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• Step by Step constructioninstruction.

• A complete bill of materials.

• Exploded view and elevationdrawings.

• How-to photos with instructivecaptions.

• Tips to help you complete theproject and become a betterwoodworker.

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WJ029

“America’s leading woodworking authority”™

Heirloom Blanket Chest

Published in Woodworker’s Journal “The Complete Woodworker: Time-Tested Projects and Professional Techniques for Your Shop and Home”

WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

HEIRLOOM BLANKET CHEST 89

Winters can be just a bit chilly uphere in Minnesota. Thankfully, modernhousing keeps us warm and cozy, butour ancestors weren’t so lucky. Whenthe first hoarfrost settled on the cotton-woods, those hardy folks reached intoGrandma’s old blanket chest for anotherlayer of warmth.

Our chest follows in that same tradition, providing attractive and functional year-round storage for winterblankets. It combines the warmth ofnatural cherry with a historically authen-ticated Windsor Green water-basedenamel paint. Where it surpasses theoriginal is in its hardware, which in-cludesa pair of inexpensive but effective lidsupports that were designed to protectchildren’s fingers from pinches.

If you would like to create this familyheirloom, the first step is to choosesome top-quality stock for the lid.

Making a Flat PanelThe appearance of the solid cherry

lid (piece 1) is one of the most criticalfeatures of this chest. If you’re not usedto creating wide panels, here are somepointers to help you over the hurdles.

Several narrow boards rather thana few wide ones make for the moststable panel, and some woodworkers

Heirloom Blanket ChestYou’d never know by looking at it, but this charming cherry chest bypasses traditional

mortise and tenon joinery in favor of a unique combination of rabbet and lap joints.

These options make the chest easier to build without compromising strength. A finishing

scheme of both paint and clear finish also lends a handsome effect to this project. It’s sure

to become one of those accent pieces your kids will want to inherit someday.

will even rip and re-glue wider boards to achieve this. The key is to have anuneven number of boards (or an evennumber of varying width boards) so thatthe panel doesn’t have an eye-catchingjoint running right down the middle. Youshould also alternate the grain patternsby looking at the ends of the boardsand making sure that every other crownpoints down. Biscuits or dowels arehelpful to keep everything in line whenclamping large panels like this. A centerclamp (see Figure 1) will exert pressureon the center of a panel to keep it flatwhile clamping.

If you own a planer, you can maketwo small panels first, plane them, gluethem up, and then belt-sand the lastjoint. But for a professional look, werecommend gluing up 4/4 stock andhaving a local cabinet shop run itthrough their wide belt sander.

The bottom of the chest (piece 2)is also a glued-up panel. Make this from poplar rather than cherry; it will be painted anyway, and poplar is lessexpensive. Making the lid and bottomtogether will save time on set-ups.While you’re at it, go ahead and glue up some of your nicer cherry stock forthe eight decorative panels.

The skeleton of our blanket chest is

poplar, an old favorite of cabinetmakersand furniture builders. It’s a fast-growinghardwood with fine. closed grain, so it’s commonly used as a base forveneers or as hidden or painted structural members.

Each side of the blanket chest carcass can be treated as a subassem-bly—a frame that contains panels. The front and back frames are identical,as are the two side frames.

The first step in building theseframes is to cut the parts to sizeaccording to the Material List on page90. All the cuts are square except forthe short taper on the lower ends of thestiles (pieces 3 and 4). This taper canbe laid out using the dimensions givenin the Stile Detail on the next page andthen cut to size on your bandsaw.

Figure 1: A center clamp slides along thepipe of a standard clamp and applies pres-sure to the center of larger glued up panels.


Heirloom Chest Exploded View

90 HOME PROJECTS

Stile DetailInside View

3

3/8"

3/4"

31/2"

151/2"

1/4"

1/2"

191/4"

2"

3"

1/2" x 1/2"rabbet

Corner DetailTop View

Note: The stiles aredimensioned so eachface (front and side)shows 3" after assembly.

