The fall-front is a clever way to secure the front of the chest’s bottom compartment without having an actual drawer or door. It’s secured with a sliding lock that is inserted through the top of the chest, engages a catch on the front, and sits in a shallow notch in the bottom of the case.
The fall-front has a shallow rabbet cut around the face in order to provide some visual depth to the front of the chest. The small notch was cut from a left-over piece of southern yellow pine (providing some additional strength) and it’s screwed to the top of the fall-front.
Two small battens help secure the fall-front as they extend beyond the bottom of the front and catch on the bottom lip of the chest. This allows the front to be easily tilted in-and-out of place. A quick chamfer on the edges of the battens completes the fall-front. This part was easy, the lid might be another story. We’ll see, that’s next.
The previous parts of the Dutch Tool Chest Build series can be found here: