Sea chest build 8

Last night I didn't start on the drawers as I had expected. Instead I reasoned that it was a better idea to attach the bottom, since that would allow me to measure the exact size of the lower drawer and its secret cousin.

Here you can see the bottom of the till and the removable vertical divider.

On this picture the vertical divider has been removed allowing you to see the small divider that will house the secret drawer. The little dark spot in the dado on the underside of the till is for the tip of the sliding key.

The bottom mounting:
I laid out all the shiplapped boards on the bottom according to their numbering. They are not all of the same length, width or thickness, but they are flat on the side where the shiplap is.

The idea was to nail them to the bottom and then plane the outside of the bottom to a uniform thickness. When all this is complete, I can trim the ends of the boards and make a small skirt for the chest.

 

Here the first board is being nailed in place using the home made brass nails. I drilled a 2 mm pilot hole all the way since the nails are a little soft.



 

 I adjusted the distance between the shiplapped boards using a folded piece of thick paper.

This is after planing the bottom to its final thickness. Another good thing about the home made brass nails is that Iwouldn't damage the iron if I accidentally hit one of the heads. I didn't hit the heads though, since I set them below the surface using a drift punch.

The inside of the bottom.

This is my way of clamping small pieces of wood. It works remarkably well.

Tonight the plan is to make the liding key in the other end of the vertical divider, and perhaps start on making the stock ready for the drawers. But I could also end up working on the lid.
We'll see.