Finishing the interior of the Dutch Tool Chest

I finished up the interior tool holding today on the DTC.  Here’s a picture of how its coming along.  

dtc interior (1 of 1)

I’m gluing on the front pieces without nailing because I’m going to paint first then add the nails.  I’m a pretty decent nailer (I sided my whole house, so I’ve had lots of practice with small nails) so hopefully I won’t mess the finish up too much.  I’ll use screws for the hinges and some of the tool racks, but nails for the rest.

Tool Rack – Dutch Tool Chest

Today I got a little time to set up my tool rack in the back of the chest.  I figured it’d be easier to do this before I put on the front.  I’m also waiting for my hinges to show up, so it made sense to work on this now.  It involved a lot of fiddling and fitting, but I finally got everything in.  For the most part, I used Chris’ 1/2″ hole every 1 1/8″ rule on a 1″ thick stick.

tool rack (1 of 1)

This would put all my chisel (bench and specialty) in one place which is preferable to the hither and yon set up that I have now.  I’m not a matched set kinda gal so it looks a little messy, but oh well.  After the rack is attached to the case, I’ll glue the suede to the back which will help keep the saw handles from getting scratched or rubbed.

Dutch Tool Chest Progress

First, I laid out tails on both sides and cut them at the same time.
Then sawed out the waste between the tails and pins.
And finally, chiseling out the rest.
Before gluing up the carcass, I made slots at the back of the shelf for saws.
Chest all glued up ..
.. nice and sqaure.
I used my hand plane to clean up the dovetails.
Then I laid out the tools, making sure everything fits.
I sawed and chiseled out lock slots.
I used the tongue and groove plane to match up the back boards.
Tongue and groove back with spacer.
Then I nailed on the back.

Oh, I found another use for my bench on bench.  I needed a little boost to plane the edges of the chest.

bench on bench (1 of 1)