Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process
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Posted 11th March 2023
While I think about wedges, another thing I've started pondering about is all those holes.
As I mentioned a few posts back, I changed the spacing of the back slats such that they're no longer 96 mm pitch. If I put 96 mm pitch holes in them, they'll be off-centre on the outer ones, something like this:
As I said before, one option is simply to switch to 93 mm pitch.
However, one of the changes I made since starting the design was to add the planing stops at the end of the board (you can see the cut-outs in the dovetails for them on the left of the image above). Those planing stops should do a lot of the work that the holes in the top were originally intended for.
One option that I have that's starting to feel quite appealing is to get rid of the holes completely and also get rid of the thin filler pieces that go between the uprights on the back. I could then just put clamps through the gaps in the back or the opening at the front to clamp stuff to the top when needed.
I need to think a bit more about anything I might have missed that would screw up this idea (your thoughts, dear reader, are welcome as always), but I thought I'd scheme it out in CAD to see what it looked like:
Another view (also showing the thingies that the planing stops will screw to so that the planing force is acting on the top rather than trying to pull the dovetails apart):
Of course, making a change like that isn't as simply as omitting the holes and the grooves for the thin back pieces. At the moment, the shooting board is designed to act as the front of the chest. It has some little knob things that lock it into place. When the shooting board is used, it drops onto the top of the chest and those knobs are conveniently located such that they drop into the holes in the top. That won't work very well if the holes aren't there!
I'm sure I can come up with an alternative locking mechanism, but it's another thing that needs to be thought about.
Page 35 of 144
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