Box Side Profile - How it was cut?

Could be done several ways, easiest way would probably be to cut the curve on the band saw, then sand the three indentations with a drum sander. Or you could band saw all of it. You could start with a thick pc of wood and drill 3 holes and then band saw the curve if you don’t have a drum sander.
I would use my 6” edge sander for the curve, but you could use a belt sander if you had to.
You could rout the grooves with a cove bit. and then sand the curved side.
Hope this gives you some ideas.

Take both ends and glue them together. Then drill 3 holes through them. Then split them apart with a band saw and shape them to your desire.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

You could cut three coves on the table saw on one long board. Then cut the board to the correct height for the desired number of pieces. Sand the curve on the outside with a belt or a disc sander. A little sanding and you got it.

-- Bill --- "We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us" Marshall McLuhan

Thank you very much Bentlyj..
Since I do not own band saw, drum sander and edge sander I would try your third option – drill 3 holes then make the curve profile using hand plane. First thing in the morning must try this and will let you know.

Thanks Bentlyj, MsDebbieP, John Ormsby, Pimzedd and all LJs for viewing & helping me. Love u all…

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

Router?

I agree with Ormsby’s suggenstion. It is the easiest and will make them all exactly the same. However you could cut them on the bandsaw and then sand them with an Oscillating spindle sander.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Dollars to doughnuts this was done with a forstner bit…..Unless its a commercial piece, in which case, it was probably cut with a custom shaper….

JC

-- Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan

You could probably do it faster by gluing the 2 halves with wax paper. That way you could just separate them easily with a sharp chisel without damaging the surfaces. Just scrape and sand the faces. No band saw is needed with this technique.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

Or you could just clamp them together while drilling.

I’d also go with a forstner bit on a drill press but it doesn’t look like the cutouts are as deep as half the diameter of the bit. Just eyeballing, I’d guess maybe 1/4th – 1/3rd of the diameter. You might have to clamp an extra scrap piece in between the 2 box ends so that you’re just getting the shallow recess. You could also shape the curves on a router table if you screw 2 curved plywood end panels onto the ends and take very light passes over a bit.

-- Use the fence Luke

Im wondering if it was made with 2 pieces. If you look at the top right corner of the box you can see two “lines” . . . one vertical and one horizontal. Sort of looks like the curves are an inlay of sorts.

My $0.02

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Yes JC, it is a commercial piece from red mahagony, I guessed. My wife got it as a souvenir from her office mate who visited Shanghai 3 years ago.

The thickness of the final box side is 7/16” and the the diameter (+/- after sanding) is 13/16”. And the depth of the cut is only 3/16”.

I made a test piece by drillng the 3 holes using 1/2” drill bit. But cutting the curve profile using hand plane did not produce fair result – a lot of tear-out and chipping on the edge of the flutes.

My next attempt would be cutting the curve profile (oval shape) on the router table using the furniture maker router bit.

Until then, thank you everyone of you.

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

Looks to me like a simple jig clamped to a 2” drum sander with a mark to line up on and an automatic control of how deep you can go. I’m all about the simplest way of doing things!

-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""

Thanks Zuki – I attached another pic for better view

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

Hey woodworm, You, could clamp a belt sander to a table and use it to round your ends.

Oh yeah belt sander – may work well too. I almost forgot I own 4”X24” belt sander ! I will have to “search” for it.
Thanks!

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

My second attempt : 1) shape the curve using furniture maker router bit on RT, 2) drill the holes while the workpiece clamped to a scrap wood to anchor the forstner bit..

Still, the result is not acceptable, because the u profile is too deep and the gaps’ width are not the same – as can be seen in this pic:-

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

If you do it with a forestner bit, here is how it should work.

#1 layout, layout, layout.

Take two ‘keeper’ pieces of wood and clamp each of them to a larger piece of scrap.
The 1/2” keeper with a 3/4” scrap. Two, one set for each end. Now when you drill, drill so that the bit is more in the scrap side then the keep side. The most important part is to have the keep side with a shallow bit cut.
Remember rule #1: layout, layout, layout.

Without a drum sander, I see no other way.

-- Berta in NC

Thank you Berta for your views.

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

Woodworm,

This is a business card holder? So these coves are not much more than a 1/2” wide or so.

I know it may be a bit old fashion, but what about breaking out a rasp. A few swipes and some sanding should get you very cose to where you want to be. Can can build a jig to hold the rasp to make sure it does not cut too deep if you like, but it would probably be over kill.

Lloyd

Yes Lloyd, the width of the coves is about 9/16” wide on the centre.
I’m now experimenting to make the coves profile using 3/4” drum sander (spindle sander) on the drill press.

Thanks for viewing and the idea.

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

This is my third attempt. The coves profile look little bit better than before, but do not match the original box shown above. Anyway it was fun trying.
Here are the pictures :

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.