# My First Bandsaw Box



## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Overview*

I am in the middle of making a lot of Christmas gifts right now. I was going to make an inlayed tray as one of the gifts, but ran into a bit of a problem. Afraid that I wouldn't finish the tray in time to ship to the east coast for Christmas, I decided to put that project on the back shelf for now and make a bandsaw box instead.

I haven't made a bandsaw box before, so I've decided to document my journey along the way.

Basic bandsaw box construction seems like it can be broken down into the following steps:

1. You need a big hunk of wood… either an entire log, or a hunk of wood that you glue-up yourself, from scraps, mixed species, etc.
2. Once you've got your block of wood, you have to design and layout the shape of the box.
(It seems to me that steps 1 and 2 are interchangeable, depending upon if you're designing your box around the block of wood you have, or whether you're seeking out your block of wood depending upon the design you have in-mind for the box you want to build.)
3. Cut out the shape or outline of your box.
4. Cut off the back of your box.
5. Cut out the shape of the drawer(s) of your box.
6. Cut off the front and back of the drawer(s) of your box.
7. Cut out the center of your drawer so you've got somewhere to put stuff! This is a drawer, meant to hold things, right?
8. Glue on the front and back of the drawer(s) so your stuff doesn't fall out.
9. Glue on the back of your box so your drawer(s) and all the contents don't fall out.
10. Apply a finish to your box, but not before any final sanding.

I will be adding a couple of planned steps along the way, as I've decided to modify the basic outline to build the bandsaw box I have envisioned. With that being said, I'm sure an unplanned step or two will also sneak in as well since this is my first bandsaw box.

Whether you've never built a bandsaw box before and want to learn along with me, or if you've built a bandsaw box, or multiples thereof, and are feeling nostalgic or maybe just need a good laugh, feel free to follow along as I try not to butcher my first bandsaw box.

So, without further ado, it's time for me to build my first bandsaw box!


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Overview*
> 
> I am in the middle of making a lot of Christmas gifts right now. I was going to make an inlayed tray as one of the gifts, but ran into a bit of a problem. Afraid that I wouldn't finish the tray in time to ship to the east coast for Christmas, I decided to put that project on the back shelf for now and make a bandsaw box instead.
> 
> ...


I can hardly wait to see what you come up with.,... I do however know it will be something fantastic…
You might find this helpful…


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## RussInMichigan (Oct 15, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Overview*
> 
> I am in the middle of making a lot of Christmas gifts right now. I was going to make an inlayed tray as one of the gifts, but ran into a bit of a problem. Afraid that I wouldn't finish the tray in time to ship to the east coast for Christmas, I decided to put that project on the back shelf for now and make a bandsaw box instead.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the series.

Band saw boxes are loads of fun, Jonathan.

I've been asked to blog the making of a band saw puzzle box. I've made the box and taken all the pictures, now I need to put the blog together.

My first band saw box was made from a 2" cube. I whipped it out in fifteen minutes as a proof of concept. It worked. It looked just terrible, but it quickly gave me a sense for the basic process. Leading up to the gift season, I'm making one or more a day. I live in Lansing, Michigan where the temperature hasn't broken freezing in ten days, so I'm cold doing it, but the boxes are still fun.

I'm looking forward to the other installations in your first band saw box series.

Message me if you have questions I might be able to help with.

Russ


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Overview*
> 
> I am in the middle of making a lot of Christmas gifts right now. I was going to make an inlayed tray as one of the gifts, but ran into a bit of a problem. Afraid that I wouldn't finish the tray in time to ship to the east coast for Christmas, I decided to put that project on the back shelf for now and make a bandsaw box instead.
> 
> ...


I'm also working on my first 2 bandsaw boxes for gifts. I purchased an oscillating drum sander from
to help with them. It makes sanding the inside of the box where the drawers slide in much easier.
Don't let anybody fool you either, it's a ton of sanding, both power and hand. I'm not sure I'll
get mine done in time. I'll have to get out in the shop today and sand some more. It's been a
bit cold here in Colorado lately. Makes you want to stay warm in the house and just think about
your many projects that are half done.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Overview*
> 
> I am in the middle of making a lot of Christmas gifts right now. I was going to make an inlayed tray as one of the gifts, but ran into a bit of a problem. Afraid that I wouldn't finish the tray in time to ship to the east coast for Christmas, I decided to put that project on the back shelf for now and make a bandsaw box instead.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the information and words of encouragement guys!

