Storage Cube Case

This project was a request from the bride. Our little boy, (3 years old next month), has many little toys that are perfect for the little cube bins you can buy at Target, Wal-mart…etc. My wife wanted one that could sit inconspicuously in the living room and serve as a bench for the little one to sit on. My wife is going to pick up some lighter colored cubes for the black case.

Construction
The case is made from 3/4” birch plywood. The edging is 1/8” strips of poplar that I cut using my shop made thin strip cutting jig on the table saw. The sides and divider are set into dadoes cut in the top and bottom. I used Titebond II for the whole assembly, no mechanical fasteners.

Finish
The finish is General Finishes Ebony Water Based Dye Stain. I wiped on the first coat then decided to shoot the next two coats with my HVLP Sprayer. It is an absolute pleasure working with the dye stain. It spreads and sprays nicely, dries quickly and it even has a pleasant scent.

Top Coat
I had never used lacquer before and was anxious to try it on something. This project seemed like the perfect guinea pig. :) I read a lot of articles about spraying lacquer but I was a little paranoid to try it. Living in Florida, trying to find the right combination of temperature and humidity is a little difficult. So I thought I’d try Watco Semi-Gloss Clear Lacquer, the brush on formula. The first coat came out great. The second coat, not so much. There was a lot of orange peel.

I tried a trick I read about online. I sprayed the whole case several times with straight lacquer thinner with the HVLP sprayer. It worked! It was a nice 70 degree low humidity February day so I thinned out the lacquer, loaded up the sprayer again and shot 3 wet coats. It dried in minutes and looked really good. I am now in love with lacquer! Now I just have to figure out how to set up an air conditioned spray booth to defeat the Florida humidity.

This was a quick and fun project. I will be building a few more of these in various configurations. I want to try milk paint on the next one.

-- How valuable is time to a person who spends his disparaging the beliefs of others? --David Berthelette www.pilotwoodworks.com