routing out lip for a jewelry box top - suggestions needed

How about using the router in the router table. Set a straight cutting bit to the “height” of the lip and expose the bit to remove the desired amount. If the lip is on all 4 sides, you should be able to make passes around the box.

I would definitely do that, but unfortunately I don’t have a router table.

i just take off the plastic ring off my router and screw the base to a piece of mdf or plywood and insert the motor with a straight bit and plunge thru. then turn it over and clamp to my bench and screw a piece of scrapwood for a fence, screw it just on one end then turn on the router and slowly move the fence into the bit till you get the desired depth of cut you want and then screw down the other end and route the lip. when routeing the lip you may want to climb cut to prevent any blowout. this is done by feeding the same direction as the bit is rotateing. never climb cut on larger pieces with large bits or shaper cutters without a feed motor but for a small cut like a jewelry box lid its ok to freehand it.

-- blaine von hagen

Mike,

If the jewelry box is for your wife, this would be an excellent opportunity to buy a new tool. It goes something like- “this would be so much nicer for you if I just had a router table. I’m so ashamed to give it to you this way”.
Usually works ;^)

Lew,

That’s what I did to get the table saw, surface planer and router set!

I faced the same problem—sewing box lid.

Seemed there were only a few answers (but there are probably more. I’m a n00b):

- become perfect at free-hand routing (yeah, right)
- router table (they CAN be shop-built, reasonably cheaply)
- some sort of shop-built jig, perhaps made with a jigsaw, allowing you to use a router bearing to follow your curve

Me? I bought a router table. I wasn’t going to be able to get it right without it. I see them for sale, used, on CraigsList, daily.

IF you think about going that way, my one piece of advice—if you can get one that’s a cabinet, you’ll have a MUCH easier time with dust control!

Good luck, and … have fun!

-- -- Neil

Best option to me is to change your design.

From your description, I can’t determine exactly how you are planning to make your lid fit, but there are many ways to skin that cat. Whenever I find that I don’t have the proper equipment to do something the way I’d like to do it, I either buy what I need, or make a design modification to fit the tools I already own.

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

assuming you built the box then cut it in half you can take some 1/4” stock and cut four pieces to fit inside the box. [mitered corners] make these about 1/4” taller than the bottom of the box. using a block plane bevel the top of these a little to make the top go on easier. I usually fit them and mark the top of the box with a pencil line then remove them and plane a slight bevel to that line. insert them with a little glue and you are done. if the box is mitered at the corners I usually cut the groove before glue-up. then I cut a groove on the outside just below where the inside groove is. when I cut the box open the lid drops onto the bottom and both fit snugly. then I sand to fit. just remember where the groves are! :-]

-- hey honey! watch this!

skeezics got it right

-- blaine von hagen

clamp extra board to box to make wider base for the router to set on

-- gagewestern

Although I like the suggestions of those who’ve said modify the design>

A router table is also something you can build from not much more than a 2×4, a bit of melamine coated MDF, and some acrylic from the scrap bin at the plastics store. And getting used to building jigs to hold your router to do things you can’t do with it free-hand is good practice.

Other option if you want to stick with the router might be to just build a bigger base-plate that’ll ride over the entire surface. Take off your existing baseplate, use that as a template to drill mounting holes in a piece of ½ or so ply with a smooth finish (I’ve used pre-finished ApplePly left over from making drawers), countersink those holes, and you can have a 18”x24” or so baseplate (or however big you need to span the top of your box) that should help you keep it steady on the top.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I nearly decided to modify the design, but I had my heart set on a recessed lid, and since I already messed up once on this jewelry box, I figured I could get more router practice and worst case scrap the box all together.

I decided to use 2×4’s as support on the outside of the box and double-sided tape the box to the workbench so it wouldn’t ride up (actually though of the taep idea after the first rabbet pass when the box rode up). Here are some pictues of the setup.

And the result:

There are many good ways to solve your problem. One way would be to use double sided carpet tape to attach a piece of wood the height of you jewelry box to the router base. It could also act as a spacer to rub against the side of the box as you rout. I to think a router table would be great, but I do think you should have done the rabbet before you glued up the box. So your problem is really in the sequence of your work, not really how to rout it now. Unless of course,the box is not glued up to begin with. It looks like you got a good result on it anyway. Hope you will post it as a project when it’s finished.

-- Mike, American in Norway

Stefang, I hadn’t considered that. Routing out the rabbet before I cut the sides, just like I did the dado (I think it’s a dado?) for the box bottom to slide into, sounds like a great idea. I’ll definitely do that next time.

Thanks!

Mike hit the nail on the head, now that I see what you were trying to do.

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

Mnorusis, dados are a groove across the grain and a groove runs with the grain. So you want to cut grooves for your box bottom. All this terminology seems complicated at first, but if you are talking to another woodworker he will be able to immediately visualize what you are talking about when you speak his language. It’s a lot more complicated for me because I have the English, the Norwegian and the American terminology to cope with. In England for example a rabbet is called a rebate. I usually get so befuddled when I’m trying to explain something that I can’t remember the proper terminology in any language!

-- Mike, American in Norway

Now you’re schooling me, Mike. I thought a dado was a dado regardless of whether it was across the grain or with the grain.

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

See Charlie, you can even learn something from ignorant people!

-- Mike, American in Norway

LOL!

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