This is a quick update on the “I Can Do It” Gent’s Tool Chest that I covered in an earlier post.
I decided to add the faux raised panel. Honestly that was the most fun of the whole project. I didn’t even stop and take pictures of the process. I took one of these cheesy 1-by pine boards and sawed out a slightly oversize piece for the panel. I planed one side so it was flat, trued one edge, flipped it over and took it down to 1/2″ with a scrub plane, then flattened it with a #6. Wow, it went fast and came out pretty nice. I shot one end square, trimmed and shot it to length and planed the last long side to width. Then I beveled the edges with a low angle block plane. I did the ends first in case going across the grain caused any blow outs (it did, but not bad) then did the long edges.
I glued it to the lid of the box and sanded everything with 220. Honestly I should have left the raised panel unsanded. Sanding immediately rounded over the nice crisp edges I had from planing the bevels even though I used a light touch and a sanding block.
I stained the inside of the box and lid, and painted one coat of red latex on the outside. When that has dried I’ll put a coat of black over the red and then selectively sand through the black to expose the red and the pine to give it some character.
Paint really helped the appearance.
McGlynn on Making 