, since I used a panel raising bit on my router table, and a mortise attachment for the drill press. Everything else was cut on the table saw (some cuts with a dado blade). Much of the joint markup and stock cutting was dictated by a few other pieces and were marked as I went along. For example, the divider inside the chest was measured (for final size) after the rest of the chest was assembled; the top rail was left long to mark out a short sliding dovetail joint, which was hand cut with chisels.
The entire project took about 40 hours, including finishing. If your bench project comes off the back burner and you like the bench shown here, I can send you either a designCAD file or a JPG with some measurements on it--though my design files are meant as guides & reminders to me, and are not full-fledged plans. Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
Nice looking chest/bench. I'd like more info on the lid style--the photo makes it look as though the closure is tapered.
Al
There is no taper -- it could be a distortion from my camera, which is not so hot on keeping straight sides straight.
The lid is a basic rectangle with rounded edges. It's a modified breadboard design, too.Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
I think you want to direct your post at someone else...
Whoops. Sorry about the mis-routed post. I'd intended that Pondfish get the message and I've since deleted the original and sent a new one to Pondfish.
Al
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled