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16K views 24 replies 8 participants last post by  WOmadeOD 
#1 ·
The Prologue

My Stanley 45 had lost it's home when I acquired it. A sad but frequent story. I planned to rectify this when I had the opportunity, and recent events brought that closer.

As far as I can determine, my 45 would have originally been supplied in a simple pine box with a sliding lid. Of course, any number of more sophisticated alternatives have been built by owners, and so my first task was to decide on my design.

Out of the blue, I stumbled upon an old chest of drawers that had been broken up and discarded. It was quite a mess, and clearly had not been too much to shout about when it was new - probably over a hundred years ago. Built cheaply, it had pine drawer boxes, and these were actually in pretty good shape compared to the rest of it. I collected the boxes up and took them home.

It wasn't long before something clicked in my head, and I was measuring up to see if I could possibly make a suitable box for the number forty five. With care, the old pine could retain its rich patina, and give the box a look of an age contemporaneous to my combination plane.

So the decision ended up quite easy. I would build a simple looking box, similar to an original, but with some distinct accents to make it unique. I would use the old pine, and try to retain as much of it's character as possible. Fitting out of the box would be simple, but effective in protecting the plane's parts when in transit.
 
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#4 ·
Sizing for the Plane

After getting excited about the new project, it suddenly dawned on me "what if the reclaimed pine I had wasn't big enough". Of course I knew I had sufficient wood - after all I had two sizeable drawer boxes. But what if the drawer sides weren't deep enough to cover both the height of the plane plus allowance for the bottom and lid. Original boxes for the #45 were undoubtedly made without using glued up panels, and I wanted to do the same. It was with some trepidation that I extricated the plane, and all its accessories, from the ghastly plastic tool box where it has been residing, and measured it up against the wood I had.

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First a huge relief - the plane was almost an inch shorter in height than the width of the boards I had. Then a nagging doubt - although the boards had been drawer sides, I could see that they weren't all that straight, and just how much would I need to remove whilst straightening then up. Would this be the first Stanley #45 box with a pitched lid to allow for the plane to stand up? Find out next time
 

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#5 ·
Sizing for the Plane

After getting excited about the new project, it suddenly dawned on me "what if the reclaimed pine I had wasn't big enough". Of course I knew I had sufficient wood - after all I had two sizeable drawer boxes. But what if the drawer sides weren't deep enough to cover both the height of the plane plus allowance for the bottom and lid. Original boxes for the #45 were undoubtedly made without using glued up panels, and I wanted to do the same. It was with some trepidation that I extricated the plane, and all its accessories, from the ghastly plastic tool box where it has been residing, and measured it up against the wood I had.

Wood Gas Automotive tire Auto part Automotive wheel system


First a huge relief - the plane was almost an inch shorter in height than the width of the boards I had. Then a nagging doubt - although the boards had been drawer sides, I could see that they weren't all that straight, and just how much would I need to remove whilst straightening then up. Would this be the first Stanley #45 box with a pitched lid to allow for the plane to stand up? Find out next time
Subscribed.

I need to build a box for my 45 as well.

You might want to post in the Stanley 45 thread http://lumberjocks.com/topics/43282

Mike
 

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#7 ·
Preparing the Mitred Corners

If you remember, I left off last time, wondering whether the old pine boards were wide enough for the Stanley 45 to stand up in the box. Well, thankfully they were. Mind you, it was so close that I couldn't plane all the slight dings out for fear of the lid not closing.

Having decided on mitred corners, my first job was to shoot the ends square - an easy few minutes at the shooting board with my no.5-1/2. My shooting board fence is fixed, and half the year it seems to need a shim of up to a few thou placed at it's mid-point to ensure accuracy. By checking the board I'm shooting with an accurate engineer's tri-square, I can shim, or not, after just a few shavings and then proceed accurately. I'm sure this method is quicker, and at least as accurate as having an adjustable fence. Today it just happened to be spot-on.

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With the long sides shot square at both ends, and the short sides shot square at one end, I then took off the short side length, directly, from the sum of the bottom board width and a long side thickness (having decided to set the bottom in a groove that was half the thickness of the sides). Taking dimensions directly like this, rather than using a rule to measure and transfer, is often both quicker and more accurate. The short sides were then sawn and shot to perfect length.

Creating the corner mitres was now a case of pulling out my carcass mitre shooting board, honing the 5-1/2's iron, and planning away the internal corners at 45 degrees.

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It's amazing how quickly, and accurately, this can be done. Pretty soon I had a pair of long and a pair of short sides, ready for gluing…

How I built my carcass mitre shooting board:
 

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#8 ·
Preparing the Mitred Corners

If you remember, I left off last time, wondering whether the old pine boards were wide enough for the Stanley 45 to stand up in the box. Well, thankfully they were. Mind you, it was so close that I couldn't plane all the slight dings out for fear of the lid not closing.

