A New Project - "The Ultimate Blanket Chest"

It is strange, but I have a very good 6" jointer and a great table saw — and I still use the JointAbility for routing a good edge on rough boards.
	You can place the board in this holddown with as much as or as little as you want to remove. In this case, both ends curve out, so I just eased the board out until I can see a bit of wood the full length.    If I didn't have the JointAbility to use, I would have to used a guide board and made a rip on the table saw first — then I would take it to the jointer for the good edge.    Here, I do the whole thing in one cut.
The JointAbility gives me a perfect edge, and if the grain pattern is going to play havoc with the edging, I can go easy in the routing and make several light cuts.    Definitely, this tool is going to stay in the shop. Also, it is so nice to be able to pick it up and store it on the back wall when not in use.
	My next task is to cut the maple into 3/16" strips. This is much too narrow to rip between the blade and the fence. I will use the Incra TS-III and use a spacing template to cut the 3/16" width on the outside of the blade.    I select the 7/16" template. The way I figure is 3/16" for the finished piece, 1/8" for the narrow kerf blade — that allows 1/8" for me to sand the strips.
I make the rip cuts. You can see I have plenty of stock between the fence and the blade, so this is an easy and safe rip cut.
	The Incra TS-III system works like a charm — 3 absolutely even strips. The inset shows the cursor and the template. I am using the blue (upper) numbers. These marks represent a 7/16" distance. It is the accurate, quick and safest way to make repetitive rips cut like this.
I pass the strips through the thickness sander until the sides are smooth and I have my finished thickness of 3/16". By the way, I selected that thickness since it is the same thickness as the trim in the double dovetail.
	Back at the table saw, I have set the magnetic holddowns in place and am ripping the walnut to 2 1/2" width. These boards will make up the frame that will be the outer portion of the top.
I spread glue on the edges of three walnut boards (one will serve for both ends.) I want to use plenty of glue since there will be no mechanical fasteners in this glue up.
	Here is my glue up in the clamps. It consists of three  walnut boards and maple strips — and one extra walnut piece just to serve as a caul for better clamping. I will let the glue setup before working on these pieces.
Using my drawing for the measurement of the mahogany panels on the inside, I can rip each board to 2 7/8" width. The CMT Thin Kerf Rip blade gives me such a good edge that no additional jointing is required.
	Now I am ripping maple into 1/4" strips. I will use these as splines between each of the boards. I cut one additional strip from a piece of walnut to serve as splines for the corner miters.
This picture may look like mass confusion but is not. The white strips on top are the splines. The rest of the boards are in position. Of course, the splines are for alignment and strength only — they will not be seen in the final top. The walnut spline in the corners will be seen.