3"

3"

11

3

4

9

1/4"

1/2" 1/2"

1/2"

1/4"

MATERIAL LIST – Heirloom Chest

T x W x L

1 Lid (1) 3/4" x 171⁄4" x 38"

2 Bottom (1) 3/4" x 151⁄4" x 35"

3 Front and Back Stiles (4) 3/4" x 31⁄2" x 191⁄4"

4 Side Stiles (4) 3/4" x 31⁄4" x 191⁄4"

5 Front and Back Rails (4) 3/4" x 31⁄2" x 30"

6 Side Rails (4) 3/4" x 31⁄2" x 101⁄4"

7 Interior Stiles (4) 3/4" x 31⁄2" x 101⁄4"

8 Front and Back Panels (6) 3/4" x 77⁄8" x 101⁄8"

9 Side Panels (2) 3/4" x 101⁄8" x 101⁄8"

10 Front and Back Horizontal Moldings (12) 3/8" x 1/2" x 8"

11 All Vertical and Side Horizontal Moldings (20) 3/8" x 1/2" x 101⁄4"

12 Solid Brass Hinges (3) 11⁄2" x 2"

13 Lid Supports (2)

14 Windsor Green Enamel Paint (1 quart)

To complete the chest frame, the panels and the lid, you will need access to a table saw and a routertable. You also may want to check with local cabinetshops to get a rate for running the glued-up lidthrough their wide belt sander. Plan on spendingabout 40 hours on this project. Aside from the hardware items and the moldings, you’ll need:

• 13 board feet of cherry

• 17 board feet of poplar

Planning Ahead: The Heirloom Chest Project



1

102

3

4

5

5

5

6

6

7

78

9

11

13

12


92 HOME PROJECTS

Vertical-style panel raising bits arethe only way to go these days. They’resafer than big horizontal cutters, easyto use and provide the home wood-worker with plenty of profile options.The key to using these bits is to alwayssupport your workpiece vertically withan appropriately sized auxiliary fence.

For best results, your router shouldhave at least a 11⁄2 horsepower motor.The load exerted on these long cuttersis substantial, especially in denser hard-wood stock. This is why vertical panelraising bits are generally not availablewith 1/4" shanks.

Routers featuring variable speedcontrols are recommended by the bit

manufacturers. Variations in both thespeed of the router’s motor and therate of feed can have a strong impacton the quality of the cut. Wood that iscut too quickly across the grain willhave torn fibers, and an overly slow cutcan leave you with burn marks. Youcan improve the quality of your workand reduce strain on the router bit bytaking six or seven passes on eachedge of a panel, moving your fenceafter each pass. To minimize tearout,rout the end grain first, then the sides.Chatter and chipping are two goodindicators that your cut is too deep andthat you should adjust your fence.

Ogee withChamfer

Cove withBead

Cove Ogee Traditional Ogee withBead

The keys to using vertical panel raising bits are to support them with an auxiliaryfence on your router table and to take multiple light passes.

RAISING PANELS ON THE ROUTER TABLE

We used lap joints on the front,back and side frames, and rabbet anddado joints on the corners, as shown inthe Corner Detail on page 90. There aretwo reasons for using lap joinery: Itdoes a great job of securing the stilesto the rails, and at the same time it creates recesses for the cherry panels.Since we’re using molding to hold thepanels in place, a traditional mortise isnot necessary.

To make the lap joints, insert adado head in your table saw and setthe blade height and the fence for a1/2" x 1/2" cut. Mill rabbets on bothedges of the side stiles and on thetapered edges of the front and back

stiles, as shown in the Detail Drawing.This same rabbet is milled on one

edge of the front, back and side rails(pieces 5 and 6) and on both edges ofthe interior stiles (pieces 7). The secondhalf of the lap joint is a 1/2"-widetongue that is milled on the ends of therails and interior stiles. To make thistongue, decrease the blade height tocreate a 1/4"-deep cut and use yourmiter gauge to maintain squareness.

