Cabinets & Storage Solutions. Bill Hylton
but two of the panels in the trunk are cut from ¼"-thick rift-sawn red-oak plywood (pieces 13 through 15). The two upper side panels (pieces 16) are made of ¾" solid stock for extra strength, since these pieces secure the handles and carry the load of the trunk when it’s lifted off the ground, in addition to supporting the tray inside the trunk. Cut the plywood panels to the sizes specified in the Material List, and find some matching ¾" stock for the upper side panels.
The plywood panels will fit right into the grooves you made earlier, but the ¾" upper side panels will require a little extra machining. Start with a ⅜" dado blade to rabbet the back of each panel (see the corner detail and side panel assembly drawings). The tongues remaining after the rabbets are cut must fit comfortably in the rail grooves. Switch to a ¾" dado blade to cut the grooves for the tray support ledgers (pieces 17), and then chamfer the edges.
Assembling the Box
For the most part, the pieces for the box portion of the trunk are completed, so now you can begin assembling each wall of the project. First, do a dry run without any glue to check the fit of all the parts. While you’re at it, make sure the upper and lower rails are flush with the ends of the corners and that the middle rails are exactly centered. Mark each of these joints so reassembly will be easier.
Take apart each wall, and put glue on the tenons and in the grooves where the tenons will be inserted. Reassemble the parts, and draw each wall tight with bar clamps. Don’t forget to measure diagonals to ensure squareness.
Clean up any glue squeeze-out, and sand the joints flush. The bottom (piece 18) will be held in grooves (see the side panel assembly drawing) in the front, back, and side walls. These grooves are easily cut on your table saw with a ½" dado blade, but you’ll need to balance the end walls on a couple of ¼" strips during the cut to compensate for the extra thickness of the upper panels. After cutting the 5/16"-deep grooves in the front and back walls, use double-sided tape to secure the strips to the end walls, and then raise the blade another ¼" to make the cuts, as shown in Figure 1 on page 17.
Corner Detail The corner joints provide structural strength for the steamer trunk, and the ½" bit of wood at the top of each mortise helps alleviate stress on the glue joints when lifting the trunk.
The four walls are now ready to be joined together with splined miters. Cutting these joints follows much the same procedure you just completed when cutting the grooves for the bottom panel. To cut the miters, tilt your blade exactly 45° (test cut some scrap wood to get this perfect), and clamp a wood face to your fence. Without the wood face, the tip of your first mitered edge might slip under the fence during the second cut. I used a right-tilting table saw. If you have a left-tilting saw, you’ll have to cut the miters with the inside surface of the walls riding on the saw table. Since the upper side panels stick out ¼", you’ll have to use the ¼"-strip method on the end walls to keep these pieces balanced during the cuts.
Once the miters have been completed, set up your saw for the spline cuts (see Figure 2 on page 24). Since all these cuts must be made with the inside surface riding on the saw table, you’ll have to continue using the ¼" strips on the end walls. Keep the blade tilted 45°, and adjust the blade height and fence position to make the cuts. First, make the spline groove cuts in the front and back walls, and then readjust the fence and raise the blade to make the end wall cuts.
Using ⅛" plywood, rip four ¾"-wide splines (pieces 19) for the corner joints. Dry assemble the four walls with the splines and the bottom panel in place to make sure everything fits, and then glue the box together. You’ll notice during the dry assembly that the bottom panel prevents the splines from going all the way to the bottom of the joint. Just butt the spline into the bottom panel, and let the excess run out the top for now. Don’t worry about the exposed spline groove showing at the bottom—it will be covered by the brass corner hardware later on.
Making the Lid
You cut tenons on the lid supports (pieces 12) earlier, but you still need to cut the mortises in the lid front and back (pieces 10). Lay out these mortises (see the lid mortise detail drawing on page 19), chuck a ¼" brad-point bit in your drill press, and drill out the waste in each mortise to a depth of 5/16". Don’t bother cleaning up with your chisel yet, because in the next step, your miter cut will remove the tops of the mortises. They’ll be a lot easier to clean up at that stage.
Figure 2: When cutting the spline grooves, once again use 1 4" strips to balance the side panels.
As noted, the front and back of the lid (pieces 10) meet the front and back rails (pieces 8) with another splinemitered joint. However, due to the curve of the lid, the miters aren’t exactly 45°. Tilt your saw blade 34°, and rip the top edge of the front and back pieces and one edge of each rail. Once the pieces are ripped, lower the blade, keeping it at the same angle, and adjust the fence to cut a spline groove in each edge.
Rip two ⅛"-thick splines (pieces 20), and glue each set of mitered pieces together. I recommend using band clamps to hold the narrow lumber at this odd angle.
The lid supports are curved and have a series of notches along the top edge to accommodate the rails in the lid. Photocopy and cut out the patterns for the lid support and side on page 23, and then trace the shapes onto your stock. Band saw the supports and sides to shape, checking the fit of your rails in each of the support notches before proceeding. The width of the rails should fit snugly into the notches, and the lower wall of the rail mortises should be flush with the top of the support. Before you glue and assemble the lid, be sure to test the fit of the front and back subassemblies you just glued together. They should fit nicely into the end notches on the supports, as shown in the lid assembly detail drawing on page 18.
When all the lid pieces clearly fit together, drill counterbored pilot holes to secure the front and back subassemblies to the lid supports, and spread a little glue in each mortise in the front and back pieces. Slip the lid support tenons into the mortises, and clamp the subassemblies to the five support pieces.
Fitting the rest of the lid is just a matter of popping everything into place. Loosely assemble the three lid panels (pieces 15) and two middle rails (pieces 9), and then flex this assembly to get the outside panel edges to start sliding into the front and back rails. Once the edges are all aligned, press down on the arched center of the assembly to force the panels into the grooves. You may need to adjust the rails a little to slip them into the support notches. When all the pieces fit well and are firmly seated on the supports, drill six counterbored pilot holes to secure the rails to the supports (see the exploded view on page 19), and cover the screws (pieces 21) with walnut face-grain plugs (pieces 22). Now, simply add the sides. Counterbore pilot holes where each rail meets a side piece, drive in screws, and fill the holes with walnut plugs.
Walnut Strapping and a Few Details