Mac's new chest. More than meets the eye.

[Mac]

Here are some pics of a project I started about a year ago, and finally finished.









It gets more interesting when we look inside.....

Mac

[Sean Powell]

Damn that came out nice! Wish I could see it in person. I know what it is so I won't ruin it by guessing out loud. Any idea how heavy it is loaded?

Sean

[Mac]

Thank you, Sean!

I don't have a household scale, so I a am not sure what it came out to be. It's well over the 80lb that my UPS scale will register. Perhaps it is at, or a bit above 100lb.

Ya' know. I just thought of an Idea of how to weigh it. I will try it out after dinner, and report back.

Mac

[Mac]

I figured out a way to weigh it.

105 pounds. That's about 47.6 kilos, or 7.5 stones (if that's the way you like to think about it)

Mac

[Sean Powell]

The total weight is the weight on 1 foot plus the weight on the other foot. Assuming contents don't shift you can weigh each end and add them together.

Does not apply to the blond joke where she stands on the scale with one foot then the other. The other foot has to be on the ground and level with the first and a consistant distance apart to make an accurate measurement.

Edit: simultaneous post.

Nice. A bit hefty to move loaded but doable. With the handles an easy 2-person lift.

Sean

[MJBlazek]

So um... where are the pics of the inside????

[asbrand]

He's such a tease...

[Mac]

With the lid turned back, we can see that it is filled with lumber and hinged mechanisms.







Here we see the lid supports being swung unto place.





Mac

[MJBlazek]

it s a (-------------------)!

ed. RoC.

[Mac]

With the lumber removed, we can get a better look at what else is inside.






A couple of hinged thingies.





This is the one from the front compartment.




It opens up and fits between the lid supports. Now, the lid is solidly braced and can not fall.





There's more.




A more complicated hinged thingy.






Here's how it unfolds and locks open.








Mac

[Mac]

For the next part, we will need to remove the handles. These clips hold them in place.






Now things can get interesting.



But, we need to swing the legs down...


By now there should be little doubt about what this is.



The second hinged thingy goes in the middle.


The slats go in.


And a futon tops it off.


All of the pictures can be seen here. https://picasaweb.google.com/1074249789 ... directlink

Mac

[Steve S.]

Medieval Transformers!

Steve

[Derian le Breton]

Wow. Well done!

-Derian.

[Mac]

Thank you, guys!

MJB guessed what it was while I was posting the third set of pics, so he would get the prize if there was one.

Mac

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Magnificently ingenious.

[Sean Powell]

That is so amazingly well engineered. I love it.

Looking at the footboard with the lid up: Looks like the inset panels are in stop grooves rather then running the groove the full length and using stop tennons. Any particular reason? Seems harder to do your way and I can document stub tennons in medieval chests.

I love the fold-down mid-span legs and the dove-tail connections on the slats.

Any extant examples with an offset locking hasp or was that a consequence of not wanting to set the top hinge off-center?

White pine based on the grain I think. What did you use to seal it?

I'd have lots more questions if I had time to look at the details.

Sean

[Mac]

Magnificently ingenious.

Thank you, KI!

Mac

[Wolf]

that is cool. very nicely done.

[Mac]

That is so amazingly well engineered. I love it.

Thank you, Sean! Your engi-nerdy approbation means a lot to me.

Looking at the footboard with the lid up: Looks like the inset panels are in stop grooves rather then running the groove the full length and using stop tennons. Any particular reason? Seems harder to do your way and I can document stub tennons in medieval chests.

I am not following you here. As to the question of medieval joinery....my goal was to make it sort of look like medieval joinery from the outside. I realize that I lost a lot of Karma that way. I may have to atone for it by making a more serious chest in the future.

I love the fold-down mid-span legs and the dove-tail connections on the slats.

I am pretty pleased with the fold down legs, myself. I thought about how to do it for quite awhile, and have pages of notes covering about a half a dozen different ideas. The fold down leg in the center support is probably better than the ones on the sides, but the sides were already done when I thought of it.

I am not sure how important the dove tails are on the slats, but they seemed like a good idea. Realistically, I think I could probably have gotten by with only a couple of dovetails and left the rest square, but then I would have lost the benefit of interchangeability. Oh well, nothing exceeds like excess.

Any extant examples with an offset locking hasp or was that a consequence of not wanting to set the top hinge off-center?

That offset is rare in full sized chests, but relatively common in small boxes. I did it because I wanted the hasp to be able to flip down out of sight from the bed-view. That necessitated putting the hinge mount for the hasp on the outside of the lid, rather than the more usual underside of the lid. I could not stand the thought of having it not on the center line if it was going to be visible. So, if the lock and the hasp are both on the center line, the hasp had to have the dog leg.

White pine based on the grain I think. What did you use to seal it?

It's mostly select pine from the Home Despot. I don't know what species it is. The panels are 5 ply "Baltic" birch from Woodcraft. The fold down legs are maple, for strength.

I must confess that I used an outdoor polyurethane product to finish it. That's one more thing I am going to have to atone for, either in this life or the next.

Mac

[Mac]

that is cool. very nicely done.

Thank you, Wolf!

Mac

[Keegan Ingrassia]

But, we need to swing the legs down...

