I’m going to build a toy box for a friends baby for christmas, he would like to have a coopered top on it which I have never done. I think I can figure out the coopering part but haven’t come up with a good plan for attaching the ends of the coopered top while still allowing for wood movement. Any suggestions?
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Replies
I built a coopered top chest that you can see on my bio page that you can get to from the opening page of the experts forum. On that chest I just left the ends of the boards in the top exposed, there is no frame at all. The top of the chest's ends are curved to match the shape of the underside of the lid. This has worked well and the top has kept its shape, but I'm not sure it would be sturdy enough for a kid's room. In the photo the chest looks small, but it is about 32 inches long.
The classic treatment would be to build it like a conventional frame and panel with curved rails for the two ends, a challenging job. You could make the grain in the end caps vertical which would allow them to move with the top but the end pieces wouldn't have a lot of strength.
John White
Edited 12/5/2007 5:00 pm ET by JohnWW
Thanks for your reply John, I looked at yours and it looks great 15 years and no problems I think I'll just go for it with that type of end.
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