Having decided on mitred corners, my first job was to shoot the ends square - an easy few minutes at the shooting board with my no.5-1/2. My shooting board fence is fixed, and half the year it seems to need a shim of up to a few thou placed at it's mid-point to ensure accuracy. By checking the board I'm shooting with an accurate engineer's tri-square, I can shim, or not, after just a few shavings and then proceed accurately. I'm sure this method is quicker, and at least as accurate as having an adjustable fence. Today it just happened to be spot-on.

Wood Tints and shades Rectangle Flooring Natural material


With the long sides shot square at both ends, and the short sides shot square at one end, I then took off the short side length, directly, from the sum of the bottom board width and a long side thickness (having decided to set the bottom in a groove that was half the thickness of the sides). Taking dimensions directly like this, rather than using a rule to measure and transfer, is often both quicker and more accurate. The short sides were then sawn and shot to perfect length.

Creating the corner mitres was now a case of pulling out my carcass mitre shooting board, honing the 5-1/2's iron, and planning away the internal corners at 45 degrees.

Wood Hardwood Tints and shades Rectangle Bumper


It's amazing how quickly, and accurately, this can be done. Pretty soon I had a pair of long and a pair of short sides, ready for gluing…

How I built my carcass mitre shooting board:
nice work, Mitch!
 

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#14 ·
Groovy

Having mitred the corners, the temptation is to glue the box sides together - a mistake I made once, but never again! Of course you need to make provision for the box bottom and lid first.

You could just rebate for the bottom, and rely on glue and pins, but I like to float the bottom in a groove. And a sliding lid, with it's lack of hardware, makes an ideal choice and also requires a groove. Therefore it seemed only fitting to use the no.45 to make the grooves, which is what I did.

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Now for a close up of a view you don't often see:

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Finally I sized the bottom and lid for the box, using the measurements of the back of the groove between mitres to give me absolute maximums. The width being reduced a fair amount to allow for expansion, whilst the length just having a few shavings off.

The next step will be the glue-up - but that's another story.
 

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#15 ·
Glue-up (or 'A Box of Stress')

When gluing up a small box like this one, it pays to use the tape method. Basically you lay the sides out in a line, outside up, and run strips of tape along the entire length. The tape acts like hinges on the mitres, and you can just 'wrap' the sides around, connecting the final corner. Everything stays aligned, and stress is kept to a minimum.

If you're all out of tape, go and buy some. Don't do as I did, and carry on without it - there lies the road to a stressful glue-up.

I decided to use Titebond liquid hide glue, partly to nod back to how the originals were probably stuck with animal glue of one sort or another, but also to allow for re-gluing should the initially weak mitre joints fail before being reinforced. With glue applied to the mitres, and a small dab in the bottom grooves of the ends, I assembled the sides around the bottom panel and set about clamping it together. Corner blocks, and over-sized clamping pads, helped to prevent the mitres from sliding out of alignment, but it was a high speed juggling act to get everything spot on during the glue's open time. Needless to say, I now have a new supply of tape.

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With the box set aside for the glue to cure, I found time to carve a finger pull into the lid. The lid also receives a lip, cut from the box end into which it will be slid. But, I'm not confident that that lip, simply glued to the end of the lid, will never fail. Whereas, the carved finger pull should be plenty strong enough to remove the lid should it tighten up with humidity.

Hand tool Wood Finger Gesture Geologist's hammer
 

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#16 ·
Reinforcing Mitred Corners

Plain mitred corners are inherently weak, due to the propensity of end grain to end grain in the joint. For a box like this, I feel it is crucial to add some reinforcement.

Now you may ask, why then did I choose to plain mitre the corners? Wouldn't I have been better using box joints, or dovetails, or adding a spline to the mitre? My answer is simply, I wanted a mitred box that was relatively easy for anyone to copy, and which had subtle decorative features.

My methods for reinforcement were to insert veneer keys, and through dowels. Either method being adequate, but both being a nice pleasing combination, in my view.

Thin strips of oak were prepared using the band saw, and then planed to a slip fit in a saw kerf. Then saw kerfs were cut across each mitred corner of the box, and the strips glued in. Remembering to run the long grain perpendicular to the joint line.

Next I drilled holes for 2mm dowels (hardwood cocktail sticks)...



...cut the dowels over size, applied glue and knocked them home.



The box was then left for a day, to allow a full cure to occur.

 

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#17 ·
Reinforcing Mitred Corners

Plain mitred corners are inherently weak, due to the propensity of end grain to end grain in the joint. For a box like this, I feel it is crucial to add some reinforcement.

Now you may ask, why then did I choose to plain mitre the corners? Wouldn't I have been better using box joints, or dovetails, or adding a spline to the mitre? My answer is simply, I wanted a mitred box that was relatively easy for anyone to copy, and which had subtle decorative features.

