A New Project - "The Ultimate Blanket Chest"

The next piece I am working on is what is called the "trim". This will fit between the mahogany sides and the walnut corners. I am using soft maple.    I have cut four pieces the same width as the rest and 9" long. I am making the "B" cuts on all the pieces
	Here is the finished trim pieces. That this stock is called "soft maple" is a misnomer. It is plenty hard and caused some burning of the dovetail bit. I made all the cuts twice — the second pass just to clean out the cut.
Sal is usually behind the camera but assisted here scooping up the dust that was ejected from the groove being cut. Neither the fence pickup or the downdraft dust collector works in this operation. Holding the nozzle right at the end of the groove works the best.
	I used some of CMT's new blade and bit cleaner. It is great for cleaning this bit. I use a fine diamond file to "polish" the back sides of the cutter. By the way, I left it in the router so that my bit height would not be affected, but I wrapped a rag around the top of the router to keep the cleaner and debris from falling into it.
At the table saw, I use my Incra Miter Gauge to make accurate cuts of the maple stock. I have installed a new fence board and have penciled on the fence a mark to line up the cut. Each piece should be just less than 1" wide.    You can see that I have cut a lot of strips. I will need 32.
	Having learned this the hard way, I am careful to remove the cut-off after each and every cut.
It is glue up time. I am using carpenter's glue and am carefully brushing every surface that will mate with the mahogany piece. This glue joint needs to be strong to withstand the force of the next cut.
	Here is the trim fit to an end piece. You can see that the trim is wider that the mahogany. This will be sanded flush when the glue dries.
I am not sure that I needed to clamp the trim pieces. The dovetail joints were pretty tight. I added clamps just as an extra assist.    I am going to let these stand over night before I subject the joints to the next routing step.
	Well, it's the next day, and I unclamp the sides and start sanding the trim pieces flush to the boards. I have two clamped end to end on my workbench and just sand the adjoining pieces. This way, I won't round over the edges.
This is a closer view of the two trim pieces abutted.  Note that I purposely left the trim proud on the back side of the mahogany.    There are still some rough saw marks on this side that will get cleaned up during the trim operation. Fact is, I plan to add an aromatic cedar lining, so this roughness will not show.
	A couple of passes through the thickness sander makes the trim pieces flush and smooth with the mahogany. At this point, I am only interested in making the trim absolutely flush. When the next step is completed, I will pass these pieces through the sander and bring all the sides to about 23/32".
I said yesterday, that when I was cutting the dovetail grooves in the maple pieces, there was some burnout. To reduce the task of the dovetail bit, I will first make cuts using the straight bit. With those cuts made, I will re-install the dovetail bit and make the final cut.    Two things make this possible. First, the dovetail bit will reseat at the right height since I am using the Hitachi M12V with the O-ring in the collet. Second, the Incra Jig is so accurate that when I make the D-cuts first with the straight bit; I know that the dovetail bit will follow exactly.
	I am using a 3/8" straight bit. That width fits into the 5/8" dovetail shape without coming too close to the dovetail sides.    I am making the "D" cuts, which like the earlier cuts are two cuts per groove, giving them a wider tail.
Many cuts later, I am finishing the dovetail cutting of the same boards. You can see the nice, sharp dovetail cuts.    This precutting with the straight bit worked very well. I will use the same method when making the next series of dovetail cuts. It takes more time, but is easier on both the bit and the trim pieces.    [Note: when making the first dovetail cut following the straight bit, hold the piece down very securely. The bit will want to "climb" just as if you were feeding the material from the wrong direction. Since there is so little material to remove, this "climbing" action isn't great and can be handled by having a good grasp of the workpiece.]
	When I finished the maple trim pieces, I had to do a bit of sanding to remove the fuzz. Some of that was the stock and some of it the rough cutting of the overworked dovetail bit.    These walnut pieces are machined with their dovetail grooves as smooth as can be — no sanding is necessary.    Tomorrow, I hope to add the walnut corner posts to the long mahogany sides.
The trim pieces are dry, and it is time to cut them down. The instructions say to mark a line on each board and cut to that line. I opted to mark one board and cut it exactly and then place a pencil mark where the maple meets the mahogany (arrow.)
	I just lined up the joint with my mark and made the cut. Even the longer boards were manageable — I just got a good grasp of them and made the cut slowly.