I built the panel for the lid out of two boards joined together. After planing a flat edge on each one I glued them together without using any clamps, just setting one on top of the other. If done right, this gives a nice tight seam with no worries of bowing the panel by using excess clamping pressure. After the glue has dried overnight I planed the faces flat and smooth making sure the inner side gets its final polishing.
Then I get groovy with the panel, running one around each side. This time I’m referencing the groove 1/4″ from the inner face so this groove and the groove in the frame will mate properly. Cutting the end-grain goes very well once you get past the initial rough surface.
To arrive at the proper length for the panel I measured the distance inside the frame in the long dimension then added 1/2″ . Since my grooves are 5/16″ deep this leaves a combined 1/8″ extra space for movement. That’s plenty since the panel won’t be expanding in length anyway. I measured the same for the panel width but only added an extra 3/8″ this time leaving a combined space of 1/4″ for expansion. Even though there are charts and formulas I always feel like I’m guessing at the amount to give for wood movement.
The plan called for a round-over on the top edge of the panel but I don’t own any moulding planes so I put a simple chamfer around the edge instead. I didn’t mark it off, simply did it by eye until it looked right. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of this. Following a few test fits and tweaks I glued the laps together and left it overnight.
- Carl
Comments
Hello Carl. I couldn’t find an email address for you on your website, so I’m hoping you’ll catch this post. I’m copying your tool chest build articles to a document to help steer me in my effort to build a tool chest in the near future. I’ve been copying the large pictures (by clicking on the small picture) and then pasting into the document. Just letting you know that the last (3rd) picture is not linked to the larger picture in your “Building The Lid Panel” blog, and I’m hoping you can restore the link.
Sadly, I discovered your blog about 2 days ago in doing a search and read that you would no longer be blogging. I’m sorry to hear of the unplanned change of events in your families life and have started praying for a full and quick recovery for your wife.
Thanks for your message and believing my chest build deserves copying. I don’t know what happened to the link in question but it should be fixed now. Let me know if you have any further problems.
I want to thank you for your prayers, it’s a long haul.
Thank you Carl. I appreciate the link fix very much.
I think your tool chest blog shows great coverage of the various steps as well as concluding in a great build. Having your blog coverage to follow, I feel like I will have a much better chance of successfully building a tool chest.
Your welcome.