How to Build a Toy Chest

Ron was very excited about this next project… a place to store some of his new daughter's dolls and toys…and her first tool set!

Click Here For a list of what you will need in order to complete this project.

Although Ron's wife Lynn is not entirely convinced, Ron is certain that Danielle is a natural and will be ready for power tools in no time.

1. Design

• What Ron wanted to build was a combination bench and toy box. The toy storage chest was going to have a back, a bottom, a seat that lifted up on hinges and then, of course, the front and two sides.
• View, download and print Ron's Toy Chest and Bench Drawings

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• Since the chest would be for a very young child, the first thing Ron wanted to do was to get rid of the sharp corners that would stick up on the sides.

• To create the scallops, Ron first drew the shape onto one of the side panels. To achieve a matching pair, Ron clamped the two end pieces together and cut both side panels at the same time using a jigsaw.

• Ron gave the edges a good sanding.

2. Plate joiner

• Ron cut and laid out all the parts for the toy chest and then began to assemble them together. Ron could have used nails and glue or screws and glue, but for this project he chose to use a plate joiner, which can be rented at most tool rental stores.

• A plate joiner has a rotary cutting blade on the inside.

• When you push the blade into a piece of wood, it cuts a slot. Generally you cut two slots on two pieces of wood that you want to join together.

• Into the slots you insert a pre-made biscuit that can be purchased at almost any home improvement center.

• Ron put a dab of glue into both slots and then put the biscuit into the slot on one side.

• He then joined the two pieces together.

• Ron began with one side of the toy chest and marked the location of the biscuit joints. He used three biscuits to join each side to the back.

• An important point when using biscuit joinery is to carefully transfer the mark from one piece of wood to the adjoining piece of wood after the two pieces are in position.

3. Assemble chest

• Ron cut all of the slots necessary to join together the pieces of the toy chest.

• Once all the slots were cut, he laid the pieces out on his workbench and began the assembly process.