Larry, I somehow missed that one of yours, so I'm glad you linked it up here.

Russ, I'm looking forward to reading your blog and possibly tackling one of the puzzle boxes if this one goes well.

Pete, I used my oscillating spindle sander to help out on it a little this morning before heading in to work, but most of the sanding so far has either been done by hand, or a little bit of the outside shaping was done with my ROS. My spindle sander is currently in our unheated garage, so yes, it was pretty cold out there. I am fortunate that my shop is in the basement of our house, so the temperature is always manageable. The downside is that my hours of operation are limited… I don't want to wake my wife up early in the morning, or keep her up at night with tools whirring away down there.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 1: Hunka' Hunka' Beetle Kill Pine*

As mentioned in the Overview blog post #1, you can't make a bandsaw box without a hunk of wood to saw out, right?

You either need a big hunk of wood to start with, or you need to make your own big hunk of wood.

When choosing a hunk of wood, or glueing up a hunk of wood, you need to keep the size of your bandsaw in mind as well. If you have a standard 14" bandsaw, for instance, you need to limit all of your dimensions to 6" or less, since that's typically the capacity of a 14" bandsaw. Whatever bandsaw you use for your box, make sure to know your maximum cutting capacity before .

I have a 14" Delta bandsaw, but I just installed a riser block kit on it, so my maximum sawing capability is about 12", or a touch less with the Carter bearings or Stabilizer attached.

I already have an idea of exactly what I want this bandsaw box to look like when finished, so I have to make my own hunk of wood.

My idea for the finished box revolves around the Penn State Nittany Lion logo:









Keeping the logo in-mind, I'm going to use beetle kill pine for my hunk of wood since it is already a natural blue shade. I used a piece of tongue and groove beetle kill pine that I bought maybe 8-months ago. So, I had to rip off the edges to get rid of the tongue and groove sections. This was the other half of the board after cutting off the 7-pieces for the glue-up:









To achieve the thickness I want for the box, I had to glue 7-pieces of pine together.










I decided to blog about this after I began the project, so I missed taking a few pictures along the way. If you look close enough at the last photo above, you might be able to see that I numbered the pieces consecutively after I figured out which piece would go where. I also drew line-up marks from one piece to the next so I could keep everything where I wanted it once I started the glue-up. Sorry I didn't get any good pictures of my labeling setup. I'd highly recommend this for any piece you're making, whether it's a bandsaw box, or a chair, or a cutting board, or anything else, for that matter. I also made sure to alternate the grain direction from one piece of pine to the next to help keep the piece from moving too much in any one direction. Sorry for the crude way of showing you this, but I basically glued them up in opposing directions, something like this:
( ) ( ) ( ) (

OK, the glue-up is now done. Onto Step 2: Design and Layout the shape of your bandsaw box.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 1: Hunka' Hunka' Beetle Kill Pine*
> 
> As mentioned in the Overview blog post #1, you can't make a bandsaw box without a hunk of wood to saw out, right?
> 
> ...


Very ambitious and I would expect nothing less.. good start.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 1: Hunka' Hunka' Beetle Kill Pine*
> 
> As mentioned in the Overview blog post #1, you can't make a bandsaw box without a hunk of wood to saw out, right?
> 
> ...


Thanks Larry.

It's not how you start, but how you finish, right? 

So far, I've only made one "I meant to do that." (I'm trying to get away from calling anything a mistake, and more of an "intentional design modification".) Nothing I couldn't deal with. I'll let you know shortly in the next couple of blogs what happened with that.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 2: Design and Layout of Your Bandsaw Box*

After you either have your hunk of wood chosen, or you've glue-up a hunk of wood, it's time to design your bandsaw box. There are numerous ways of doing this… you can simply freehand the entire thing in a freeform sort of way, or you can draw your design on a piece of paper and then use spray adhesive to attach the cutout design onto the block of wood, or you can draw the lines for the box directly onto the wood, or you can do what I did and use tracing paper.

