While making my tool chest this week I had a major tool malfunction. My coping saw decided to explode on me. The handle fell off, I epoxied it back on, it fell off again, and I ended up finishing one set of tails by just using the frame of the saw. 

As soon as I finished that last set of tails I came inside, sat down at the computer, and purchase a Knew Concepts Woodworker Fret Saw.  Yes, I know, they are not the cheapest fret saws out there, but, I really don't want to be held up again because my saw fell apart on me. I don't know about you but I only have a limited amount of time in a day, and I really don't like being held up because of a crappy tool. 

I received the Knew Concepts Saw a few days later and shot the video below. In the video I only make a couple cut and you can see that I am excited about this saw. After I shot the video I have cut many more dovetails and I can say that this saw does not disappoint. I can't recommend this saw enough. 

Some technical information for you. My old coping saw weighed 244 grams, the Knew Concepts 5" Woodworker Fret Saw weighs 138 grams. This is 43% Lighter. That is a difference you can really feel.  

This saw also has some really nice features for locking your blade in place. You can very easily loosen the blade and swivel it to either 45 degrees left or right, or set it up for straight cutting. Then you just lock the cam back down and you are ready to go. The blade will not move on you one bit. Look at the pictures below to see the blade locking mechanisms and the new aluminum knurled knobs.  

Please take a moment and watch the short video and I hope you purchase one of these awesome tools, they are well worth the money.  


By the way, I have received nothing in return for my review or any discount for the purchase of this tool. 

Just a little bit of news for those who visit my site. 

I have decided to jump all in and change my domain name. 

So now when you come to visit I am now www.billyslittlebench.com  

    Well, I guess the first thing I should tell you is that I am using some different types of wood for this tool chest. First, I am using some 60+ year old Old Growth Douglas Fir.  The DF will be what I make the main 4 sides out of. Now this DF is supper old, supper dry, supper stable, and some of it is just gorgeous. It works like a much harder wood do to the tight growth rings and the fact that the wood is completely seasoned. And I got it for free. Actually, I got all of the wood for the tool chest for free. The second wood that I am using is Sugar Pine. The SP is going to be used for the aprons, the bottom, the lid frame, and the drawers. I might be able to do most of the guts of the chest with it, but I may not have that much. We will just have to wait and see. The third wood will not be revealed until I make the lid. It will make up the panel portion of the lid and is a very special piece that I am sure everyone will like.

So, about a month ago I glued up and milled up my DF panels for the 4 sides. The one thing I had not decided on though was how big I wanted the chest. Originally I was thinking something like 42 x 26 x 26 . WOW was that big. After I cut the first panels to size I seriously started rethinking that one. That is one huge chest. I went back to the saw and cut 2" off everything. And that two inches made a big difference.  So, now the chest will be 40 x 24 x 24. This is a little bigger than the version in the book, but it is better for what I am going to be putting in it. One of the deciding tools for the size of the chest is my miter box saw. The saw is 26" with 5" depth of cut. With the handle added to the blade length it is very large. In fact it is longer than my 28" rip saw. 

Once I got all the pieces cut to size I went through with a piece of blue chalk and marked all the panels for locations. This is a very important step because I want certain views of the wood from the inside and all of the corners need to be labeled for dovetailing. If the corners are not labeled bad , very bad things can happen.

Now comes the fun part. Dovetails. Yeah.

For the tails I am using a 4:1 ratio, you can use a framing square to setup your bevel gauge to this angle. Which by the way is a little less of an angle than Chris used in the book. He used a 17 degree angle, I will save you the math problem to figure this out, it comes out to about a 3.25:1 ratio. That's steep. 

Once I marked out all 13 tails and my baseline, it is now time to cut, cut, and chop out all the tails. The one cool thing about the way Chris describes doing this in the book is the small rabbet on the backside of the tails that is cut before you cut out the tails. Not only does this help when transferring the tails to the pin board, but it gives your chisel something nice to rest on when chopping out the back side of the tails.  

Now I don't know about you but I really don't like to stand up all day if I can help it. Besides the fact that I have been suffering with a foot problem for about two years now, I just don't like bending over that much. So, in comes the sawbench. If you build a sawbench to the correct height and your workbench is a proper hand tool user height, this will feel very comfortable when cutting dovetails. No need to build another vise to put on top of your bench to cut dovetails. Just take a seat and get to work. 

With all the tails cut its now time to transfer the tails to the pin board. Now that rabbet on the back side really helps with lining up these boards, plus I use to clamps to hold the board in place to that it doesn't move while I am marking. Once that is done I start going to work on the pins. 

