Pencil Holder

Nice work.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.

practice makes perfect and this little box sure looks perfect to me!
love that top edge and the joints—I had to look closely to find them.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Looks good to me, I’d put my pecils in it.

-- Ron Central, CA

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- Look great, get your TTK merchandise now! http://www.printfection.com/thetimberkid/ Check out my site http://thetimberkid.blogspot.com/

Nice looking box. Thanks for sharing.

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

Pretty little pencil holder!

-- - Real men read directions

Nice, smooth-looking design.

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

Very nice, the joints look good.

-- Glenn, New Mexico

nice box, the roundover looks like a nice touch. Nothing worng with that fix on those joints.
Good work.

It looks good Ron. Just a comment…I’m sure you’ll do this naturally when you start making boxes, but even on a pencil box like this…if you orient the grain of the wood so it runs horizontal rather than vertical there are two benefits…(1) you’ll be able to show off your joinery better because the end grain on the male edges of the joints will be darker and show more contrast, (2) the male portions of the joinery will be stronger and less likely to break off, since the grain will extend into them.

Thanks for posting it. (I’d like to see a picture of the jig you made too.)

-- Martin, Kansas

Ron,
Looks great, not much to complain about.

Woodhacker,
Great advice. I am strating to jump into the more difficult joints and probably would have done the same thing. You gave me something else to think about.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Nice looking project, Ron!

The joints do look good.

Woodhacker, thanks… I’m starting to think about tackling something with a more difficult joint, and wouldn’t have thought of the grain orientation either…

-- Ryno

Thanks to all for the great comments!

Woodhacker – Thanks for the tip. I did find that the joints are far better if you orient the grain horizontal. I did practice some joints horizontal, and the whole experience was a lot better. The router cuts easier, no tearout, and the contrast is there. But for the pencil holder, all I had for material was baseboard trim 3-1/2” inches wide, so I had to change orientation to get the holder 5-1/2” high. I don’t plan on doing any more vertical. I’ll get pics of the jig.

-- Ron, Northern Illinois

Here’s the jig I built from plans/video on fine woodworking.com.

It uses two index pins made from angle brackets that can be adjusted to match router bit diameter. After the first cut, these pins align in the first cut joint. And the distance between the index pins to bit can be adjusted to create the width of the box joint pins. Then I cut each joint and move the work piece so that the last joint I cut is laid over the index pins.

-- Ron, Northern Illinois