Since I knew I wanted the drawer to be in the shape of the Penn State Nittany Lion logo, I thought it would also be appropriate to have the overall shape of the box match that curve. So, I enlarged the image a bit more on the printer until it was slightly smaller than the maximum height I had to work with from my glued-up block of beetle kill pine.

I simply cut close to the outline of the image, then used a couple of pieces of masking tape to temporarily stick it to the wood so that it wouldn't move around while I was tracing. I then stuck tracing paper between the image and the wood and simply traced around the oval of the image. No need to trace any of the other bits of the Lion since I just needed to curvature of the image.

Now if you think about the shape of an oval, it's not very stable and certainly won't make for a good bandsaw box base. I took a quarter (the coin), and set it along the bottom edge of the wood block and slid it over until it met up with the bottom edge of the curve of the oval. I traced around the quarter and voila, I had my legs done.

Here's what the outline of the box looked like after tracing and drawing the legs on:









OK, so there was a little more to it than that. I wasn't sure I had the oval traced on completely square to the wood, so I got the ruler out and drew some reference lines, which you can see in the photo. I didn't want the oval to "lean" when on it's base, so I made sure that everything would be level once cut. No big deal really, just wanted it to look proper, not off-kilter.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 2: Design and Layout of Your Bandsaw Box*
> 
> After you either have your hunk of wood chosen, or you've glue-up a hunk of wood, it's time to design your bandsaw box. There are numerous ways of doing this… you can simply freehand the entire thing in a freeform sort of way, or you can draw your design on a piece of paper and then use spray adhesive to attach the cutout design onto the block of wood, or you can draw the lines for the box directly onto the wood, or you can do what I did and use tracing paper.
> 
> ...


I am still following… I want to see how you do it…


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 3: Cut Out the Outer Shape of Your Bandsaw Box*

Now that you've decided upon the shape of your bandsaw box and transferred it to the wood via your preferred method, it's time to get to cutting it out. Just from working on this project a little bit, I'd recommend a 1/4" blade, or smaller. I started with a 1/4", 4-TPI, then switched down to a 3/16", 10-TPI. Between these 2-blades, the 1/4"-blade cuts more easily and quicker through the wood, but is not able to make as tight of a turn as the 3/16"-blade.

Just as a refresher, this is the shape we're going to cut out:









Here's what it looks like after the cutting is done:









Here are all the scraps that were cut away (I did not try to do one continuous cut, even though I could've with the way the line was drawn…and don't worry, I wasn't running the bandsaw that way, simply had taken the tension off the blade):









I'm going to also go ahead and sand the outside shape to remove the blade lines that reared their ugly head while sawing the perimeter of the oval. I'd suggest doing this now before cutting anything else off or out because the block of wood still has all of it's strength so it'll hold up better to any harder shaping you might want to do right now. In addition, if you sand to the outer shape that you want now, the front and back pieces will mate up perfectly once cut off and glued back on. You'll still have some sanding to do later, but if you can get it close now, you'll probably be better off in the long run, as per the above reasons.

Sorry, I don't have any "before" pictures showing the blade marks, but here's what it looks like after sanding it down a bit with my ROS and by hand, all just with 60-100-grit paper:









In addition to sanding with a little block of wood and the ROS, I also used a socket to wrap the sandpaper around in order to sand the curved legs:


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 3: Cut Out the Outer Shape of Your Bandsaw Box*
> 
> Now that you've decided upon the shape of your bandsaw box and transferred it to the wood via your preferred method, it's time to get to cutting it out. Just from working on this project a little bit, I'd recommend a 1/4" blade, or smaller. I started with a 1/4", 4-TPI, then switched down to a 3/16", 10-TPI. Between these 2-blades, the 1/4"-blade cuts more easily and quicker through the wood, but is not able to make as tight of a turn as the 3/16"-blade.
> 
> ...


