Sea chest build part 9

I have once picked up a maxim, I can't remember where I got it from , but it goes like this: Grooving comes before dovetailing.
Out here I have had to add another maxim: Gluing comes before grooving.

The small pieces for the interior of the chest had some cracks, that needed to be glued to prevent the drawers to self destruct upon assembly.
So the grooving had to wait for another day.

In the mean time I worked on the lid for the chest. I managed to get a rather nice surface despite that fact that I was traversing the whole time. The wood seems to dull the edge pretty quickly, but I have developed a system where I can polish it and get back to work in a couple of minutes, so that isn't too bad.

 

My original plan was to make a panel lid with a mitered bridle joint frame, then I wouldn't have to glue up a panel.
I even made an experimental sorry excuse for a grooving plane that used the 1/4" chisel as iron. It worked, but it didn't eject the shavings, and had to be disassembled and unclogged for every stroke. I fiddled a little with it, and decided that I was wasting my time.

The new plan is to make some breadboard ends, since the glued up panel is wide enough as it is. On the sea chests that I have seen pictures of, these breadboard ends look more like battens, since they protrude under the lid. So they should be able to withstand quite a lot of stress since they will be maybe 1.5" thick.


After the glue had dried (overnight), I made some grooves using my trusty Bahco univeral toothed saw. I clamped a small piece of wood onto the work, to act as a guide.
Two kerfs right next to each other, and a little cleaning up with a screwdriwer, and I deemed the grooves to be fit for use.
So now I can get started on the dovetailing of the drawers.

 

We received some more stores, so I disassembled another pallet.
This is pretty much what my original supply of wood looked like.