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A personal challenge - The make

16K views 75 replies 25 participants last post by  lumberdustjohn 
#1 ·
A personal challenge - The make #1

Well got all my little bits from the personal challenge pic a home. As you can see the box is now called Little Bess (after one of our cats, black, Porgy and Bess).

The first thing to do was re-saw the Ebony into six boards (though how you can call something 38×36x3mm a board escapes me) so I squared up the offcut on the disc sander

Set up the table saw with an existing 3mm zero clearance jig, see also two push sticks (scrap MDF),

And sawed it into 6×3mm Boards, no flitches thats better.

I then cleaned these up on the belt sander with a 180 grit belt

Now I've got sized, square, stock I'm going to decide what sort of box to make.
 
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#2 ·
Some of you may wonder how I get six 3mm flitches out of a 27mm blank. Thin blade, 1.7mm. I'll leave the math to your good selves. The sanding has taken them down to 2.5mm thick (1/10").

Martyn
 
#4 ·
Thanks

Yeah its a bit 'hairy' having the fence set high but it keeps the stock upright. I tried inserts but my saw just chews them up. The blade gulley is only about 1/2" wide.

Martyn
 
#7 ·
thats good thinking , martyn .

build a bucket first ,
then a boat .
if the boat doesn't work out ,

you can always ' bail ' (LOL) !

i thought you were just going to cut the top off ,
and rout a hollow into the body .

this should be fun !
 
#10 ·
With a tiny project like this, there isn't much room for mistakes or "redesign" as we sometimes prefer to call it. That makes your project all the more challenging and more unique since not many are willing to tackle work on this scale.

This is a great blog Martyn. There are probably lots of folks with limited space to work and store materials. Your blog will demonstrate that woodworking can be just as fun and challenging on a micro level as producing large pieces. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
 
#14 ·
Day 2

Hello again. Day two of the challenge. I decided to measure up everything and arrange it before me to see what materials I have to make this box.

It didn't take long to decide on a four sided box. I will make it vertically grained as this is where I have most length in the flitches and I'll loose at least 2mm height when I seperate the box halves, top from bottom . Another piece will be the bottom of the box and the last will be the lipping for the inside, this will locate the top.
The next thing to catch my eye was the (relatively) enormous piece of Sycamore. If I cut this into six 3mm square lengths I could use these for corner pieces for the sides (butt jointed) and a border for the top (mitred).

Brilliant. But, as you can see, like most best laid plans this one went slightly awry. When cutting the Sycamore (same ZC clearance jig as yesterday) one of the pieces was caught by the saw blade and flung off who knows where. Unless I find it I only have five 3×3x70mm pieces and may have to join the top borders. A minor inconvenience. I'll already have to join two of the sides corners.
The rest of the pieces are planned to make up a chevron pattern for the top, so.

Once they're sized to 8mm deep there should be enough material there for this.

Martyn (in Lilliput) signing out

Addendum

I found it. Looks like the saw chewed it a bit before it spat it out. Don't know if I can rescue any of it.

Yes! 34mm.
 
#25 ·
Day 3

Hello again
Well having retrieved the missing piece of Sycamore

I discovered that the saw must have chewed it a bit before it spat it out. Only 34mm on a 70mm piece intact. I decided a partial repair was in order and set about it with my 'Glue of Choice' for the project. Its a Cyanoacrylate based glue for porous surfaces. Hell you most likely know of it, its probably American. Comes in a 1oz bottle.

This was the result.

Over 50mm of usable wood.
I had a slight change of mind on the design last night. This entailed shifting the grain direction for the sides from vertical to horizontal. It'll make the box seperation less fraught and the lipping will be easier to cut. So using my trusty cross-cut jig

I cut all the side and bottom flitches to size. I also re-thicknessed the lipping flitch to 1.8mm on the belt sander (180 grit belt) before cutting it into the four required pieces. In addition I cut the corner pieces to size.
This pic also shows the corners glued onto two of the four sides.