My methods for reinforcement were to insert veneer keys, and through dowels. Either method being adequate, but both being a nice pleasing combination, in my view.

Thin strips of oak were prepared using the band saw, and then planed to a slip fit in a saw kerf. Then saw kerfs were cut across each mitred corner of the box, and the strips glued in. Remembering to run the long grain perpendicular to the joint line.

Next I drilled holes for 2mm dowels (hardwood cocktail sticks)...

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...cut the dowels over size, applied glue and knocked them home.

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The box was then left for a day, to allow a full cure to occur.

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There is nothing wrong about reinforcing miters but they are stronger with just glue than many think. While there is a lot of end grain, there is also some side grain involved, so they are stronger joints than they get credit for. A keepsake box usually doesn't require reinforcement if the joints are tight, but for boxes with heavier loads or where it will be roughly handles it is wise to reinforce.
 

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#21 ·
Flushing off the Reinforcements

Last time I installed reinforcements to the plain mitred corners of my Stanley no.45 Box, and left them to cure. Now came the time to flush of the excess material, and knock the sharp edges off.

The initial work was done with my small pull saw, after which I turned to a sharp chisel, and then smooth plane and card scraper.

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Supporting the box over boards clamped to the bench top works really well, and this method is often used when making drawers.

Once the surfaces were satisfactorily flushed and smoothed, I took my low angle block plane, and eased all the edges.

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That was the box completed. I could have just stopped there and thrown all the 45's parts in, but for the sake of a little more effort, I decided to add a few internal fitments to prevent the parts from all banging together during transport. I'll describe those next time.
 

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#22 ·
Flushing off the Reinforcements

Last time I installed reinforcements to the plain mitred corners of my Stanley no.45 Box, and left them to cure. Now came the time to flush of the excess material, and knock the sharp edges off.

The initial work was done with my small pull saw, after which I turned to a sharp chisel, and then smooth plane and card scraper.

Wood Finger Wood stain Table Sharpening stone


Supporting the box over boards clamped to the bench top works really well, and this method is often used when making drawers.

Once the surfaces were satisfactorily flushed and smoothed, I took my low angle block plane, and eased all the edges.

Wood Finger Wood stain Gas Hardwood


That was the box completed. I could have just stopped there and thrown all the 45's parts in, but for the sake of a little more effort, I decided to add a few internal fitments to prevent the parts from all banging together during transport. I'll describe those next time.
That looks really sharp!
 

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#25 ·
Internal Fittings

If the plane and it's accessories aren't to be clattering around, then I needed to add some internal fittings. There are all sorts of complicated solutions to be found on the net, and as lovely as some of them are, I don't see the point in over-engineering the fittings. The plane and it's accessories should be easy and quick to both store and retrieve. Additionally, there are some optional accessories that I would like to add at a future date, and keeping things simple should make any additions or alterations much easier.

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Here you can see the main fitting. It really couldn't be much simpler. One small batten, fixed at an angle to the horizontal, carries the beading stop, slitting cutter stop, depth gauge, and cam stop. It is attached to the side of the box with a little liquid hide glue on one end (cross grain situation), making it easy to remove in the future if necessary. Being angled to the horizontal, the beading stop and depth gauge, are well seated by gravity. The slitting cutter stop hangs on a wooden hook, whose size makes it almost impossible for the stop to jump off. The Cam stop hangs on a wooden dowel, slightly wider at it's mid-point, which helps to prevent the stop from sliding off (a simple fitment that holds the plane's knob, retains the cam stop once it is hanging down under gravity).

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For storage, the plane is part assembled on the short arms, with the fence section upside down, with it's knob removed. This anchors the bulky parts together, and limits the overall height required. The skid of the main stock sits against a batten glued to the bottom of the box, preventing rotation, whilst the base of the knob attachment on the fence section sits in a hole to prevent lateral movement. Another batten on the bottom, together with two small blocks, makes a safe home for the long arms. The knob, which I seldom require in the work i do, sits in a further block with a hole in the middle.

You can see that gravity plays an important role on keeping these accessories in place. You might think that would be a problem during transit, but some fairly vigorous swinging and shaking left everything exactly as it was. Also, the plane is restricted from lifting far enough to come free, due to the proximity of the sliding lid.

The one thing not held in place, yet, is the box of cutters. I plan to make a new cutter box to hold both the standard set, and the specials I hope to acquire over time. Once that is built, I shall devise a simple anchor.

I also hope to acquire the 'special bottoms' for hollows and rounds, and I'm fairly confident that these could also be housed on the box.

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Here's a look at the finished storage box. I'm very happy with it, and it will serve me well for years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I have also posted the project to YouTube, and you can view it here:
 

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