Put a Lid on it!

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Chris Hall
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Put a Lid on it!

Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:45 pm

The lid is a little tricky, especially if your toolbox, like mine, is going to have a finish applied. The lid comprises a panel and two dovetailed battens, and obtained a good fit between the battens and the lid is not achieved by rushing or impatience. A good fit of a sliding dovetail can be made too tight by a layer of finish, or too loose by work done to dress the panel surface down.

Here's how I go about it. First I rough cut a couple of dadoes in the panel:
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A closer look at one dado:
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These dadoes are not quite half the thickness of the panel in depth. I save final trimming to depth for the dovetail routing.

Next step is to make a template - I re-use the one that was employed to cut the dadoes in the floor panel for the partitions:
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A closer look at the cutter:
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I widen the template opening to about 1.125".

Then I set up on my jointer table to rout the dovetail - this being the flattest surface that I can readily clamp to:
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The router is set up with a collar about the same width as the cutter:
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I make a test pass or two to obtain the desired depth of cut, in this case a hair over 3/16", or 0.1875":
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Once I have achieved the target depth, I remove the template and take it back to the router table to widen the guide slot in the template by about 1/16". The reason for this extra step is to ensure that I will cut a clean dovetail shoulder all the way down the dado.

Once I have completed the adjustment to the template, I put it back on the board and rout the dovetail. Then repeat on the other end.

The result:
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With the dovetail dadoes complete, i move to cut the male dovetails. First i remove a portion of the waste with another cutter, going to the router table for this step:
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Then I set up the router table with the same bit I used to do the dovetail mortise, and cut the male dovetail:
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I keep the male dovetail a little less deep than the mortise. The mortise was 0.1890", and i make the male dovetail about 0.1750" in depth.

I keep trimming the male dovetail down until it is getting close to the point where it will insert in the mortise:
DSC05247-small.JPG
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I hold off on any more work on the dovetail male. It's now time to dress the lid panel down:
DSC05249-small.JPG
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Vertical Grain Wenge is not exactly a party as far as planing goes, but with a sharp blade it went fine. The goal here was to remove about 0.05" of material at most from the upper face of the panel, thus keeping the potential dovetail fit in good territory.

I also did a pass on the sides and top of the Khaya battens, followed by trimming the panel edges:
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I trimmed the panel edges in small steps, checking frequently, until it started to fit the box:
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A few more careful passes and the lid was sliding in nicely:
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I then rubbed the lid panel down with lubed 400 grit paper and gave it a wipe both sides with polymerized Tung Oil:
DSC05259-small.JPG
DSC05259-small.JPG (130.33 KiB) Viewed 7505 times
I'll put another coat or two on before going to the fitting stage with the battens. Until next time then?
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Chris Hall
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:15 am

Continuing on with the lid construction. I've wiped on several thin coats of Tung oil, and after letting the lid sit for three weeks it remains nice and flat. One of the pleasures of quartersawn wood, at least in most species, is its stability.

The male dovetail on the batten is now trimmed until it begins to slide into its mortise:
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There should be a clearance gap between the bottom of the groove and under-surface of the dovetail male, of about 0.01":
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I then wipe some Tung Oil/Varnish mix on both the dovetail male and the dovetail groove:
DSC05503-small.JPG
DSC05503-small.JPG (108.76 KiB) Viewed 7478 times
The oil gives some stickiness and bond to the connection, yet allows for seasonal movement. You don't want to glue this connection.

The batten is then fitted:
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And then both battens are fitted:
DSC05505-small.JPG
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At this point, the dovetail males stick out the full length of the battens. The excess portions need to be trimmed. Out comes the saw.

Rip and crosscut::
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That leaves a small portion of excess, which can be trimmed by a variety of methods:
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I used the router table to trim mine, and here's the result:
DSC05508-small.JPG
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With the battens trimmed of their dovetail excess, the lid is fitted to the box. You can then mark the battens to the box walls with a knife:
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Then trim off the excess:
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Careful with the sawing - you don't want to mar the sides of the box:
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A bit of chisel work follows to trim the batten ends flush to the box walls:
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That nearly completes the lid construction. Another wipe of oil over the lid and box and they are set aside for a while:
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There is some chamfering to be done yet on the top ends of the battens and caps. There's also one more step - not illustrated on the project drawings: a double wedged pin will be installed to lock the batten in place so it can't possibly slide anywhere. To be detailed in the next posting.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:53 pm

The final step in the lid making was to place a couple of double-wedged pins in at the center so that the battens cannot slide out even if they shrink more than anticipated and get loose.

The pins are just 0.25" in size, and i began the install by marking out the mortises and then drilling out the mortises with a 1/4" brad point drill, going right through:
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By keeping the board firmly held down on a sacrificial piece of MDF, there was no blowout on the exit side:
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Then I freehand with a paring chisel to square up the mortise and flare it on each side:
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The flare on the batten side runs lengthwise with the batten, while the flare on the panel side runs directionally along the length of panel.

I cut a pair of pins, and clamp them in a vise to saw two kerfs on each end:
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Then the pin is tapped into position:
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At this stage the pin is proud on each side by about 1/16" (1mm):
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Then I prepared the wedges, applied a dab of glue to them, and placed them:
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I drove the two wedges down next:
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Once in, I use a flush cut saw to trim the waste off.

