Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process
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Posted 8th November 2023
I'm still pondering on options and I don't think I've got any closer to a decision at the moment. If anything I'm probably leaning towards the brass-lined holes with a separate (thin) brass insert in the top of each drawer front with a number engraved into it. I'll probably try making the brass inserts at the weekend and then can decide what I think of them.
In the meantime I did a little bit more brass turning. In theory, this would have been an option for a drawer pull, but in practice it needs to be slightly bigger diameter than the other drawer pull and that means that it would interfere with the drawer bottom.
This is what it looks like anyway:
The difference with the drawer pull inserts is that the hole is blind. This is what it looks like in cross-section (very, very roughly):
The reason it's a larger diameter is that the "lip" near the opening needs to be big enough to get a finger into (and hence is the same size as the through-hole in the drawer pull I made before). As there's a second (larger) opening behind the lip, the other diameters need to increase accordingly.
So why did I make this? When the shooting board is in place like this...
... there's no obvious way to get it out. You can just about grip the two knobs and pull, but it's not especially easy. Alternatively you can unlock the knobs and push one of the drawers from behind, but I'd quite like to be able to pull it from the front. I don't really want the chest to be open at the front (as a through-hole pull would be) and I want to be able to skim the shooting board surface with a smoothing plane if required, so I don't want a brass piece that goes all the way through.
If I set that turned brass piece into the outside face of the shooting board, I'll be able to stick my finger in and pull on the lip. It's only 14 mm thick, so won't interfere at all with the shooting board face if it's mounted flush with the outside of the (20 mm thick) shooting board (it has to be mounted flush as otherwise the shooting board won't lie flat). Again, this isn't really viable with the drawer fronts as they're much thinner and have the drawer base sitting in a groove that would interfere with the brass piece.
I didn't take any photos of the process of making the brass thing, but the process was much the same as other brass turned things I've already photographed in this WIP.
Oh, and to keep the "secret society" happy, I'm also wondering about doing something else that will definitely fit into the absolutely ridiculous category. I'm thinking about carving some sort of pattern (I have no idea what: my artistic skills are close to zero) into the outside (non-shooting) face of the shooting board.
It's a big wide panel with not-especially interesting grain and I'm thinking it might break up the look of it a bit to have some sort of chip-carved pattern in the front. You'll note that the only chip carving I've ever done before was carving some simple text (e.g. TEA) into a couple of box lids, so this is definitely biting off more than I can chew...
Anyway, I'd welcome thoughts on patterns (or if you think it's stupid idea then please do say!)
Page 114 of 144
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