Found: Large Blanket Chest

Somebody had set this chest out on the curb, and who am I to turn down free lumber?  This post will be more about the construction of the chest, not so much about what I'm going to do with it.

The chest is 60" long (!), 18 1/8" deep and about 20" tall

Lid is the top few inches

The chest did not appear to be factory-made, but rather user-made or maybe by a small-business woodworker.  It's all solid wood.  At first glance I thought it was pine, but finishes can be deceiving.  Turns out that it is all red alder with some gnarly yellow finish on it.

It is made from 6 panels - front, back, two sides, top and bottom.  The front panel was set back 3/4" from the front edge of the sides, bottom and top.  The back panel was attached to the sides with through dovetails, almost certainly machine-cut, as I couldn't see any layout lines anywhere or chisel marks on the end grain in the recesses.

Back joined to sides with through dovetails

The dovetails were cut at a steep, nonstandard 1:3 pitch

It appears from the pics above that the lid, which includes the top panel and the top 3+ inches of the back, side and front panels, was cut off after the case was put together.  It was hinged with a 53" length of piano hinge, mortised into both top and bottom of the case.

One end of the long piano hinge, showing mortises deep enough
that the knuckle won't cause a gap at the back

What I thought was odd was that the front panel did not have the same joinery as the rear panel.  Since the front was set back 3/4" from the front edge of the piece, a different method was needed.  They used a full length (top to bottom) sliding dovetail.

The sliding dovetail holding front panel to side panel

The sliding dovetails were shored up with screws and nails.

A screw through the lid side, through the sliding DT

And a nail toe-nailed to hold it at the other end

The top was screwed to the back, side and front panels and the countersunk and counterbored holes were plugged and almost invisible to the casual observer.

A plugged screw hole next to a 1/4" chisel

The bottom was screwed to the back, side and front panels and feet had been added which were screwed to the bottom panel.  All screws used for joinery were steel slotted-head screws.

Bottom attached with screws

There were four nails too, presumably to hold the bottom in place while driving the screws

Foot removed to reveal two more screws holding the bottom to the carcase

The panels had been glued up from two or three boards, some 8-10" wide.  A router or shaper was used to create a type of finger joint.

A routed joint for edge-gluing to make wide panels

Here's one taken apart and folded like a book

Aside from the bottom of the chest, I couldn't see any planer marks - even after I scraped the finish off.  So perhaps the surfaces were planed, or run through a drum sander before assembly.

Planer marks on bottom of bottom panel

So the chest was interesting in some ways.  But what I really liked was the hardware.  I'll get into that in another post, as this one is getting a bit long.