Inspiration from "the Chop"

[C. in Indy]

My favorite TV shows (to my wife's disgust) are Car modification episodes.   Especially, Full Custom Garage.


I've had a nice 1/4-sawn oak box rabbeted together (grain fully wrapped around all 4 corners) for months, but it didn't inspire me.   Today, I took the big Disston rip-saw to it....

   

   



A couple years back, I really went at an old oak tool-chest, changing the aspect ratio, and all the drawers accordingly.  I still like that baby:

   

   

Inspiration, a bit at a time, hopefully!

Chris

[Mike Brady]

My favorite TV shows (to my wife's disgust) are Car modification episodes.   Especially, Full Custom Garage.


I've had a nice 1/4-sawn oak box rabbeted together (grain fully wrapped around all 4 corners) for months, but it didn't inspire me.   Today, I took the big Disston rip-saw to it....







A couple years back, I really went at an old oak tool-chest, changing the aspect ratio, and all the drawers accordingly.  I still like that baby:





Inspiration, a bit at a time, hopefully!

Chris

Your save of the tool chest is outstanding.  I'll be interested in what the future holds for the oak box-sides.  Keep us posted on the Accutron watch  restoration too, although I understand you will be getting (wisely) expert help with that, being that it is a family heirloom.

[C. in Indy]

Sounds like a plan,  some steps and some patience!

I quit my earlier plan for highly contrasted woods, and decided to get out some oak veneers I've used sparingly before.   Today was just a basic glue and a rough hack to size:

   

[C. in Indy]

As much as the carcass walls are attractive, they had no provisions for supporting a floor-piece.

From Full Custom Garage,  I was introduced to a new meaning of the word "armature".  I always knew it from electric motors.  But it's also a word for a support structure within a sculpture.   I've been fiddling with some sliced-up pieces, to interlock and maybe to eventually protrude a little bit:

   

[CStan]

Great looking project. You made the right decision to avoid contrasting species.

[C. in Indy]

Thanks!

Taking a step back from over-thinking things,  just cutting and trimming the top lid for a tidier look.   Yeah, I ripped out some veneer accidentally already... will fix that eventually

   

[C. in Indy]

Iterations!

Now the slip-over top was proportionally too big in viewing, so I wanted to augment the bottom of the box.

Since the "wasted half" of the original tall oak box was still on hand, I cut it into 4 corner pieces.   Then... further into 8 corner pieces to stack and fiddle with.   It's starting to be an idea:

   

   

[C. in Indy]

Moving on,  I used my super-favorite holm oak woodie plane to chamfer the oak pieces:

   


Then I used the Shopsmith table as the reference to start gluing corners on:

   

[C. in Indy]

The feet had a bit of the "claw foot bathtub" feel to them, so I have re-sawn them, slightly differently on front/rear and left/right pairs:

   

My plywood stash was just shy of making a bottom panel.  So I'm gluing on some lath strips (really nice wood in my opinion) to build up the dimension and still have a stable structure:

   

[C. in Indy]

This is routine stuff...
BUT, in the 2020 quarantine my Craftsman/MF No. 14 got upgraded with engine-turned sides 
 .


Trimming the glued-up bottom panel to exact size:

   


A nice tight fit: