| Project by Shopsmithtom | posted 620 days ago | 434 views | 1 time favorited | 10 comments |  |
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I’ve been playing a bit with hand cutting dovetails, but if I wait til I get good enough at it to actually make a project, I might be too old to remember to post it here, and I found a very basic Craftsman dovetail jig on ebay for $8.00 (mostly plastic, but functional nonetheless), so I decided to try it out. (As luck would have it, I owned the necessary Craftsman router that it works with)
I keep my wallet & other misc. pocket debris in an old basket on a closet shelf, and I figured that it’s well hidden enough so that if I made a mess, who’d see it, anyhow. The basket is falling apart, so I now had a purpose for my project.
The design kind of just evolved as I went along…no real drawings. This is how I work a lot, but as you can imagine, the process can get challenging if the project is larger & more complex.
The box sides & divider are made from scrap poplar (1/2”) and the floor is maple pallet wood (about 5/8” thick) The floor of the box & the center divider/handle are held in place with glued in dowel pins, 1/4” for the floor & 3/16” for the divider. I thought the dowel end grain would go well with the dovetail end grain. The dimensions are roughly 7” x 8”. I say roughly because, since this was a “practice making dovetails” project, I started with longer pieces, and each time I screwed up a set, I just cut off the end of the piece and started over. (would you believe the original size was 48” x 46” ...OK, maybe not quite that big) I used several coats of shellac and finished with 2 coats of water based poly.
-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you
10 comments so far
Mario
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882 posts in 951 days
posted 620 days ago
They look great from here. Nice and tight, good work WOW
-- Hope Never fails
CharlieM1958
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7696 posts in 1118 days
posted 620 days ago
I like it very much.
I’m curious about the poly-over-shellac finish. What is your thinking? I’m guessing you like the shallac color and add the poly for durability?
-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"
Shopsmithtom
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409 posts in 1095 days
posted 620 days ago
Your guess is right. I’ve gotten to like the shellac warm tones, and I have a lot of water based poly (long story) so I used some, partly for durability, and partly just to see how it would work. The water based poly dries really fast which I love about it. I tried it on a couple of pens and it’s quick & easy. -SST
-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you
cajunpen
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5968 posts in 966 days
posted 620 days ago
SST sounds like a learning experience gone good the dovetails turned out really nice. I like the finish on it as well. Nice job.
-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/
Scott Bryan
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20805 posts in 722 days
posted 620 days ago
SST,
This is a nice use of “scrap” material. The dowels add nice details to the box. And, yes I can believe the size. I am trying to handcut dovetails now and I can assure you I would not have gotten this far even with a 48”x46” piece. :)
Your finish looks good as well.
Thanks for the post.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
Douglas Bordner
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3427 posts in 964 days
posted 620 days ago
Really nice box. I thought I had cornered the market on length “Bordnerizing”, but apparently variable length box plans are more popular than I had imagined.
-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.
rikkor
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11335 posts in 774 days
posted 620 days ago
Good job. The dovetails look very nice.
sharad
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721 posts in 704 days
posted 619 days ago
A very good box for multiiple use made from scrap. The dowels add to its beauty. The divider cum handle is very innovative and looks nice
Sharad
-- patanjali
Paul D
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2125 posts in 648 days
posted 619 days ago
Very nice and certainly a box with a lot of potential uses.
-- Paul D, Atlanta GA
GaryK
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9555 posts in 888 days
posted 619 days ago
Great use of material rather than throwing it away.
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.