First box, white oak and walnut, keyed miter joints

Nice box Glenn

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Good job.

You have learned the first and most important lesson every aspiring box maker must know: Making a box is harder than it looks!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

It’s almost like precision is even more important because they are so small that the slightest defect just stares you in the face.

-- Glenn, Arkansas

Very nice box. I agree with CharlieM, box making is difficult.

-- Tom D

Nice box. The first one is always the hardest… and the most precious!
I’m sure your wife is very grateful to be the recipient.
Box-making can become an obsession… they are fun and only limited by your creativity!
I agree about Doug Stowe’s book. I have the DVD that goes with it. If you don’t
have the DVD, it is worth a look. For me, it is much easier to watch, read and watch
again.
Ellen

-- Ellen on Cape Cod

In making first box you always face unimaginable problems however careful you are. It is just like a child taking its firt steps. But still your box is very good and your wife will cherish it. Next try to make a simple box and one day you will become master.
Sharad

-- patanjali

Oh NO!!!
You have been Stowed !!!
Welcome to the world of box making.
Nice job

-- Bibb in CO at http://katanadesign.com

Sweet. That is a favorite box of many LJs. You did well.

Keep it up. You will end up building yourself some nice jigs and learn to double check angles and such.

Steve

-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon

Great Job, Glenn!! You’re exactly right, the smaller they are, the more challenging they become!

-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.

The first box I built over a few days without the sleds on my project page. It took a while to figure everything out, and that probably contributed to many of the mistakes. Over the last two days, I’ve built two more (except for the lids), and I must say, the third one is such a HUGE improvement over the first. I even stepped out of line a little and made it out of Arkansas cypress, which has a nice regular horizontal grain.

-- Glenn, Arkansas

Now I’m really afraid to try to make my first box and I have the walnut pieces ready to cut!

You can do it. Just get started. Mistakes are inevitable and part of the learning curve. That’s partly why I used the cypress. They were scraps from the outdoor table. I got tired of wasting my “good” white oak.

-- Glenn, Arkansas

Never be afraid to try new things! This turned out wonderfull. As with all things woodworking, sometimes there are ”mid proccess design changes” Your first box is just fine.

Mitered corners are NOT that easy to do. My first mitered corners were for a box that STARTED 5×5 and ended about 4×4. Had to re-cut several times to get the miters right. haha

You ended up with a nice box and a great learning experiance. Your next will be even beter.

Keep up the FUN!

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!