I made this as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom this year. I found the plan in an old issue of WOOD Magazine. Most of the box is mahogany, but the frame of the base is birds eye maple. The inside rails and the handle are regular maple. The handle was one of the first things I cut with my Rigid bandsaw. The finish is Danish oil and laquer hand rubbed to a nice sheen. My favorite part of this project is the maple splines at the corners. I made a spline jig very similar to Don's spline jig and trimmed them with a flush cutting saw using a playing card as a spacer to keep from damaging the mahogany. It only took a few minutes to sand them flush at that point. My mother loves the small sliding box inside as well as the false bottom where she can hide her “good stuff”. This was my first attempt at a small box, and I think I may be hooked. I can’t wait to try another one.

This was a project I saw in an old issue of WOOD magazine, and I liked it so much that I made myself one. Next thing I know some of my friends, co-workers and even my mother wanted one for themselves. I took a trip to Woodcraft for some 1/8” exotics and started working. These were a lot of fun to make, and once you’ve made one the rest just go that much quicker. I made several more than are pictured, but if I remember correctly I used Walnut, Purpleheart, Bubinga, Cherry, Mahogany and Rosewood as well as several others. It’s a nice little piece to carry around to show off your skill when an entertainment center won’t fit in your pocket.

As the title suggests, this piece is made completely of pine. Pine was a good choice for the friends I built it for because they wanted to have a couple of knots for character, and the cost was more attractive, of course. I tried to keep the knots to a minimum, especially on the top. The finish is simple. Red Mahogany stain from Minwax with three coats of wipe-on poly. The finish matches their existing furniture almost perfectly. Open up the doors, and there is one full length, adjustable shelf providing a ton of storage space. They were very pleased with the finished product.