And with a story like this , you know something bad is about to happen . And , Well, it did. 

While cutting out the waste my coping saw handle came off. Not to mention the fact that the blades I have just can cut it through this thick material. So, I had to finish the last few cuts just by holding the frame. That was after trying to fix the handle twice. So, I decided to do what any self respecting American would do. 

I went inside and bought a Knew Concept fret saw right off there website. So, when this gets to my house in a couple days I can get back to work. Luckily they are in Santa Cruz, CA not far from me, shipping should be fast.  

I think for now I will get started on milling some of the sugar pine for the rest of the chest while I wait. 

So, right when I started to dive head first into my tool chest I was asked to build a bookcase. If you have never built a bookcase before, don't worry, they are not very difficult to build if you set yourself up correctly. First, you have to figure out what type of wood you are going to use. This can be as easy or as difficult as you would like to make it. If you live in the US the easiest thing is to go with is Red Oak and a simple finish. Why, well Red Oak is cheap, really strong (it resists sagging more than other woods), and you can get sheet goods in Red Oak anywhere.

Here is my version of a supper simple bookcase. In all the bookcase is about 6'3" tall, 15" deep and the frame is 32" wide. I built this bookcase about the same way you would build a kitchen cabinet. Or should I saw, the way that I build kitchen cabinets. It also only took me a good weekend to build and then I applied a Danish Oil finish over the next few days. 

So, you might be asking, how did I go about building this bookcase. Well first I start with cutting all of my sheet goods for the two sides and for all of the shelves. They are cut all to the same width, so just set up the table saw and just start sending the material through.  The one thing I do a little different from others is that I put a rabbet 3/8" by 3/8"  on the front and back of the two side pieces. Both on the side that will facing inward. This is so that I will have a place to install the back as well as a tongue to be inserted into the side pieces of the frame. This is also the procedure that I use for each shelf. But, we will get to the shelves in a moment.

When I cut all the solid Red Oak I did so out of one large board. This is an important point because with one board producing all of the hardwood I don't have to worry so much about color matching at the lumber store. The one thing I did concern myself with is that I used the tightest grain patterns for the face frame of the bookcase. This way all of the frame pieces look the same. All of the frame pieces are 2" wide. I should also mention that all of the stock for this bookcase is 3/4" stock. Again, this selection of material helps to speed the process along, no time spent milling lumber at all for this project. 

The first major operation that needs to be done is get the two sides cut. Put in all the rabbets and dados that we will need and get there face frame pieces glued on. Once the sides are ready to go we can move onto the shelves and the rest of the face frame pieces while the glue sets up on the two sides. 

Besides the rabbets in the sides, I also cut a dado for each shelf. The dados are cut with a 5/8" router bit that rides between two fences that are set to width by using the actual shelf that will be installed in the dado. This assures an exact fit. If you just use a straight edge and a 3/4" bit I seriously doubt your shelves will fit tightly. These dados are 14" apart. I am not one for adjustable shelves. Why, well..... first most people will do two things with adjustable shelves. Either they will equally space the shelves which completely voids the point of having adjustable shelves, or, they will adjust the shelves in an unorganized fashion making the piece of furniture you just built look horrific. Another good reason to build shelves into dados is that it makes the entire structure that much more sturdy and secure. 

The top is made of three pieces of Red Oak and a piece of sheet good. I mitered the corners and ran a 1/8" by 1 1/4" piece of Red Oak through the miter as a spline. The left over piece of the spline are trimmed off first with a saw and then with a chisel. 
 To complete the top I put another rabbet on the top inside edge of the solid wood frame and a rabbet on the underside of the plywood. Thus creating a perfect fit between the two and then glued the frame together. This however is a two step process. I first put the mitered and splined hardwood frame together and then installed the plywood center. 

Now about the shelves. I put a rabbet on the front of each shelf on the front top edge. This rabbet is again 3/8" by 3/8". So, when I cut the rabbets for the sides I also cut the rabbets in all of the shelves. This rabbet again forms a tongue that will be inserted into each piece of the face frame.   
One thing you will notice at this point is the use of a 3/8 rabbet and the grove that needs to be cut in many of the pieces. This is done by design. Not only does this make a very secure and strong glue bond, it also speeds the entire process along. All you need to do is cut the grooves, apply glue, clamp, and walk away. 

With the shelves there are three extra steps that need to be done.   