The process is then repeated on the backside:
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After trimming:
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A lick with a plane or chisel comes next, then some finish is applied and the lid is nearly done. A little chamfering is yet to be done.

How's your lid coming along?
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Chris Hall
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:01 pm

Last step on the lid was to chamfer the edges and do a little clean up and adjustment.

One adjustment was to trim the lid batten side so that it fit perfectly to the edge of the cap:
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The chamfers were roughed out by chisel, and then trimmed using a chamfer plane:
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The result:
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I then gave a slight facet to the corner so it would flow with the chamfered edge of the toolbox side:
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Another corner:
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DSC05548-small.JPG (90.53 KiB) Viewed 7424 times
I then gave the lid another wipe of Tung oil and here's how it looks:
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That my friends completes the scope of work associated to the CSG Fundamentals Project 1. My tool box still needs the interior removable tray to be built, and the tools fitted, and I will be posting up pictures of that work when I complete it. Very much looking forward to seeing what you all come up with too!

The next project will be described in a week's time and I hope you ll have a lot of fun in completing this project 1.

Project 2 will be a pair of work stands with scissor braces.
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john verge
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:57 pm

That chamfer plane looked very interesting could you give a little insight into that tool please.
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Wed May 16, 2012 7:51 am

Hi John,

somehow I overlooked your reply. Sorry about that.

Chamfer planes, or men-tori ganna, 面取り鉋, come in a variety of configurations. The name literally means 'face-taking plane'.

Here's am overview of some common types:
fig9-1_mentori.jpg
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The most common type is for a 45˚ chamfer, as I am using in the preceding photos. Those are called kaku-men-tori-ganna, 角面取り鉋, kaku meaning 'corner', 'angle' or 'arris'. There are several versions. One type is essentially a block plane with some adjustable strips attached to the sole:
img56402987.gif
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img56402989.gif
img56402989.gif (131.46 KiB) Viewed 7388 times
One could easily make such a plane oneself, or even simply tack or double-stick tape some strips onto a plane sole. The problem with this sort of plane is that running a plane sole over the arris of a stick of wood, particularly hard wood, wears a groove down the middle of the sole and the blade dulls only in the middle.

A more sophisticated form of kaku-men-tori-ganna places the blade in a small sled which can be slid side to side so that the entire blade's sharp edge can be used just by sliding the sled a little to one side or another. The capacity to adjust the rails gives rise to a more specialized name for these planes, ji-yū-kaku-men-tori-ganna, 自由角面取り鉋 ji-yū meaning 'freedom, 'freely-adjusted. Here's an example:
DSCN1403.jpg
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Still, the issue of rapid wear of the sole is a factor, and a bit of an improvement is the fitting of brass or other metal wear pieces to the sole, either in front of the blade, or both front and rear of the blade. this one has some metal to the front only:
ab7bf49073eb7dfdd1d5b16bc5f41d94.jpg
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While this one has the brass wear strips front and rear:
15646ai-31.jpg
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Also to combat wear, harder wood strips can be fitted to the guide rails of the plane, usually ebony or rosewood:
image007l.jpg
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The plane i am using in the photos earlier in this thread has ebony wear strips. Of course, you will pay more for such a tool over the standard version.

Still with the basic kaku-men-tori-ganna, there are a couple of options as far as how the blade is placed in the dai. The standard form is orthogonal placement:
shinnsai-1.jpg
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An option is to have the blade skewed:
saijiisu.jpg
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The skew can be accomplished as above, by rotating the blade on a horizontal axis, while in another type the blade is canted over and has an angled shape, very much like a corner-cutting plane or kiwa-ganna.

There is also a type that does a 3-4-5 triangle chamfer, termed a saru-men-tori ganna, 猿面取り鉋 saru-men meaning 'monkey face'. Here's a picture showing the saru-men type (right) next to the kaku-men type:
img_1465401_40861151_1.jpg
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A picture of the saru-men-tori ganna taken apart, this one's sled fitted with two brass wear strips and having the skewed blade:
img_1465401_40861151_2.jpg
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In these adjustable men-tori types of planes, there are a few versions of the adjustment mechanism. Most use a pair of machine screws, along with brass adjusting nuts and wing nuts, as shown in previous photos. You can also obtain one with wooden screws:
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Another type uses pairs of opposed wedging pins:
dabokakumen-21.jpg
dabokakumen-21.jpg (31.23 KiB) Viewed 7388 times
I find these types of adjustable chamfer planes pretty much indispensable in my work. A standard quality one might cost in the range of $150, while one like mine with brass wear strips front and rear, and ebony wear strips on the fences, costs around $250 or so last time I checked.

For other profiles, the planes tend to come in fixed fence versions:
d410473.jpg
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I have about a dozen of these but I rarely use them. For each profile you will need dedicated sharpening media set up.

I hope the above explanation filled in the picture a bit.
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john verge
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Re: Put a Lid on it!

Fri May 18, 2012 11:25 pm

hey thanks for taking the time to share that info chris. john

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