Nice job so far. I didn't have the guts to choose an even and equal shape for my box.
I picked the craziest shape I could find as to not have to worry about both sides
matching, or it being perfectly even. Maybe next time and I'll draw it in CAD and
print it out. =/


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 3: Cut Out the Outer Shape of Your Bandsaw Box*
> 
> Now that you've decided upon the shape of your bandsaw box and transferred it to the wood via your preferred method, it's time to get to cutting it out. Just from working on this project a little bit, I'd recommend a 1/4" blade, or smaller. I started with a 1/4", 4-TPI, then switched down to a 3/16", 10-TPI. Between these 2-blades, the 1/4"-blade cuts more easily and quicker through the wood, but is not able to make as tight of a turn as the 3/16"-blade.
> 
> ...


Don't worry Pete, this box won't be perfect… I'll know where the "design alterations" are at! ;-)

I figured I'd just jump in and see what happens. So far, so good. Just came up from the basement from doing the glue-up for the main carcass and the drawer fronts.

I'll be working on a couple of other projects today while the glue dries, as well as helping my brother install a new dishwasher.

I'm going to try and get another blog post or two done here as well today so I can keep everyone updated on the progress for this bandsaw box.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 4: Cut Off the Back of Your Box*

This part sounds pretty simple, right? Well it would've been if only I'd have used the K.I.S.S. method.

See the picture below and try to anticipate what might go wrong here:









My first problem was my overall saw setup. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time, or I would've switched parts out. Do not try to use these three things in combination with eachother: 3/16" blade, fence, and the Carter Stabilizer. I had just cut the outline of the box and didn't think to switch back to the regular Carter Guide Bearings… big mistake. OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement, but it did lead to a problem.

I took the above picture just before turning on the saw to cut the back off. As you can see, I've got between 1/4"- 3/8" of an inch between the blade and the fence. I turned on the saw and began sawing off the back of the box. Everything was looking good, with a nice straight kerf line until about 1.5" to the end of the cut. With nothing really guiding the blade with the Stabilizer setup, the blade began to wander. That's all well and good if you are trying to cut a tight radius turn and need some give, but I just want a nice straight line.

Oops, too late.

OK, so there's my first design modification out of the way!

I'm going overboard here, but it was still frustrating, as I had just created more work for myself. Now, I could've left the crooked line there and it would hardly be noticeable, if at all after the back is glued back on. Unfortunately, it's not in my character makeup to just let things like that be.

So, off to the tablesaw and drum sander I went. I know, I know… "but this is supposed to be a bandsaw box!" I can hear you, screaming in protest. "You've ruined the pure nature of the project!" some might say.

And my retort is that it's way too early in the project to just throw my perfectionist tendencies out the window at this stage of the game.

So I evened up the back of main box section, or hunk, on the tablesaw, shaving between 1/32"-1/16" off to try and even it all up. Notice I said try? Well I tried. Unfortunately curved pieces of wood (the top of the box is now curved after the initial cutout) do not like to sit still and steady while you're trimming them up at several thousand RPMs. Needless to say, I had to take a pass or two over the surface with the ROS to remove a couple of errant blade marks.

Then it was time for more unexpected work on the drum sander. Ran the now sliced-off back through maybe ten times, shaving away at the elevation difference ever so slightly with each consecutive pass.

After an extra 10-15 minutes of unexpected work, everything was right in my little basement universe again.

Looking back now, I will certainly use the guide bearings in place of the Stabilizer next time so as to avoid this most embarassing mishap in the future. There was a positive note that came about from this that I just discovered this morning. I went to glue the pieces back together, simply where the bandsaw had to cut through the box to reach the inside, in order to cut out the drawer, (which is Step 5, and the topic of the next blog post) but the contacts were so tight that I could barely get a toothpic in there. Now, a toothpick worked for one of the little cuts, but when I needed to glue the entire side of the box back together, that wasn't going to work so well and would've taken forever. So, I picked-up the shaving from the tablesaw encounter and used it as a bit of an applicator. It worked marvelously, as it was between 1/64"-1/32" thick and slid right into the joint, slathering glue all over as I slid it down the crack. I was going to try using a popsicle stick, but it was 5/64" thick and I would've had to really pry the crack open just to get it to slide along, let alone deposit any of the necessary glue needed to seal the crack.