Cutting the lipping strips was accomplished with one on my MDF push sticks (re-manufactured on the disc sander) so

I tried a dry run for the main body of the box (no further gluing up yet)

Are you getting the overall design yet?

Next the pieces for the top design were cut to 8mm wide. The pattern will initially be 8mm thick.

I don't know if you recall but its going to be a chevron design. I drew out a guide for 1/2 of the boxes top area

and laid out the pieces

and the glued them up ready for trimming. The pattern will be resawn into two identical patterns, 3mm thick, to complete the top design. Enough for today. I need a cup of tea or maybe a beer. After all it is Friday and I'm not working tomorrow.
 
#40 ·
Day 4

Hello minature box junkies everywhere. I was going to take some good advice and close it down for the weekend but at the moment I feel like a kid at Christmas. I can't wait to see what this box will look like or even if it'll be a total disaster.

First things first. I cut the rectangle out of the guide for laying out the top and now I had a window onto what would be the best part of the glue-up to use.

I marked it up and proceeded to cut it up. Using a scrap bit of MDF as a backing to minimise tear-out.

This is the result, slightly oversized and scrubbed up on the belt sander.

Merde! I had over sanded. The top was now only

SEVEN millimetres thick!! Quick cup of tea and a chocky bicky. Panic subsided the next to re-saw the pattern. I made up a push-stick to completely hold the top piece (I didn't want it flying away ala the Sycamore in part 1).

The blade was set for slightly under half height and two passes made to produce this.

The two halves parted easily and when book-matched produced this

I then started to make up the box, using the stock of my metal square as - well a square really. It also provided me with something to finger clamp against during the 30 seconds the glue needs to dry.

I just couln't resist cleaning it up on the sander and giving it a quick coat of sanding sealer. Here it is, bottom up.

Resized the top on the disc sander and started to cut the mitred surround

When cramp set in, in my left arm so no more today. See you all in part 5 hopefully.

Happy trails
Martyn
 
#41 ·
I am really enjoying this blog series.
I alternate between slack-jawed fascination and lip-biting anticipation.
Well… I really, really like it and I am learning a lot. It is just so much more fun to say it the other way. ;)
My next attempt at a box will be improved for reading this.
 
#67 ·
Day 5 . Much trepidation!

Hello all this has been the most fraught day of this make and the most exhilarating. The cramp from my arm died down after about the fourth beer so I wasn't too bright this morning when I started again.

However I set about making the border for the top. I cut each piece roughly to size, with a knife. Like cutting matchsticks. Then shaped the mitred ends on the disc sander (180 grit disc).

You can just about pick out one of the side pieces nearest the disc on the lefthand side. Before long I had all the pieces done

Gluing together was done, as was most of the construction, under my magnifying lamp

When this was finished I cleaned it up very very carefully on the belt sander (180 grit belt). I cleaned the top of the sides up on this too and the stuck the box and top together. Shaky hands. Cup of tea. Good talking to myself then action. Result.

After cleaning up on the belt sander and a coat of sanding sealer

My guts churned. This was the moment of dread. So kean was I to get it over with I didn't even take pics of the box seperation. Within minutes I had cut most of the way through all four sides on the tablesaw leaving only the teasing apart of the two halves, back on the bench with a knife.

To reveal

Most of the rest seemed to fly by. As you can see above I cleaned up both box halves. I then cut and fitted the lipping in the bottom half. Cleaned it all up with 240 grit. Applied sanding sealer, with a cotton bud, to the insides of the box. and polished it.



As you can see I didn't clean up the inside of the top. The top was starting to get a bit thin anyway and doing this would have ruined it.
Please excuse any crumbs of white dust. At this scale they appear enormous. Suffice it to say I have now finished. That is both the box and I are finished. I need a long lie down.
I hope you have enjoyed this oddessey into the realms of scrap box making. I certainly have

Martyn

As promised I will now post this as a completed project.
 
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