Mother's Day Parquet Till Box

I built this box (finished just in time!) based on an article in FWW (though that article needs some work! There are dozens of pitfalls that were not mentioned in the article, the biggest of which some major binding steps being off). Regardless, I modified the dimensions and sizes of everything to fit my needs anyway.

There are over 270 individual parts in this box so it was the most complicated build thus far, way more so than my recent Federal Table. I made the 1/16” parquet veneer from quartered Ash alternating grain direction as well as dark/light sections of the log. Cutting the 1.5 inch log down into the 25 strips I needed was challenging on my Delta contractor saw….A full cabinet saw would have made this a LOT easier.

Next, the strips were glued up into panels and scraped flat on the glue side then set aside while the main box was constructed. The main box is dado and rabbeted together from 1/4 poplar with 1/4 ply tops and bottoms glued into place for rigidity. Once dry, I cut the lid free making careful measurements to account for the binding. This was a spot where the article was screwed up. He just cut right into the veneer to make up for the binding. I did not want to have my outer squares cut short, so I accounted for the rabbets during this step, which made it a bit more complicated.

The veneer panels were then glued into place making sure that the top and lower case pieces were aligned. When dry, I cut the corner rabbets and inserted the banding. Flushed up to top and bottom, I cut the upper and lower rabbets and hand mitered the 32 corner pieces! I thought this part would never end. This is also about the time I found out how bad working with bloodwood is. It forms nice, long, thin splinters that are razor sharp and the stuff is hard as a rock.

Once all of the bandings and bindings were dry, everything was flushed up with a block plane causing much tearout on the Ash. Normally, we’d be done now. But no, I built the till to provide more usable space in the box and it would also serve as registration for the top and bottom….It was built a little oversize and planed down to a piston fit.

More bloodwood was glued onto the tray’s top and bottom. Since this was interior, I used the tablesaw to miter the corners….Next, right below the top binding, I cut a 1/8 in deep groove to accept the ledger and miterered that into place. With the tray in place and the top on, I planed the ledger flush with the box sides.

Much sanding followed, then some Tung oil varnish and a steel wool waxing.

It was good experience but with this many parts, small variations add up quickly….it will be a long time before I do another one like this….

JC

-- Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan