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Candle Box

Project by HokieMojo posted 525 days ago 1124 views 1 time favorited 21 comments Add to Favorites Watch

Here are some pictures of a candlebox I made for my wife. She loves candles and I like building stuff, so it worked well.

The box is made of 1/4” cherry and the floor is just a piece of plywall set in a dado. The corners have keys made out of padauk. You can’t really see from the pictures, but they are actually dovetails. The keys came out way better than the mitered corners themselves. They are a good tight fit, so even if the corner joint wouldn’t have held, the keys will keep them there.

The lid is also padauk. Is is only about 1/8” thick. I should have went thicker because I sawed the brass screws to 1/2 the length and they are still causing a few bumps on the lid. I got frustrated and as you can see, one screw is still missing. I’m going to just make a new thicker lid, but I have my hands full at the moment.

The finish is just Formby’s Tung Oil Finish (about 8 coats) with paste wax over the top. I think the tung oil finish brought out the colors very nicely.

I completed this project in April, and I’ve noticed the top has already gotten a much richer red. I guess it will eventually turn to a dark brown, but I wish it would change slower. I really like the red. Hopefully when it is done changing, the color will still look ok with the cherry. Hope you enjoy the pictures.


21 comments so far

View jockmike2's profile

jockmike2

7222 posts in 1125 days


posted 525 days ago

If it gets any prettier you’ll go blind!. mike

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

View Lee A. Jesberger's profile

Lee A. Jesberger

3709 posts in 858 days


posted 525 days ago

Hi HokieMojo;

This is very pretty. Your wife must love it.

Great work.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

View Blake's profile

Blake

2715 posts in 753 days


posted 525 days ago

Looks nice. I just just cut those stupid little brass screws with metal nippers and put a little epoxy in the hole if it is too loose.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 524 days ago

I like that idea Blake. I “kind of” did that with the blanket chest I made. Before I saw the posting about driving brass screws, I twisted the head off a few. Since I didn’t figure I needed them to be structurally sound, I just wood glued the heads in place to fill the gap. They will probably pop out in time though. I like the epoxy idea though. That would hold. Thanks for the comments guys.

View GaryK's profile

GaryK

9496 posts in 867 days


posted 524 days ago

Very nice looking!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

View Scott Bryan's profile (online now)

Scott Bryan

20076 posts in 700 days


posted 524 days ago

This is a beautiful box. I like the padauk and cherry combination.

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.

View trifern's profile

trifern

7890 posts in 646 days


posted 524 days ago

Great looking box.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

View CharlieM1958's profile

CharlieM1958

7466 posts in 1097 days


posted 524 days ago

Nice wood selection.

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

View sharad's profile

sharad

686 posts in 683 days


posted 522 days ago

A very nice box for candles.
Sharad

-- patanjali

View AaronK's profile

AaronK

397 posts in 343 days


posted 305 days ago

very nice box.

are the dovetail keys made using the kehoe jig, or some other method… if another method, how did you do it? I’m thinking of using reinforced miters for a bookshelf, but havent set on a way to do it yet.

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 305 days ago

Aaron,
Thanks for asking. What I actually did was take a 2×4 and cut it with my mitre saw so that I could make a router table jig. I’ll see if I can post a picture later. Do you have a router table? If so, this is super easy.

View AaronK's profile

AaronK

397 posts in 343 days


posted 305 days ago

yup, i’ve got a router table… still completely in the dark about how you did it though! pics would be awesome.

but is it basically this sort of joint: http://www.dovetailspline.com/ – where the dovetail is a spline through the miter?

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 304 days ago

well, now i need to get the pictures i have loaded up here. I probably won’t get to it until this weekend, but I’ll try to answer your question in the meantime. in the link you sent, you can see how the box fits into a groove right? well, instead of moving the router on the jig like in your example, I put the jig on the router table and move it. I basically took a 2×4 and cut it on the mitres saw at 45 degrees. then i flip one of the pices over so that the board forms a V shape:
l —————-\ . .. . /——————-
. . . . . . . . . . \ .. /
l———————V———————-l

Imagine that the V in the picture is at 90 degrees. then I just glued and screwed a couple small strips of scrap plywood to the side of the 2×4 and to the bottom to hold the pieces together as one unit. finally, I lower the jig onto a router table with a dovetail bit on it to make a plunge cut. I slide the jig forward along the fence until it cuts the box (held in place by hand presseure alone, so be sure your fingers are free and clear). then I slowly lift up on the jig at the end of the cut. I think my explanation might be pretty confusing, but I’ll still try to post my pictures this weekend if I can get a few free minutes. I hope this helps some in the meantime though.

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 304 days ago

my line art looks ugly because the website keeps trying to change what i post when i use underlines and stuff. I think this attempt was a bit of a failure. If you can imagine the picture without the ”.”s, that might help.

View AaronK's profile

AaronK

397 posts in 343 days


posted 304 days ago

yeah, i see what you mean. Better to do it this way (on the table) for small pieces like yours.

so how did you make the “key” part?

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 304 days ago

Hah, thats a good question. I almost lost a finger doing this after forgetting the timeless rule” “never feed material between the bit and the fence”. I did this and it pulled the piece right out of my hand and sent it accross the room like an arrow.

After that, I composed myself and I went back and did this right. Since I wanted the angles to match, I just left the same dovetail bit in place on the router table. I ripped a 2 ft piece of scrap (you can make all your splines at once if you have enough length) to a width just a 1/16th of an inch wider than my dovetail that I cut on the box. Then I just sent it accross the router table on each side.

I don’t think there is a real need to thickness the piece first. In fact, I’d recomend against it unless your spline is more than twice as thick as your dovetail. your goal is to basically have a piece shaped like a triangle after routing the two sides. Once the triangle shaped strip was made, I just kept planing one side with a block plane until the piece slid into the dovetail recess that I had cut. then I’d add some glue to the piece and tapped it snuggly into place and wiped off the excess glue.

Once the glue dries, you can just remove it with a flush cutting saw. Since i didn’t have one of these at the time though, I actually used a regulare saw and cut close to the joint, but nut quite flush. Then clamped a belt sande upside down on my bench and removed the excess material that way.

View AaronK's profile

AaronK

397 posts in 343 days


posted 304 days ago

gotcha. that’s pretty much exactly the same as the kehoe jig, just self made and on the table. i like it. I think I’ll use this in the future, since it’s pretty and strong – and easy, it seems. thanks for the help.

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 301 days ago

Aaron,
Not sure if this will help, but here are some photos of the simple jig I made. A picture is worth a thousand words, so hopefully this will explain better than I ever could.

Click for details

The first couple pics are from the top. The bottom shows the stips of ply that I used to hold the two 2×4 sections together.

View AaronK's profile

AaronK

397 posts in 343 days


posted 301 days ago

excellent, thanks! i love how simple this is and how great (looking and strength-wise) the results are.

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 301 days ago

glad i could help. send me a message if you end up making something using my ideas. I’d love to see how you tackle the project.

View jim1953's profile (online now)

jim1953

1561 posts in 720 days


posted 300 days ago

Very nice Box

-- Jim, Kentucky

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