Six Board Chest

Thanks to Erec over at Medieval Gardening we now have 3 mostly finished 6 board chests. The box was designed to have 2 functions : the first to keep your stuff neatly out of site, and the second is to give you a place to sit. To this end we decided how tall we needed to make each box in order for it to also be a comfortable seat. Being somewhat small of stature I of course have the smallest box.
Doing a woodworking project with Erec is always very fun and interesting because he likes to use hand tools that are as close to their medieval counterparts as possible. We are very spoiled getting to use my Father-in-law's awesome woodshop for all of our woodworking projects so it was really nice to do it "the olde fashion way". Also our son was able to do almost all the work on his by himself. I am so glad that he is old enough to start doing these fun crafts with us. He is also starting to realize the extreme satisfaction you get from being able to say "I made this".

The pictures I have were from the first evenings work. We started around 7pm and worked until 9pm. My husband and son went back a few days later to finish putting them together and I don't have pictures from that. We still need to do some sanding, put on the hardware and then waterproof and paint and decorate them. My son is going to paint his heraldry on his box. I am going to pad and upholster the top of my box so it has a cushioned seat then I will paint the rest with an Ottoman design on it. Frederick has not made his intentions known.

These are the 2 different styles Erec made for examples. The length of the side pieces determine the height of the box. Frederick and my son made the version to the right and I made the version to the left.

The different ways you could arrange the board to fit in to each other. We took the easy route and just have side boards nailed to the ends of the front, back and bottom boards.

Erec showing my son how to start sawing on the board and to make sure he keeps to the marked line

Frederick helps by being a human clamp

My son doing a great job! We let him do it all by himself. I only had a little bit of a stomach ache :)

We avoided math whenever possible. We marked the height of the first board from the one Erec had made before. Then we used the first board cut to measure the second. These first two boards are to be the side of the box.

First we marked the height with an awl.

Then we used the square to mark a straight line on the board using the awl to carve a groove in the board.

Now he is on his own to start the cut using the techniques he learned before.

Now we decided how long to make the board for the front of the box. The board for the front back and bottom of the box are all the same size. The top has to be wider to accommodate for the side boards being nailed to the front, and back boards and also have a little extra overhang to make it easier to open.

Now that my son is able to work on his own with a regular clamp, Frederick is ready to start working on his own box.

When you get to the end of the cut, it is helpful to have someone hold the board on the other side for you.

Erec pulled out the 2 person saw to show us. It is bigger than my son!!!!

And finally I can start my box!

Erec starts to drill the holes in my son's side boards where they will be nailed to the front, back and bottom boards.

All the boards for my box all cut out and ready for the next step.

Erec show my son how to use the jigsaw to cut out the fancy design on the bottom of the side boards.

Here is my son doing it on his own. I was so surprised he didn't break the blade doing this very difficult arabesque design. I admit I couldn't watch for most of it!

 

Frederick is using a plane to even out the front bottom and back boards. Using the handsaw gives a very rough cut (again we are so spoiled using the table saw at the workshop).

Erec gave the tip of using a chisel to make a diagonal cut across the side of the boards so that the plane doesn't chip off the end of the boards. It is so nice to have the benefit of his experience on this project.

I was able to get him to even out my boards too!

 

I get to make the holes in some boards using the hand drill. It was easier than I thought to drill. Sharp tools help a LOT!

Here are my son and Fredericks boxes so far. We still need to do put on the hardware and seal the wood. Then paint as desired.

The side view. My son's box is the one in front and you can see his fancy design.

The front view of my box.

I went with a simple design for the bottom of mine. I cannot wait to get them finished up this weekend.