Box advice

There really are no right or wrong answers to your questions. It’s all about personal preference, and your comfort level with any particular skill.

Look at boxes on this site…. there are a ton of them. See what styles of lids and bottoms you would like to duplicate. If you are not sure exactly how something was done, ask the maker a specific question.

As for finish, Danish Oil is a good, easy finish… hard to go wrong there. Stain can be tricky, but if you are going for a dark color, go ahead and give it a try. You’ll want to make sure all your glue residue is gone, because glue keeps the wood from absorbing the stain. And keep in mind that cherry will darken considerably over time.

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

Yeah I hear you, I think I got a little too excited about my jig when I made it, I think that i probably should’ve thought more about the top and bottom before gluing the walls together.
I spend way too much time on this sit looking at everyone’s projects! But I looked at your projects and wow, you make some incredible boxes sir! Question – when the time comes to cut the lid free, do you glue the lid and the bottom on at the same time as you glue the sides together? And do you have a different process for the lid when you make a box that has a top/bottom that hangs over the edge?

I always glue the four sides up first, then come back and glue the top and bottom on. The only exception would be if the top and/or bottom is going to “float” in a dado. In that case, of course, the whole thing sort of comes together at once.

As for cutting the lid free, that is usually the last thing I do after all six sides of the box are assembled. Again, the exception would be if you were planning to have an overhanging top and/or bottom.

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

When you do your glue up of your sides, put some blue painters tape on the inside edge of joint, it will make clean up a lot easier. Also sand inside of box boards, way easier before than after assembly. Good luck.

-- Bob, Lewistown, Montana. Kindness is the Language the blind can see and deaf can hear. - Mark Twain

The usual way to make a bottom is to cut a dado on the inside to hold a bottom in (not glued). Too late for that :)

It’s small enough that wood movement isn’t likely to be an issue, so you may be able to get away with just cutting a square piece of wood to fit the inside and glue in place. If you want feet, take a longer stick of wood and route a nice edge on it, and cut short pieces off using a miter box and a handsaw (a small Japanese pull saw works well). Make one edge 45 and the other 90, glue two 45s together to make feet.

For the top, it’s hard to cut the mortise for a hinge after it’s assembled. I would take a relatively thick piece of wood the size of the top and use a dado blade set to just over the wall thickness to thin out all four edges so the remaining (thicker) middle drops in the box. This makes a very nice removable top and it’s easy to do.