mini-anarchist tool chest (ATC) - painting and interior top box

 There were two key operations remaining to finish the mini-ATC.  I needed to make a box for the interior and then paint the outside.

For the top box, I decided to go with a single larger box.  At this point, I don't have all the specific tools and I want to use if for a while (at my dad's who lives an hour away) to see what else may need to be added.  Given some of the unknows, a single larger drawer makes things easy.  For this, half inch poplar I purchased from a big box store fit the bill.  I really lucked out in that I found some with really cool greens and purples.  For a box, this kind of bold color on poplar is really nice.  Sadly, I know if will fade to a nice brown.  Making the box was straight forward.  

I wanted to run grooves in the bottom to hold the bottom but I didn't want to use half blind dovetails.  So, I decided to try something I've seen Ralph B. in the Accidental Woodworker do.  I ran the grooves, made the standard dovetails, and then assembled as normal.  There were rectangular holes on two sides of the box.  I simply cut some plugs and filled in the square holes.  After the finish was applied you can't see this unless you know they are there and are looking very closely for them.  You will easily see one of them.  That is because I dropped a piece of poplar on the floor and used a piece of pine to fill that gap instead.  The other last little thing I did for this upper box, was to put some small handles inside.  That way, I could easily pull it out of the box.  I just glued on some scrap cherry I had  and put a chamfer on the bottom side so that I could easily lift it.

One thing that drives me nuts is that 1/4" plywood isn't truly 1/4" as it is metric.  I didn't like the flop in the box bottom.  As such, I glued some blocks under the box bottom to snug up the rattle.  It solved the problem and provided extra support for the drawer so all is good here.  Before I make my next box, I am going to buy the proper metric plough plane blade.

Now, onto painting up the exterior.  For it, I wanted to use milk paint.  I wanted a red under layer and black on the outside.  I like the look it gives that gets even better with age (or maybe this is a trend I have fallen into).  Elia Bizzarri in Fine Woodworking Mar/Apr 2020 (pgs 24-28) outlines a process to do this.  I followed it and I am happy with the results.  Having said that, using milk paint was stressful the first time through.  I am used to finishes such as shellac which flow nicely.  Milk paint has a different flow (I think draw is the proper word).  Also, the first coat of red looked crappy.  Now, I had heard all of this before I started.  It is true.  This is where I kept Paul Sellers mantra of keep going and don't give up in my mind.  When it was finished, it looked really nice.  I didn't need manually distress it as I didn't get complete coverage with the black.

Only thing left to do was to add the handles (Horton Brasses).  I elected not to put a lock on it as I don't plan to leave it places where it really needs to be locked.  

All in all, it took around 175 hours to make it.  I really enjoyed it.  I am very happy with how it turned out.  Now, I need to start buying tools to fill it.  I have some and in the next post I will share with you what tools I have and my thoughts on what I want to purchase.