Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process

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I wonder how many photos of bits of wood pre- or post-surface planing there are in this thread so far.

Here are some more!

It was a bit cooler this morning (probably helped by being in the workshop by 7am). I took the panel out of the clamps and smoothed off the bandsawn side (with scrub plane, wooden jack plane, Axminster jack plane and Stanley smoothing plane, just because). That side was looking generally quite nice, so I used it as a reference for the marking gauge and worked the original side down to thickness.

What was once the bandsawn side:

There are a few knotty things in the panel, which I'm not sure what to do about:

I was thinking this would be the outside face of the chest front, and hence the underside of the shooting board (i.e. no grooves to cut in this face or anything else really), so I don't have to worry about ploughing through those knots, but I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to blob a bit of superglue or epoxy into them before applying finish. Alternatively I could just rely on Mike's Magic Mix to gloop up the holes a bit. I'd welcome any thoughts. This is the biggest of the knots/holes – as you can see it ain't huge:

None of them are visible on the other side of the panel (although I guess that might change when I plough a groove for the plane to run in).

The other side is a bit more colourful thanks to that yellow staining, but I don't really want to make it any thinner than it currently is (about 20 mm).

To finish off today's fun, I marked up the approximate size ready for sawing out:

The dimensions of that rectangle are a bit on the large size: I figured I'd saw to those lines and then plane to fit. I guess I'll have to reduce the width of the board by a few millimetres compared to the close-fit size so that I allow for wood movement.

I'm not going to manage any more today I don't think: I've got to get in a taxi in a few hours to go to Heathrow for a work trip to Hong Kong. Last time I went (back in March), I caught covid and felt awful for a week afterwards, so I'm really hoping that experience won't be repeated.

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

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