Projects #1: Gift Box for Father's Day

oooooh what a special gift!!!!
The wood is beautiful and I really like the design of the lid. That really adds to the “specialness” of the box.
Well done.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Thats going to look nice, and I like your decision to use box joints, they add a nice contrast in color

-- --Mike Lancaster, OH

It’s nice to see you back in the shop.

Your Dad is going to love this gift.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

That looks just great. What dimension wood did you start with? Did you plane it or resaw it? How did you cut the box joints? Details man! Details!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

sweet!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Nice gift….your Dad will love it. I agree with Mot….details… Very nice piece of cherry.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Nice Jeff… I bet he will be very pleased.

We had thought about making some boxes too, but have just been too busy with the end of the school year to meet the Father’s Day deadline.

I want to make a box with mitred keys.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

Thanks Debbie, Mike and Dick.

Details? We don’t need no stinkin’ details… Seriously, thanks for asking Mot. This is a blog. I posted it pretty late last night and was being lazy AND I forgot to take my silly camera with me down to the shop. Thus, I didn’t record the process.

Beginning dimension: It was some of that 13/16 business you get at Rockler. I got it during a sale because of the figure.

Plane or resaw? Both. The cool part for me was that I used every major tool in the shop!
1) Cut to rough length plus a few inches
2) Joint and plane to get a 4 square workpiece
3) Resaw the workpieces. The top came from a different section of the board
4) Plane again to clean up marks from the resaw and handle the subsequent cupping that happened. Had I been working with thicker stock, this would not have happened likely. Or, not as badly as it did. I was working towards a 3/8 thick board but ended up with 5/16. The top, however, is 3/8 and has a good weight in the hand when pulled.

Joints: A simple jig involving a scrap of baltic birch, a 1/8 drill bit, and a few tests on scrap from the stock for the body of the box.
1) Drill the hole with the bit
2) Unchuck the bit and tap it into the hole
3) Clamp it to the miter gauge on the table saw
4) Measure a 1/8 gap (width of the blade) between the bit (now the registration pin)
5) set the height of the blade by eyeballing the height to be about 1/16 of a tooth above the board so the joints will be just proud and can be cleaned with a block plane or sander (I’ll use a plane).
6) Make those test cuts and then get busy because there are a lot of fingers to cut.

Grooves for the bottom and top: the sides were cut on the table saw and I routed the groove on the bottom with a 1/8 spiral upcut bit since I had to partially extend the cut into the fingers. The bottom was also rabbeted 1/8 on all four sides to fit nicely in these grooves.

Take a look at the pics again and see if you can spot the boo-boo I made. It’s not a flaw per say just not what I envisioned.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Looks like some other folks commented while I was replying. Thanks Bob, Scott and John. I know what you mean John. I’m loaded with stuff to do right now but needed to do this. Too many woodworking things have been because I had to lately.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

I think it looks great … but is the “boo-boo” the space between the lid and the joints?

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

Close John but not quite. The pic is a bit misleading. There isn’t actually a gap there. the lid has a rabbet and rides in the groove nicely. Maybe a 1/32 gap.

The boo-boo is that I put the rabbet on the bottom of the lid instead of the top… The vision was for a lid the was that it be flush with the top of the side panels (like the bottom). Alas, I could turn the lid over but the less attractive grain would be up and THEN there would be a gap since I had to cut out finger on the end pieces. It’s minor and noone would know but me. Still… It was one of those instances of that little voice saying, “Hey! Dumb guy! You just cut this wrong… Haha.” Such is life.

By the way. I almost made a mitred key box but was too limited on time to make the jig. That will likely be the next box project.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Very nice box, Jeff. I just love wooden boxes!

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

Great pictures and description. It’s so well done it looks like it was a kit or could be, anyway. Those boo-boo’s are always lurking about the shop, aren’t they. I’m glad it turned out so nicely.

-- Jesus is Lord!