# bandsaw boxes



## patsfan13 (May 25, 2009)

This is my first posting on LJ. I have a question in regards to thickness of the blanks when making bandsaw boxes. I suppose it's a matter of personal preference but I just want to get some ideas from the LJers who make them, are we looking at 2"- 3" inches in thickness, more? less? Any and all questions answered are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Mike


----------



## blackcherry (Dec 7, 2007)

Once you get past 4 inches your putting a lot of stress on such a thin blade of 1/8 t o 3/16 of a inch. I usually use the 3/16 with 3 tpi. The stress come on the curved area of the cut and remember to feed slow and steady…hope this help good luck…BC


----------



## huff (May 28, 2009)

Hey Mike, Pretty much any thickness will work for making a bandsaw box. A lot of times when I'm doing a bandsaw box, I'll laminate my wood to get a thickness that I want if I can't find a solid blank the size or in the species of wood I want. I see some of the LJ'ers use different species of wood when they laminate to get a contrast. The size of your box and the design will play into deciding your thickness also. I usually work with 3" - 4" for thickness for mine, but that's just me and the designs I come up with. Anything will work, so have fun and hope to see some of your boxes.


----------



## deucefour (Jun 29, 2009)

There is a really good book by lois ventura that gives the patterns and stock sizes for several boxes, i am unable to find my book right now but I remember that they were thicker than I thought they would be. the book is called building beautiful boxes with your bandsaw…...hope that helps

I just looked on amazon and their price is too high i think i paid 20-25 bucks for the book from woodcraft

Robert


----------



## pauljp (Jan 10, 2011)

I go by the height of full sanding coverage of my Ridgid Oscillating Spindle Sander, which is 3 inches.
This way, it covers the entire thickness of the box nice and smooth.
My first box was about 5" thick and I had to sand one side then flip it over and do the other, and you could notice an "unevenness" in the center portion. Plus with the tight inside corners I had to use the 1/2" spindle and the nut at the top was bigger thus would hit the wood as it turned, so I have to ensure that my inside corners are not that tight so I can use wider spindles thus having no problems with the hold down nut.
So, to summarize, I use maximum thickness that my spindle sander will cover.


----------



## RandyMorter (Jan 13, 2011)

I second pauljp's post - I have some boxes in progress but they're wider than the Ridgid sander so the choice is as paujp says, or try sanding by hand. I did sand ONE by hand which made me get the sander. Even then I didn't do a great job - there's a LOT of sanding on band saw boxes.


----------