So, after all that, there was a silver lining, or a blue and white one rather, in the form of a beetle kill pine shaving that ended up becoming an invaluable tool for a later step in the process.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 4: Cut Off the Back of Your Box*
> 
> This part sounds pretty simple, right? Well it would've been if only I'd have used the K.I.S.S. method.
> 
> ...


Sorry, popsicle stick was 5/64" thick, not 5/32" thick as I accidentally typed the first time. (I've made the correction above.)


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 4: Cut Off the Back of Your Box*
> 
> This part sounds pretty simple, right? Well it would've been if only I'd have used the K.I.S.S. method.
> 
> ...


I don't know what the bearings are and the stabilizer ….... so I'm up against a wall before I even start! 
but then I'm not a perfectionist, so that's ok


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 5: Cut Out the Shape of Your Drawer(s)*

Now we're getting to the point where there's no turning back. Once you start cutting into your shaped hunk of wood for your drawer, or drawers, that's it, you're committed!

I want to cut out the drawer to be about the same shape of oval that I cut for the outline of the box, only it's obviously going to be a smaller oval since it's from the inside of the box.

In order to make a smaller, but identically shaped oval, I traced the outline of a smaller image of the Nittany Lion that I used for the outline of the box itself. After I got it taped on where I wanted it (centered to less than 1/32" on all sides), I put the tracing paper under the image and traced the oval onto the hunk of wood. I figured my cutting wasn't going to be that accurate and I could clean-up any minor differences with a little bit of sanding.

Another important thing to think about before you begin cutting is to decide upon a point of entry. Each box will be different. If you have a square hunk of wood, it's probably best to start at either the top line or bottom line of a drawer so that you can cut straight across. *You want to make sure and cut with the grain.* Cutting with the grain is important for two reasons:
1. Your cut line will blend in much better if there are grain lines going in the same, or a similar direction.
2. Making your entry cut with the grain will ensure for the strongest glue joint possible when you glue the cut sides back together since you'll have face grain to face grain contact, or edge grain to edge grain, both very strong joints, compared to trying to glue end grain to end grain.

If you can find a grain mark to follow for your point of entry, all the better. This is what I was looking for. After studying the hunk of wood and the inner oval I had drawn on it, I found my spot on the left hand side of the block. I decided on this spot for several reasons: it was going with the grain, it would be a fairly short cut (hence less noticeable), and it was on the line between where the blue part of the wood met the white part of the wood which would help disguise it even more.

You can see my point of entry on the left:









Once you've completed your drawer, turn the saw off and let it come to a stop, especially if your blade is still within the wood somewhere, as mine was since I only made an entry cut. Once the blade has come to a complete stop, you can now either slide the blade back out if you don't have enough clearance due to the guides being in the way, or lift out the drawer and then easily slide the blade out through the entry cut.

Here's what I had sitting on the bandsaw table after I cut out the drawer carcass:


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 5: Cut Out the Shape of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> Now we're getting to the point where there's no turning back. Once you start cutting into your shaped hunk of wood for your drawer, or drawers, that's it, you're committed!
> 
> ...


good tip re: getting it off the bandsaw blade.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 5: Cut Out the Shape of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> Now we're getting to the point where there's no turning back. Once you start cutting into your shaped hunk of wood for your drawer, or drawers, that's it, you're committed!
> 
> ...


Not so bad is it…


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 6: Cut Off the Front and Back of the Drawer(s) of your Box*

Step 6 in the basic construction of your bandsaw box is to cut off the front and back of your drawer(s) so that you can then cut out the inside of the drawer.

The first thing you want to do is cut off the front of the drawer. Why does it matter if you cut off the front or the back first? *The cutting order really only matters if you're going to include a secret drawer.* So, take a moment to decide if you want a secret drawer or not before you start cutting. Trust me, you'll save yourself some time and sanding!

I don't have a picture of cutting off the back of the box, but it's pretty straightforward, just like cutting off the back of the box itself. You simply rip of the back of the box at whatever thickness you want it to be. The thinner you make the front and back, the more room you'll have inside the drawer.