With the dado head set up, youcan now create the tongue, which runsaround the edge of the bottom panel.Set the depth of cut to 3/8" and formthe 1/4"-wide tongue. There is onemore operation that you can perform

with the dado set installed in your saw:forming the grooves in the front andback stiles to accommodate thetongues you just milled on the sidestiles. These grooves will require anadjustment in the width of the kerf, soremove the dado head and reset it to1/4". Now set the height to 1/2", alignyour fence 1/2" away, and create thegrooves (see Stile Detail).

Assembling the FramesWith all the initial machining done,

it’s time to assemble the four frames.Gluing the lap joints can be trickybecause the joint tends to buckle as theclamp applies pressure. One way to



QuickTip

avoid this problem is by using C-clamps to hold a short length (about8") of scrap on either side of the joint.Set the C-clamps so they’re finger tightonly; this way you can still close thejoint under pressure from the pipeclamps. Slip a piece of wax paperbetween the scrap and the frame soexcess glue wouldn’t secure the scrapto your workpiece. When the pipeclamps are snug, tighten the C clampsfully to hold the two cheeks of the lapjoint together while the glue cures. As you assemble the frames, check forsquareness by measuring diagonallyacross the faces, and adjust yourclamps accordingly.

With all four frames glued up, youcan now run the grooves that hold thebottom panel (see Figure 2). This is bestdone with a router rather than a tablesaw because two of the four groovesare stopped before they emerge fromthe end of the frame.

To make the two stopped dadoes,equip your router table with a 3/8"straight bit and set the depth of cut to 5/16". Stick some masking tape toyour router table fence and mark thelocation of the router bit on it: You’llhave two marks 3/8" apart showing thepoints where the bit enters and exitsthe workpiece.

The top rail of each frame will runalong the fence, which should be set151⁄2" from the bit. Using the marks on

Figure 2: Align marks on your router tablefence and the stiles to locate the two stoppeddadoes that will hold the bottom panel.

Winning the Air Hose BattleAir tools are wonderful, but battling a twisted messof air hose is not. There’s an easy and inexpensiveremedy to the problem, and all you need is a 5-gallon bucket with a lid. Drill a 1" hole in the bot-tom for the male end to stick out and a 1" hole inthe cover to push the hose in. Thread the male endthrough the cap and then through the bottom ofthe pail. Put the lid on the bucket, and push therest of the hose in. Most hoses will coil up easilyinside. Now you’re all set to plug the male end ofthe hose into your air compressor and pull out onlyas much hose as you need. The rest stays out ofsight and neatly ready for use. Better still, youdon’t have to buy an expensive hose coil.


94 HOME PROJECTS

the masking tape as a guide, slowlypush the piece down on the bit so theleading edge is 1/2" beyond the left-hand mark. Feed the piece from right to left, stopping when the right edge isjust 1/2" to the right of the two marks.Square up the stopped dadoes with asharp chisel.

Assembling the CarcassNow it’s time to start bringing the

chest together. Begin by laying the backframe flat on your workbench with theoutside face down. Rotate the frameuntil the ends extend beyond the edgesof your worktop (so you can clamp itlater), and then drop the bottom panelinto its groove. Don’t glue the panel in.

The two side frames do get gluedin, and they’re inserted next, followedby the front frame. Then clamp every-

thing together. If you are a relatively newwoodworker, you should be aware that many people tend to overtightenclamps, squeezing too much of the glueout of the joints. Try to resist those lasttwo turns on the crank; just make thejoint snug while the glue cures. Be sureto check and recheck your diagonalsnow as well, adjusting as necessary tokeep everything square.

