Toy Box/hope Chest

Here is the story of my first hope chest build. I have never built a hope chest before but if i can do it so can you.

I built this Toy box with oak wood.

• oak 3 1x4x8
• 1 2x4 sheet of 1/2" oak plywood
• 2 2x4 sheets of 1/4" oak plywood
• glue
• poly/stain of your chose
• kreg screws fine thread
• piano hinge
• safety hinges

tools

• Router
• table saw
• router table
• chopsaw
• drill
• kreg jig
• clamps
• sander

Cut list

4 at 15 inch for the legs i put decorative curve at the bottom.

4 2 " wide by 15" long for the sides

4 2" wide by 36" long

good time to sand everything down be for putting it together.

drill pocket holes on the 4 side pieces and the 4 36" pieces.

at this point i wanted get the measurements to make this as easy as possible. so i did a dry fit assemble

i made sure the the opening gap was 11 1/2

at this point i marked out where the inside routed edge would be to inset the 1/4 ply wood.

I planned on putting in a 12 inch piece of 1/4 plywood

Get creative use the router with different bits have fun ! used the 1/4 inch bit for the plywood inlays i used the router table for this.

i then used the router with a decorative edge to route the outside of the box

glue all the joints and screw this together not a bad idea to sand everything down at this point before adding the plywood.

this is why I said make sure the opening is 11 1/2 1 2x4 sheet will do the front and back an the second will finish the sides

I cut this the same size at the top and added 1/2 in strips of solid oak to cover up the edge of the plywood this gave a nice edge all the way around the box and a nice lip for opening the box i added a piano hinge in the back with 2 safety hinges to save any fingers.

I added 4 strips of wood to the bottom and laid a 3/4 inch piece of plywood. I am 210 and was able to stand in this without it breaking!

I then printed off the name of the future owner using a lazer jet printer place some polyurethane on the box and put the name on rubbing out any air bubbles aloud 2 hrs to dry and then soak it with water and rubbed away the paper leaving the name.

I used a poly stain blend and was pleased with the result!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as i did making it!