OK, time for another "design modification". I decided that I wanted to include a secret drawer on my first bandsaw box. Unfortunately, I had already ripped off the front and back of the drawer. So, I created a bit more work for myself by doing it this way.

*If you're going to include a secret drawer within your main drawer, you need to turn the drawer chunk over, but only after you ripped the front of the box off.*

Now that you're staring at the back of the drawer, you want to draw the outline of your secret drawer onto the back of the main drawer. Instead of a skinny piece of wood like you see below, you should be looking at the main hunk of the drawer right now.









Save yourself some time and sanding by the secret drawer out all at once! This is more or less what it'll look like as you're cutting it out:









After you have the secret drawer outline how you want it, the procedure for cutting out the secret drawer is the same as it was for cutting out the main drawer itself. Go ahead and turn the bandsaw on and cut out just the secret compartment.

You'll notice that if you do it in the order I've done it, you've now created extra work for yourself. In the picture below, I've traced the outline of the secret drawer front onto the rest of the drawer and will basically have to duplicate as best I can, the cutout of the compartment itself.









Once you've cut out the main section of the secret drawer, turn off the bandsaw and let it come to a complete stop before backing the blade out. It'll look something like this:









Now it's time to rip off the front and back of your secret compartment, not before, like I did! After you rip off the front and back of the secret compartment, go ahead and move on to Step 7, which is the next blog entry.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 6: Cut Off the Front and Back of the Drawer(s) of your Box*
> 
> Step 6 in the basic construction of your bandsaw box is to cut off the front and back of your drawer(s) so that you can then cut out the inside of the drawer.
> 
> ...


Simple to follow so far… keep going…


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 7: Cut Out the Center of Your Drawer(s)*

This is one of the last deconstructive parts of the bandsaw box process before we begin the reassembly stages and start glueing everything back together!

This step is another that might require a pencil, pen, or whatever your preferred marking method is… or not… maybe you just want to eyeball it. By all means, go ahead then! Just have a plan of action before you start.

I went ahead and drew on my line with a pencil for the area of the drawer that I wanted to cut out:








To get the curves for the sides to come out as equally as I could, I took a ruler and measured perpendicular (90-degrees) to my center line until it met the curved edge of the box, then put a mark at an equal height on both sides of the box. I then freehanded the curve from the base line, up to these dots.

If you have any additional drawers, including a secret drawer, now is the time to cut out the inside of those drawers as well. I just freehanded the little secret drawer since it was fairly small.

I have been living and learning throughout this process. And here arose another learning lesson. I still had the 3/16" blade and Carter Stabilizer setup on the saw. I should've switched back to the regular guide bearings and the 1/4" blade, as it would've allowed me to cut a perfectly straight bottom for the drawer. The way the Stabilizer works, allows for drift and flex in the blade so that you can make really tightly radiused curves. It doesn't work the greatest for cutting straight lines through thicker pieces of wood though, since the blade has a tendency to drift. In the future, I'll probably use it on thinner stock.

As you can see from the picture below, the straight line I had drawn with the pencil did not come out straight when I ran it through the bandsaw:








Oh well, what's a little more sanding dust?

After I cutout the main drawer compartment, I went ahead and also cutout the center of the secret drawer as well:








And here's a shot of the secret drawer slid back together (no glue), with the center cutout sitting off to the side:


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 7: Cut Out the Center of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> This is one of the last deconstructive parts of the bandsaw box process before we begin the reassembly stages and start glueing everything back together!
> 
> ...


I never would have thought of a secret drawer in a bandsaw box… I have however made several secret compartments in cabinets and tables…


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 7: Cut Out the Center of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> This is one of the last deconstructive parts of the bandsaw box process before we begin the reassembly stages and start glueing everything back together!
> 
> ...


I'm going to put a secret drawer in my next one. This guy's signature is the secret drawers.

He's got some great designs too! http://designer-woods.com/two-drawer/


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 7: Cut Out the Center of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> This is one of the last deconstructive parts of the bandsaw box process before we begin the reassembly stages and start glueing everything back together!
> 
> ...


