Project Information
Another box with subtle shaping trying to convey a sense of calm. I love how the surf shapes the sand at the edge of the beach and was hoping to express that in the top. I gently shaped the body to invite touching but not distract from the top.
Details:
The body is wenge and the top is Oregon big leaf maple.
The handle is cocobolo rosewood with 'dowels' made from square brass tube with a brass tube and a copper tube of descending sizes inserted and then filled with epoxy. I will be doing something like this again soon.
The thin maple corner splines are an illusion, the kerfs are too narrow to be cut on a standard table saw but I wanted them and set about figuring out how…?. So I ripped thin strips of maple and laminated them with wenge, making a sandwich about 7/16 thick. The splines are wenge/maple/wenge/maple/wenge/maple/wenge. Then I cut a kerf about 3/8 wide and milled the lamination to fit. A little tricky, as you can see that the grain of the wenge doesnt match the body perfectly, but looks very good from a little distance, in fact no one seems to notice at all. I will be trying other ways to do this in the future.
The roundels are something I came up with when making the EYE CANDY box and was waiting for the right time to use it. Its simply a 5/8 maple plug bored in 3/4 deep, enough to enter the end grain of the side, so it can also be a functional joint strengthener.Then I bored a 1/2 hole and inserted a wenge plug with the grain running opposite the wenge body to draw attention to it. The shaping smears the edges of the plugs in a few places making them look out of round, something to keep in mind if you want perfect circles.
The simple divider can be removed, it just slips together and wedges against the body. The center is made from offcuts, little wedge shapes, and glued up and then kerfed on the bottom to allow 1/8 slats to slip in and they are just a tad too long, so they are sprung into place giving them a sweeping flair and that also holds it all together. Pretty easy really.The center is bored an inch wide and is lined with velvet to cushion a ring. This idea was suggested by Jack, aka mtnwild at http://lumberjocks.com/mtnwild in a comment on my Southwest box. Thanks for the idea Jack!
The hinges are brass pins about 2'' long.
The finish is Deft spray lacquer from a can and I have a simple way to get a smooth finish if anyone is interested and actually reads any of this blah, blah.
Black velvet lines the bottom.
p.s.
You will notice that the panel is set into the top with squared off corners. This is similar to the one I did in the box called Storm shown below.
This has some advantages and disadvantages over the typical medallion I do. Usually I route out a recess to accept the medallion. The medallion is cut into a rectangle and the four corners are rounded to fit the corners in the recess. This requires a jig, and a square cornered medallion does not. The one shown here is made by by making a logical series of cuts on the table saw and then sliced on the band saw, the idea was born from years of making bandsaw boxes. This lid is quicker to make than the inlaid panel style I did for Storm but requires very smooth and straight cuts so no glue line shows on any of the six seams. Also the glue up is critical for the same reason. I get little satisfaction doing the same thing over and over, so I am always mixing it up.
Thanks for looking and any comments you post,
Andy
Details:
The body is wenge and the top is Oregon big leaf maple.
The handle is cocobolo rosewood with 'dowels' made from square brass tube with a brass tube and a copper tube of descending sizes inserted and then filled with epoxy. I will be doing something like this again soon.
The thin maple corner splines are an illusion, the kerfs are too narrow to be cut on a standard table saw but I wanted them and set about figuring out how…?. So I ripped thin strips of maple and laminated them with wenge, making a sandwich about 7/16 thick. The splines are wenge/maple/wenge/maple/wenge/maple/wenge. Then I cut a kerf about 3/8 wide and milled the lamination to fit. A little tricky, as you can see that the grain of the wenge doesnt match the body perfectly, but looks very good from a little distance, in fact no one seems to notice at all. I will be trying other ways to do this in the future.
The roundels are something I came up with when making the EYE CANDY box and was waiting for the right time to use it. Its simply a 5/8 maple plug bored in 3/4 deep, enough to enter the end grain of the side, so it can also be a functional joint strengthener.Then I bored a 1/2 hole and inserted a wenge plug with the grain running opposite the wenge body to draw attention to it. The shaping smears the edges of the plugs in a few places making them look out of round, something to keep in mind if you want perfect circles.
The simple divider can be removed, it just slips together and wedges against the body. The center is made from offcuts, little wedge shapes, and glued up and then kerfed on the bottom to allow 1/8 slats to slip in and they are just a tad too long, so they are sprung into place giving them a sweeping flair and that also holds it all together. Pretty easy really.The center is bored an inch wide and is lined with velvet to cushion a ring. This idea was suggested by Jack, aka mtnwild at http://lumberjocks.com/mtnwild in a comment on my Southwest box. Thanks for the idea Jack!
The hinges are brass pins about 2'' long.
The finish is Deft spray lacquer from a can and I have a simple way to get a smooth finish if anyone is interested and actually reads any of this blah, blah.
Black velvet lines the bottom.
p.s.
You will notice that the panel is set into the top with squared off corners. This is similar to the one I did in the box called Storm shown below.
This has some advantages and disadvantages over the typical medallion I do. Usually I route out a recess to accept the medallion. The medallion is cut into a rectangle and the four corners are rounded to fit the corners in the recess. This requires a jig, and a square cornered medallion does not. The one shown here is made by by making a logical series of cuts on the table saw and then sliced on the band saw, the idea was born from years of making bandsaw boxes. This lid is quicker to make than the inlaid panel style I did for Storm but requires very smooth and straight cuts so no glue line shows on any of the six seams. Also the glue up is critical for the same reason. I get little satisfaction doing the same thing over and over, so I am always mixing it up.
Thanks for looking and any comments you post,
Andy