Flooring Dutch Tool Chest - Part IV

Most of the body of the tool chest is now done, so I can get started with the lid. 

The flooring plank for the lid that next came out of the packet looked terrible on the underside: an awful lot of knots, some of them had popped out and were missing. This would make no difference if this plank was going on the floor, but this one will be the lid - the most visible part of the chest. I decided to look at the next plank in the box, and the underside of that one was perfectly clear, the entire thing. 

So I used the clear one for the lid.

A perfectly clear board for the lid: the knot at top will get cut off.

After gluing and clamping the joints like I have done for the rest of the chest, I cut the angle on the back of the lid to match the angle of the top of the chest.

Laying out the angled cut for the back of the angle-front lid.

Eye-balling the cut, then finishing it with a plane.

"Edge" shavings look weird.

After using a handsaw to cut the angle, I cleaned it up and dialed it in with a hand plane. I expected this cut to look pretty rough, but with a little care, it can be made pretty smooth. Even with the different cross-grain layers of wood.

Using a Stanley #3 to smooth the edge of this weird material.

After I cut the rest of the lid to dimension (90 degree cuts this time), I found some 3/4"-ish ash strips which I used to bolster the outside edges. Well, the three visible edges, anyway.

The lid with ash edging.

I glued them on with lots of PVA glue, taking special care to ensure all of the 3mm beech on the front had lots of glue, and the middle ply on the edges, as these are the long-grain parts that will hold the glue the strongest.

Test-fitting the top.

After the lid cured a while in the clamps, I planed a deep chamfer on the top of the ash strips, and a smaller chamfer on the underside.

The finishing touch for the edge banding of the lid were a few of the same headless, cut-finishing nails I've used elsewhere on the body of the chest.

Ash banding finished with cut nails.

With the lid ready to go, next I'll show how I made the hardware store hinges and hardware look appropriate for this chest.