I actually saw his site (designerwoods), after I had cut off the back of the drawer! That's why I had to go back and fix things, or rather, do all that extra work, as seeing his work convinced me that I too, needed a secret compartment. The extra work was worth it though, as it was more of a challenge and will also set this box apart a little bit.

I am looking forward to wrapping this box up and am working on it now… just waiting for the mineral spirits to dry and the super glue to cure so I can apply the finish.

I will get another blog entry or two up, Steps 8-9, either later today, or more likely, tomorrow. If it's tomorrow, I might get 8-10 written and complete the blog series.

Thanks to all those that have read and posted so far! I look forward to showing you all the completed project! There are still one or two things to be revealed….


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## missingname (Feb 15, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 7: Cut Out the Center of Your Drawer(s)*
> 
> This is one of the last deconstructive parts of the bandsaw box process before we begin the reassembly stages and start glueing everything back together!
> 
> ...


I'm enjoying reading this blog series, keep it up.

This is making me want a bandsaw more and more…. need to get one.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*

I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:









As you can see, I used Titebond III. At first, I poured a little glue out onto the ceramic plate and then dipped the brush in it and applied it to the drawer cutout, then laid the back of the drawer onto the glued surface. I realized though that I could skip a step and carefully dispense the glue straight from the container, onto the drawer cutout, then use the brush to spread the glue, before attaching the front of the drawer. I did this for the main drawer, and the secret drawer. Since the main drawer was fairly thin, I used cauls. And with pine being as soft as it is, it doesn't take much pressure from a clamp to cause a nasty indentation in the wood!

Since I neglected to take pictures of the glue-up, this entry will focus more on cutting and installing the drawer pulls. So I'll go ahead and include that in as a sub-step under this section. (Just make sure your glue is dry on the front and back before you clamp your pulls on.) Besides, how many pictures of clamps and glue squeeze-out 
do you really want to see?

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*(Step 8.5: Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*

Since I've got 2-drawers, I obviously need 2-pulls. The secret drawer pull was relatively straightforward. I simply used a scrap piece of the beetle kill pine, selected to match the grain pattern on the front of the secret drawer. I carefully cut out the little tiny pull on the bandsaw, and sanded to get it down to the exact size I wanted. I used CA (super glue) to attach the pull to the secret drawer, then clamped it with a small spring clamp.









Since the pull for the main drawer was going to be visible all the time, plus I had a specific design that was going on the front, I thought long and hard about how exactly I was going to make the pull, as well as where I was going to put it. I thought about making a small pull out of the pine and glueing it dead center on the face of the drawer, then woodburning it to blend in with front of the drawer. Hmm, that still didn't seem like it was really going to be a design element, and more something I was trying to hide.

Then I thought about using ebony in the same fashion, making a simple pull that would be set dead center again. I figured the ebony would be a classy touch, but it seemed like it would actually be worse than the pine pull as it would sort of stick out even more, definitely distracting, if not all together detracting from the design I had planned for the front drawer.

Then all of a sudden, it popped into my head: why not incorporate an ebony pull into the design on the front of the drawer? I had never used ebony before, but had purchased numerous ebony pen blanks at Rockler when they were having their grand reopening sale a month or two ago. I specifically bought them to use as square plugs and to turn into drawer handles. At $0.99/each, I figured they could just sit around until I was ready to use them.

OK, so at this point, if you've read the blog series from start, to finish, you might remember, way back when, that I was using the Penn State Nittany Lion logo for inspiration. I am actually going to put it on the front of the drawer, which is why the shape of the box and the drawer had to be ovals. It will be woodburned onto the front. So, the ebony will compliment the woodburned pine, at least, this is the intention. After thinking about it, I figured I could place the pull off-center and actually use the shape of the inner ear of the lion as the pull:









First, I had to get the ebony cut to size, before any shaping could take place:



























I took the image that I had sized for the front of the drawer, then placed a piece of tracing paper under it and traced the ear onto the piece of ebony. The carbon barely showed up on the ebony, so I took a pencil and went over the line. Now at least I had a shiny line to see for cutting purposes:









I took a piece of plywood and ran it through the bandsaw part way, then clamped it down to act as a temporary zero clearance insert so that there wouldn't be tearout on the underside of the ear:









I cut close to the line, but not on it, figuring I could hand sand and file away the remainder:









I then carefully filed down to the line with some mini files and sanded it smooth, up to 600-grit, then used 0000 steel wool to buff it a bit:


















I won't show you the pull glued-on, as I don't want to ruin the surprise of what the front of the drawer looks like!