Installing the PanelsWith the carcass assembled and

waiting for its cherry panels (pieces 8 and 9), this is an excellent time toapply paint to all the poplar areas.Doing so now eliminates the need toapply masking tape to the panels later.While you have the paint out, youshould also coat the embossed moldings (pieces 10 and 11).

Your panel stock should be readyby now, so go ahead and trim the eightpanels to size, lightly marking the bestones for the front and sides. The raisedpanel is created using a vertical panel-raising bit in the router table (see thebox on page 92). Make a number ofpasses, moving your fence 1/16" furtherback each time until you have 1/4" ofstock left on the lip. Rout the end grainfirst, then the long grain, to help mini-mize short-grain tearout.

Finishing UpThe eight panels and the lid should

be sanded and finished prior to installa-tion. An excellent finish for cherry isseveral coats of natural Danish oil,which quickly develops the rich patinaof the wood.

To miter the ends of the moldings

QuickTips

Speedier Joint Setups Take PlanningWhen you’re designing the joints in a piece of furniture or casework, think not only how they will look andwork, but also how they will be machined. For example, if you install a 3/8" dado head in the table saw and setthe height at 3/8", you can cut both parts of a rabbet and dado joint without ever changing your setup. If youplace 3/8" dowel joints and 3/8" shelf supports in the same relative locations in a cabinet, you can use a singledrill press setup for both tasks. And if you make stiles, rails and trim pieces the same width, you can rip andjoint them all at the same time.

Switch to Plywood when Making Spline JointsSpline joints are a great way to join two long edges. But while most woodworkers have no problem routing thegrooves for the spline, they often let the ball drop when it comes to making the actual spline. A ripped piece ofhardwood won’t work, as it will split along the grain — right where you need the most strength. Plywood is theperfect answer: its alternating plys prevent splitting, and it comes in thicknesses that are perfectly suited to therouter bits you use to make the grooves.



Mitering small moldingscan be dicer than it looks,especially on a table saw. This easy-to-make cradleattaches to your saw’s mitergauge and holds the workpiecesafely during the cut.

The jig is made by plowinga 1/2" groove in a piece of 1" x 3" scrap. The wood leftunder the groove should beonly 1/8" thick to prevent small cutoffs from falling backinto the blade.

Set your miter gauge at45° to the right, attach thepiece of scrap to it and run theassembly through the blade.Now reset the fence at 45°to the left, switch miter slotsand repeat the process. Whencutting miters on the smallmoldings, line up your markwith the edge of the jig for aperfect cut every time.

A MITERING JIG FOR SMALL MOLDINGS

you should build the small jig shown atright. The groove in the jig holds thethin, flexible stock steady while you runit across the table saw. Use a fine-toothplywood blade to make these cuts.

Securing the panels in place mayprove to be a little tricky. The embossedmolding is relatively thin, and the 1/2"rabbet has to accommodate both thepanel and the molding. Set the cheston its back so you can work on a flatsurface as you install the panels. Onceall the moldings are mitered to the cor-rect length, glue and tack them in placewith brad nails, trapping the panels intheir frames. Set and fill the nail headsand then touch up the paint.

Mark the locations for the hingemortises on both the lid and the carcass and use a router equipped with a straight bit to remove most of thewaste. Finish up with a sharp chisel.Drill pilot holes for the screws, andinstall the hinges (pieces 12).

The lid supports (pieces 13) comein left and right configurations and arerelatively easy to install. You’ll find com-plete instructions printed on the bag.Simply measure for the screw locationsand surface-mount each support.

Other Handy Uses for this ChestStoring blankets may not be the

only use for this chest; with a little imagination you can adapt it to suit anumber of different uses. For example,cleats installed a few inches from thetop could support a drop-in tray forlinens or placemats. It’s also just about the perfect size for a toy chest,although in that case you may want tobuild the whole piece out of poplar andpaint it in brighter colors. Either way,when you complete this chest you’rebound to end up with an heirloom that will get passed down throughfuture generations.


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