I have started the finishing of the chest by sanding everything to 180 grit sand paper. Then I wiped it down with a tack rag to help remove the dust.
I sprayed a 1/2 pound cut of blonde shellac as a sealer. Then I was ready to spray a mixture of Lockwood dyes for the color.
I am using a HVLP setup from Earlex with a 1mm needle because the liquid dye is a very thin mixture.
After I spray the dye, I let it dry and then rub it out with a gray 3m scotch pad. If I need to lighten an area, I use a wet rag to lighten the color.
Now I am ready to apply the finish coats of shellac. I am spraying a 2 lb cut of blonde shellac.
I spray 4 coats. I usually wait a couple of hours between coats.
After applying the 4 coats of shellac I wet sand the surface with 400 grit sand paper and mineral spirits. I wipe off the residue with a rag.
This is how the finish looks after wet sanding.
I spray one more coat of shellac and then I am ready for final rub out. Here is am using 0000 steel wool to get the finish smooth after the last coat of shellac.
The top has been rubbed out with the steel wool and then rubbed out with special dark wax from Minwax. The dark wax adds contrast and does not leave white dry specks of wax.
Here I am applying the wax to the case sides.
I glued on the top with the sliding dovetail and then nailed on four pieces of ship lap pine boards for the back. I leave a gap between the boards so they can expand with the climate.
I mounted the hardware as I waxed each of the drawers. I also installed the drawer stops in the front under the bottoms of the drawers. The stops are 1/16 inch thick.
Looks like I am all done. Now I have to do some honey do's before I start the next project.
Time to mount the hardware before I start finishing. I ordered the back plates, pulls and escutcheons from Ball & Ball.
Since the drawer fronts are curved the back plates have to be bent to fit the drawer fronts. I just did this in the last project for the curved blockfront lowboy.
I have a block with a radius smaller than that of the drawer front. I use a strap clamp to bend it on the block and hold it in place.
Then I bang it a couple of times with a dead blow hammer to help make it conform to the curve of the block.
The brass springs back and just fits the front curve. This is a sample curved front I had been using to test the finishing color.
Then I need to bend the bail, I do it the same way with the strap clamp and dead blow hammer.
The holes have to be drilled at an angle, we will get to that in a minute. But this is how it is suppose to look when mounted correctly. I chose to mount the hardware in the middle of each drawer.
To drill the holes at the correct angle, I drilled a practise piece and measured the angle with a sliding bevel, then I set my drill press table to that angle. About 10 degrees. I marked where I wanted the holes from the back plate and then drilled them.
Turned the drawer around and drilled the other hole.
Here we have all of the pulls bent and mounted. The next step is to mount the locks.
The locks I ordered from Horton Brasses. They have a lock pin at 1 1/8 inch from the top of the lock. So the escutcheons have to be set 1 1/8 inches from the top to the round part of the key hole. It fits on the smallest drawer.
I use the lock as a template to draw the outline for the deep and outer mortise of the lock. The pin is offset in the lock, so you have to be careful to set the pin in the middle of the drawer, not the lock body.
I use the lock as a template to mark the mortise that I need on the top as well.
I used a saw to cut the lines for the deep lock mortise. That is how the old guys did it in the 18th century. You can't see it very well here, so watch the video for more detail.
Using my dovetail chisel here to chop out the mortise here after sawing the sides of the mortise.
When I get close to the bottom of the mortise, I'll use the router plane to make a nice flat bottom.
Routing the bottom of the mortise flat.
Working on the shallow mortise for the back plate and the top mortise for the lock.
If I did everything correct the lock should fit right in after I drill the hole for lock pin. Hope it is in the right place.
I traced the key hole on the front from the escutcheon plate and cut it out with a keyhole saw. Then I used small rasps and files to clean it up.
Fitting the lock into the opening, so far it seems to fit.
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Testing to see that the key fits and the lock works.
I match the escutcheon to the hole to check the fit. Looks good at this point. Only three more to do.
That's it for is post. The next will be the finishing post.