First, so that the face frame of the shelf will sit flush to the front, the rabbet will need to be removed along the end to avoid the frame on the sides. This is done easy enough with a small saw and a little chisel work. 


Second, once the grove is cut in the face frame, put the frame piece and the shelf together, WITHOUT GLUE, and flush the top of the hardwood up with the top of the shelf. When this is done I number each shelf and hardwood piece so that they are now a matched pair.  I don't install the hardwood to the shelf until the shelf is installed in the bookcase. This is important because we still have to flush the sides of the hardwood up to avoid gapes in the frame. 

The last thing you will need to do is cut the shelf so that if fits perfectly between the front face frame and the rabbet in the back. If this is not perfect there will be a gap between the shelf and the back of the bookcase. And everyone will see that. 

The next thing that needs to be done is one massive glue up. All of the shelves and the two sides need to be glued up and then left overnight. This should complete your first day of building. 

Now the second day of building should actually be easy. The first thing that needs to be done is to get the face frame installed and cut the curve in the top rail piece.

The face frame is easy enough. Just mark and cut each piece one by one for its matching shelf. Once, each piece is cut I drill for one pocket screw for each side of the hardwood frame. This pulls the frame tight together. This is not done to pull out any gaps , it is only done to prevent gaps from happening in the future. The face frame should be gap free before you glue and screw each piece onto its shelf.  I used three clamp to hold each frame piece while the glue dried and then one to hold the sides tight while I drove in the screw. 

Now for the top rail we need to first cut a piece of hardwood 3" by whatever the width is between the frame. Then we make a mark for the center of that piece and measure for 2" from the top down. So, basically the curve will start at the 3" wide ends and only travel and inch high into the piece. 

To mark the curve I used a thin off cut, held it on my three marks and held it bent like that. This is when having a third hand is useful. My wife drew the curved line while I held the piece of scrap in the curved shape. If you don't have a third hand or a wife then you could drive three small nails in the back side of the rail piece to the bend the piece of scrape around with the nails holding it you can then draw the curved line. Easy easy. 

Once everything was marked I cut the excess away with my bow saw and cleaned it up with a spokeshave.  Because this piece is not connected to a shelf it will be held in place with two pocket screws on each side and three pocket screws up into the top. 

Now for the fun part. Cutting the molding for the base. The molding for the base is about 4 1/4" tall. I cut the molding by hand with a complex molding plane made by Sandusky Tool Co. about 100 years ago. If you are thinking. WOW, how long did that take?  Well it took me about 2 min to cut. How long does it take you to find a router bit, set the depth, cut the shape, then come back and sand the molding? I bet longer than 2 min. Sometimes hand tools are just a way better way to go. Best part , no sanding needed. 

I cut the miters on my miter box and then screwed and glued the molding to the base of the plywood and bottom shelf (the hardwood piece). I also then came back and installed glue blocks into each corner for support of the miters.  I know traditionally this is not the way this process is done but in this case it was much faster. 

Now to secure the top I did something that I usually would not do. I already stated that I secured the top rail with three pocket screws up and into the top. That is part of installing the top, but what about the side? Well, I put 4 screws through the hardwood top straight down into the sides. Then I made and installed 4 Red Oak plugs into the wholes to cover up the screws. Not very traditional, but who will ever look at the top of this bookcase? No one, unless they are on a ladder or stand about  7 feet tall. I'm not worried about it.

And now for the last piece of construction. Installing the back. For the back I just cut a piece of 1/4 plywood to fit exactly and then started installing screws. Why not nails? Well nails can pull out. I used small brass screws. Three per shelf and two on the sides between each shelf. 

With the back secured and every surface sanded and cleaned its now time for the finish. 

I used a Danish Oil for the finish. Danish oil is a mixture of a thinner, oil, and a varnish. It works well for something that you would like to protect but not have a film finish on. Danish Oil soaks into the wood and then hardens. Thus protecting the wood from stains while keeping it very natural. I applied three coats of Danish Oil and then let it set to gas off for a week. 

And the best part of getting the bookcase done. 

Now I can get back to building the Anarchist's Tool Chest. 

Starting today there  will be a series of blog posts and SHORT videos that will document the building of my version of the Anarchist's Tool Chest. 

If you have not read the book written by Chris Schwarz you should. You can get your copy at his website Lost Art Press. It also comes with a DVD now that is full of other great information for those looking to build furniture by hand. 

And if you have any question or comments don't hesitate to contact me through my website or by commenting below. 

Thanks.