Walnut and Curly Maple Hope Chest Build
This is the build of a modified shaker style hope chest built for a family member. The dark wood is walnut. The light wood is curly maple. The lid has strips of maple and purpleheart. It is held flat with breadboard ends.
This build presented several new challenges. I used a rail and stile bit to profile the rails and stiles for the panels, but the arc in the top rail was challenging. Calculating the arcs was easy with CAD, but getting them sanded down to where they were smooth with the right profile took a lot of time.
The hope chest lid was also the first time I used breadboard ends. Breadboard ends allow for the expansion and contraction of the main panel without warping. This was important as I live in a dry area, but this was going to a more humid area. I used floating tenon material that I made from walnut.
The thin stripes in the lid were easier as I had done similar with other projects. I think they turned out well. The curly maple is hard to see in the build pictures, but easier to see in the finished project pictures.
