orepass

One of several features in this project is the design of the too chest lid. The lid teaches the methods necessary to make a door with mortise and tenon joints and raised panels. Knowing that I need to develop a twist free lid I begin this stage by making a mortise guide. Similar to the guide I made for the table project, I begin with a scrap piece of ash with the grain running vertically and then carefully cut and plane a piece of Oak to 1/4 inch that will be placed as a guide for the chisel. I learned from my first guides that grain direction and wood choice is critical. The vertical grain on the ash will prevent bending and the horizontal grain on the oak will resist wear.

The guide which is a Paul Sellers Design works brilliantly when you need a perfectly straight mortise. With the guide gluing, I turned to the rails and grabbed my plow plane to cut grooves for the panels. It took me approximately 45 minutes to cut all of the grooves for the top and bottom panels. If I had sharpened up when I began, instead of waiting until the last couple of pieces if would have gone much quicker.

With the grooves in place I turn my attention to marking up all of the mortises and tenons. This is definitely an area where I have a high probability to make a mistake, so I slow down, double check my measurements and think carefully through the process. Wild doing the marking I ganged all of the rails together to ensure that the markings are precise from one to another. Also I work from one end only, eliminating errors that may come from slight deviations in length.

With six mortises and tenons completed the chest design begins to come to life. Next, the bottom and raised panels!