Solid Myrtle Inlay Box SMIB (built by after thought processes)
I was supposed to be cleaning up for Christmas when I found a length of of Tasmanian Myrtle offcut.
I decided I should put a challenge to myself and try to make a box from it just using the one piece of solid timber.
This is where all the creative after thoughts started kicking in! (ATn)
I originally started off with the box using the length of Tassie Myrtle which was about 800mm long 90mm wide and 20mm thick.
Preparation of the Box Frame:
AT1
I thought I would match all the grain so it ran continously around the box, so I decided to divide it up into four sections.
Section 1 An end about 120mm,
Section 2 The corresponding side at about 250mm then,
Section 3 The other end at 120mm and finally,
Section 4 The other side at 250 mm.
AT2
I then realised that the begining of Section A and the end of Section 4 would not be matched.
Not being too concerned this would give me at least 3 joints grain matched, and the miss matched section could be at the back.
I Jointed the piece of timber and thicknessed it, this activity resulted in a nice piece of usable length of about 750mm.
As it looked OK I thought I would remove the bullk of the timber in the middle.
AT3
I contiued on and then set up the shaper with a 50 mm straight cutter and milled out the middle section.
Using a series of incremental cuts the 50mm recess was formed, it had very small amount of chip out on the edges at the final depth of the recess was about 10 mm.
The ajoining lips top and bottom were now 20mm.
I then cut a rebate for the bottom of the box and it was ready for the next stage of assembly.
I cut up all the timber and by the time I had finished all the miters it was a loose assembled size of 230 mm x 110 mm x 18 mm.
I glued it up and after checking it the next day it looked very bland, almost no significant grain pattern and the edges were very sharp, and there were the small chips which needed sanding off.
AT4.
Adding an inlay strip:
I decided adding an inlay strip would add some characer.
Returning to the shaper I set it up again whith a smaller cutter and cut a inlay recess by doing an initial cut and then moving it up and reversing the box to ensure I had it centralised.
Note:This step should have been done with the timber in one length.
AT5
Rounding over the edges
Part 1:
This process turned into a very involved activity and again should have been done before the timber was cut up.
Part 2: I set up a round over bit in the shaper and did the top lip and bottom lip.
This worked well and the finish removed all the small chip out defects. The only problem was the inner edges were still square and sharp.
My round over bit bearing was too high and would touch on the recess top before engaging the inner edge.
AT6
To overcome this problem I removed the bearing and the bit just fitted …great.
AT7 I was then I decided I should take some photographs to document the errors I was encountering so others may benefit.
Rounding over the Corners
I used my disk sander to round over the corners and did it by eye.
This is the result so far.
After Rounding over the Corners:
After Rounding over the edges:
Humm so much for cleaning up!... To be continued!
I was supposed to be cleaning up for Christmas when I found a length of of Tasmanian Myrtle offcut.
I decided I should put a challenge to myself and try to make a box from it just using the one piece of solid timber.
This is where all the creative after thoughts started kicking in! (ATn)
I originally started off with the box using the length of Tassie Myrtle which was about 800mm long 90mm wide and 20mm thick.
Preparation of the Box Frame:
AT1
I thought I would match all the grain so it ran continously around the box, so I decided to divide it up into four sections.
Section 1 An end about 120mm,
Section 2 The corresponding side at about 250mm then,
Section 3 The other end at 120mm and finally,
Section 4 The other side at 250 mm.
AT2
I then realised that the begining of Section A and the end of Section 4 would not be matched.
Not being too concerned this would give me at least 3 joints grain matched, and the miss matched section could be at the back.
I Jointed the piece of timber and thicknessed it, this activity resulted in a nice piece of usable length of about 750mm.
As it looked OK I thought I would remove the bullk of the timber in the middle.
AT3
I contiued on and then set up the shaper with a 50 mm straight cutter and milled out the middle section.
Using a series of incremental cuts the 50mm recess was formed, it had very small amount of chip out on the edges at the final depth of the recess was about 10 mm.
The ajoining lips top and bottom were now 20mm.
I then cut a rebate for the bottom of the box and it was ready for the next stage of assembly.
I cut up all the timber and by the time I had finished all the miters it was a loose assembled size of 230 mm x 110 mm x 18 mm.
I glued it up and after checking it the next day it looked very bland, almost no significant grain pattern and the edges were very sharp, and there were the small chips which needed sanding off.
AT4.
Adding an inlay strip:
I decided adding an inlay strip would add some characer.
Returning to the shaper I set it up again whith a smaller cutter and cut a inlay recess by doing an initial cut and then moving it up and reversing the box to ensure I had it centralised.
Note:This step should have been done with the timber in one length.
AT5
Rounding over the edges
Part 1:
This process turned into a very involved activity and again should have been done before the timber was cut up.
Part 2: I set up a round over bit in the shaper and did the top lip and bottom lip.
This worked well and the finish removed all the small chip out defects. The only problem was the inner edges were still square and sharp.
My round over bit bearing was too high and would touch on the recess top before engaging the inner edge.
AT6
To overcome this problem I removed the bearing and the bit just fitted …great.
AT7 I was then I decided I should take some photographs to document the errors I was encountering so others may benefit.
Rounding over the Corners
I used my disk sander to round over the corners and did it by eye.
This is the result so far.
After Rounding over the Corners:
After Rounding over the edges:
Humm so much for cleaning up!... To be continued!