Mac, I'm a bit curious about a detail here on the ends of these sideboards. What are those small wooden inserts in the center of the boards' thickness? They look like biscuits that have been cut in half, but are they actual cross-grain inserts to prevent splitting along the screws for the hinges? How did you do this?

[Valentin Lyme]

Someone sent me the link to this thread and I had to re-up my membership to come see this magnificent piece of work! Well done and Where can I get the plans and hardware?

V.L.

[Harry Marinakis]

Make the chest a little bigger and you can include a maiden that comes with the bed!

[CTrumbore]

First thing I noticed was the "odd" seam on the end boards.. now it all makes sense.

Where do I buy plans, and how much?

[Marco-borromei]

Oh my God, that's brilliant.

Its beyond my meager wood working skills, even if I had plans, but I'd pay someone to make that for me.

[Valentin Lyme]

MY main concern isn't the wood working but the hardware. I see dollar signs multiplying like rabbits.
V.L.

[CTrumbore]

I could make it with a hardware kit. I could probably even come up with a plan based on his photos based on lumber thickness. I wouldnt EVER do it unless he sold the plans, or okayed reoroduction, however. Not even a "legal" personal use copy. Cause that there is art man.

[Valentin Lyme]

I started drawing this up from the extant photos I'd seen "someplace else" cannot remember and I lost those drawings with the last layoff. Even If I had backed the files up to a thumbdrive I do not have access to AutoCAD to finish them.
MY request is not to steal his artwork I'd pay for the plans if need be. I know what it takes to reverse engineer something. In time and effort. Especially from a few photos and Mac's detailed photos are amazing! his attention to detail is great!

[Mac]

Mac, I'm a bit curious about a detail here on the ends of these sideboards. What are those small wooden inserts in the center of the boards' thickness? They look like biscuits that have been cut in half, but are they actual cross-grain inserts to prevent splitting along the screws for the hinges? How did you do this?

KI,

You have the gist of it, but its a story or hubris, despair, salvation, and guarded optimism. I had made gratuitous use of screws to hold hinges on, but I did not want any to show on the outside. After the finish went on, I took some Treemont nails and shortened them down so that they would protrude about 1/4" on the inside. I ground the ends of the nails off at an acute angle, so that they would clinch when driven against a "dolly". It all went well in the test pieces, but some of the boards of the nearly complete bed split.

In retrospect, I should have made the nails a bit shorter, and made the points even more acute, so they would clinch without a trace of upsetting. I would also make the nail holes in the hinges be a bit farther in from the ends of the boards.

I worked as much glue into the splits as I could, and squoze the boards in the "big vise" while they dried. I used a biscuit cutter to cut uniform slots to receive maple cross-grained splines. I made the splines fit the slots, without the usual slop that biscuits have. I hope they are going to hold......

If I had thought that the ends were likely to split, I would have cut a slots for splines before the slat-perches and spacers (to say nothing of the hinges) were attached. Those things really complicated the repair.

Mac

[Mac]

Someone sent me the link to this thread and I had to re-up my membership to come see this magnificent piece of work! Well done and Where can I get the plans and hardware?

V.L.

Val,

You are not the first person to ask about plans. My "plans" are not in any sort of condition for publication. If enough people are interested, perhaps I need to think about this......

The hardware is a stumbling block. I made all the hinges (20?) except for the four on the bottom of the shelf and the back of the center rail.

Mac

[Sean Powell]

Someone sent me the link to this thread and I had to re-up my membership to come see this magnificent piece of work! Well done and Where can I get the plans and hardware?

V.L.

MY main concern isn't the wood working but the hardware. I see dollar signs multiplying like rabbits.
V.L.

Mac probably won't answer this late at night but the general design is based on a Napoleonic camp bead that is metal. It's a 4-poster canopy and only a twin mattress wide as well if memory serves. If you study the pictures of the original and know a little wood working you can probably figure it all out yourself. Mac and I kicked around some of the early ideas on scratch paper. I was concerned about weight as the original design was all 1-by planks rather then inset panels. I also pointed out the mid-span legs on the original but I never thought to make them folding or have a mid-span leg on the center rail (that the original doesn't need because it is narrow). He took the design well beyond what he showed me originally. I'm inclined to think that these were the equivalent of a couch bed as they would make a decent sideboard or bench when not in use.

I'll bet good money that any hardware you see that isn't obviously modern is all hand-made by Mac. All the exposed hinges, the lock plate, the end handles the reinforce plates etc are all custom. You could re-purpose some modern hardware if you were imaginative or memorized the Lee Valley catalog but nothing is quite as satisfying as doing it yourself.

Sean

[CTrumbore]

Did you align the wide axis of the nails with, or against, the grain?

Also.. is there any period basis for this? Or just your own delightful brand of medieval autobot insanity?

[Mac]

Make the chest a little bigger and you can include a maiden that comes with the bed!

This is a splendid idea, Harry. The only drawback is that it is already so big that my wife has to help me move it around. You see the problem?

Mac

[Mac]

First thing I noticed was the "odd" seam on the end boards.. now it all makes sense.

Where do I buy plans, and how much?

CT,

I wondered who would notice that. You get extra points.

Mac

[Jeff J]

Nifty!