Back to work on the Tool Chest

After quite a long hiatus on this project because of Life, Work, and various and sundry things I am back to working on my Anarchist Tool Chest.  It sucks that I had to put this down for so long, but it just had to be on the back burner for a while.

Last weekend I picked the project back up again and actually made some progress.   With the lid being done, the next step was to mount the lid on the shell.  Which means hinges.  I personally hate hinges.  I suck at them.  I just do.  So it was part of why I was putting this off for so long.  I took a deep breath and tightened my belt and other euphemisms as well and just got to it.

Except I didn’t.

Turns out the wood had moved quite a bit since the last time.  The lip where the lid rested on had swelled horizontally somehow, and was no longer straight.  I suspect the wood we used wasn’t totally dried (if you were in the class you can hear the dripping sarcasm from here).  I planed off a bit on each front and back lip until my lid and back edge lined up again.

Now it was time for hinges.

Hinge!

Which actually went just fine despite all my whining and wailing.   I followed the directions in the ATC book fairly faithfully, and took my time.  The lid ended up every so slightly askew, which I cleaned up with a few passes of the plane.

So, now I have a functioning lid that fits well and opens smoothly.

Lid Open!

Lid closed! (and tucked under my secondary bench.

This completes the outside woodwork.  I’ll paint it black with milk paint, and then start in on the inside.  I might actually get to start putting TOOLS in it soon.  That is pretty exciting.

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