JonH's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #9: The Grand Finale.

JonH — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:50:19 GMT

Remember the chunk of wood from inside your drawer? That works nicely for a handle since the grain of the wood is all consistent. If not, you can put anything in for a handle, a dowel, a screw, a nail, a pull from the hardware store, a hole, you name it, just get that drawer open somehow. That is up to you.

Once all the pieces are glued up, just sand up the body of the drawer so it fits nicely in the body. Once that is good, apply your finish. Be careful not to put too much in the drawer cavity of the body, it can keep the drawer from fitting right.

Finally, Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Here is a look at all the pieces prior to glue up.

Not finish sanded, but I completed it so I could get this blog finished prior to the end of the school year! I like to keep the handle of the drawer similar to the style of the drawer, but mine needs a little work.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #8: Glue that drawer back together.

JonH — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:48:32 GMT

Glue the drawer together using the front, body and the back of the drawer. Remember to keep the chunk left over from the inside of the drawer to use for a drawer handle.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #7: Lets hollow out that drawer.

JonH — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:44:48 GMT

While the body of the Bandsaw Box is drying, you can work on the drawer. Cut ¼” to ½” off the front and back of the drawer. Make sure you label the pieces so they go back together properly. We will then cut out the piece left over in the middle to create the cavity for the drawer. This can be anything you want, but it basically creates the amount of storage space in your drawer. It could be square or curved, but with a bandsaw you could accomplish nearly anything for this task. Just make sure you keep the “walls” of the drawer thick enough to be stable. I recommend 1/4” to 1/2” thickness, just like the front and back of the drawer. Keep the chunk that you cut out to make a drawer handle. Lets see some pictures!

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #6: Put the Body of the Box back together.

JonH — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:13:55 GMT

Once you have cut the drawer out of the body, you can glue the box back together and attach the back of the box to the body. Make sure you clamp the body back together tight enough to hide the cut you made to create the drawer. If you have a complex drawer, you may have to glue the body back together first, then attach the back later.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #5: Layout the drawers for easy cutting.

JonH — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:12:39 GMT

Draw the shape of the drawer on the body. Remember to think about the cut when you design your drawers. The idea is to make it easy to cut out the drawers in one continuous motion for each drawer. Since you are using a bandsaw, you aren’t able to avoid cutting through the sides of your project. In most cases, you can just glue the wood back together where you cut into the side and you will never notice. In some cases, you must cut into multiple sides of your box and glue the box back together. Some folks even leave the cut line open and emphasize it! If you ever want to make a bandsaw box that has a square drawer, this will require you to cut the body of the box apart and glue it back together later. My apologies on the second picture you can barely see the lines drawn for the heart shaped drawer. You can see in the last picture where we had to cut through the body to make the drawer. Enough talk, onto the pictures.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #4: Lets cut the back off of this thing.

JonH — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:20:39 GMT

Once the body is the right shape, cut ¼” to ½” off the back of the body and set that aside. That piece will be the back of the bandsaw box.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #3: Give it some curves.

JonH — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:17:32 GMT

Cut out the shape of the body. For the heart example I needed two cuts. For some other more exotic examples, you may need more cuts, or maybe even one cut! Here one of my students demonstrates.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #2: Let the creativity flow.

JonH — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:47:47 GMT

Open up your creative mind and let it flow! The easiest design for a bandsaw box is one that allows for the fewest cuts. If you could make one continuous cut around the box, that would be great, but do what your design calls for. If you want square corners, you may need to use another tool like a miter saw to trim the ends of the block. For this example, I chose a heart shaped design.

Draw the outline of the box on the front of the block.

Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy #1: Lets Get Started

JonH — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:36:49 GMT

For the first part of the project, you must ask yourself, “What size is the box going to be?” If you aren’t sure, just take a couple 2×4’s and glue them together, or get a chunk of a cedar 4×4, they work good, and smell nice when they are cut up. You can get as elaborate as you want later on, but for starters keep things simple to manage.

The project must be made from a solid piece of wood or several pieces glued together to become solid. By laminating several types of wood together you can get some cool designs.

There are some awesome boxes on this website, just enter a search for projects labeled bandsaw and box. Here is a link: http://lumberjocks.com/search_results?cx=016283335483199634424%3A4na88symhay&cof=FORID%3A9&q=bandsaw+box&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Search#1179

Thorsen Side Table Contest #6: Not up to standards, but finished none the less!

JonH — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:15:55 GMT

This end result is a nice little side table, but I must confess, it is not up to my standards. It will make a nice table along side the couch. I’m finishing in haste to get the subscription to PW, but I will continue my challenge and improve this table more at a later date. My son (age 3) loves to hang out in the woodshop, so he can help me. Bottom line, the baby girl goes to the doctor on time, I get my challenge finished, and my son gets to help me finish it next week!

Legs, sides and top are make of Alder with Cherry on the outside edges of the top. It sits 28” off the floor and the top is 10” x 12”.

Finished Product!

My son giving my daughter a smooch. Just thought I'd add that in.