I used Titebond III to glue the main pull onto the front of the main drawer. I thought the bond might be a bit better than the CA glue. Looking back, I would've used the CA glue if I were to do it over. I spent a lot of time with an Xacto knife and sandpaper trying to get rid of the glue squeeze-out, then resanding the pull, and finally reburning some of the woodburned front. Oh well, it looks the way I want it to now.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


Yes, the pulls are one of the things that make or break a box.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


I couldn't agree more, Larry. That's why I thought long and hard about this one and am satisfied with the result.

I can't wait to show you all the finished result in due time! I need to finish the blog series out before posting the finished project so I don't put the cart before the horse. I took plenty of pictures of the completed box this morning, then my wife wrapped it up and I took it to the post office to send it to its new home.


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## missingname (Feb 15, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


Stupid question, since you mentioned buffing with the steel wool…. when you use steel wool, does it tear apart on you into thousands of little pieces of metal? It does that to me, which is very annoying when buffing something out with it. Having to clean up after it makes it almost not worth it for me.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


Yes, that happens with the fine steel wool. Guess I just deal with it. I usually vacuum the piece of, then sometimes hit it with mineral spirits after that to make sure I've got all of it. Maybe there's another trick out there that somebody knows about?


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


I was going back through pictures for another blog post and did come across one of the drawer glue-up. Not exactly exciting, but here it is anyway, showing the cauls and the squeeze-out:


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


I think I'm going to use CA glue tomorrow when I glue mine on. I'm scared epoxy may squeeze out and ruin all mu drawer work. Thanks again for the idea.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 8 (and 8.5): Glue On the Front and Back of Your Drawer(s)... (Cut and Install Drawer Pulls)*
> 
> I want to apologize ahead of time as I didn't take too many pictures of the glue-up of the front and back of the drawers. Really the only picture I have is a preparatory shot showing everything laid out and ready to be glued up:
> 
> ...


The CA glue still squeezed out but wasn't as noticeable. I still trimmed it off, then lightly sanded. You are welcome Pete.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 9: Glue on the Back of Your Box*

At this point, this should be the last thing you need to glue to complete the construction phase of your bandsaw box.

A pretty straightforward step here that can be handled in a couple of different ways.

If you're keeping your bandsaw box fairly rustic and basic in nature, then maybe you simply cut the back of the box off way back in Step 4 and left it at that.

Or, if you're like me (meaning you tend to inherently make things more difficult on yourself,) you tend to sand things before glueing them together. Well, this presents a bit of a problem, unless you cut the back off in a perfectly straight line to start with. So, I sanded the back down to where I wanted it, but now it doesn't mate up perfectly with the slightly not straight back from the original cutoff step.

I fixed this by carefully running the box through the tablesaw. The cut with the base side down was nice and simple, but when I ran the box through on it's curved top, I took extra caution and tried to keep constant forward and downward pressure on the box so that it didn't rock when running over the blade. That fixed it right there. Now everything was flush to my liking.

Got the Titebond III out one more time and put a thin bead around the carcass edge, spread it out evenly with a brush, mated the back up, used a couple of boards larger than the box for cauls and threw on the clamps:









After about 45-minutes, I went ahead and scraped as much of the glue as I could get to along the outside edge.

With the clamps and cauls in-place, I was obviously not able to scrape the inside squeezeout of the box. So after the clamps and cauls came off, I took a 1/4"-chisel and sort of popped most of it out, cleaning any little remaining bits up with an Xacto knife:









Normally your box is complete, or close to it at this stage, other than sanding and finishing. However, I had taken a little bit off here and there in messing with the drawer, so now the drawer sat inset if I pushed it all the way back. I toyed with leaving it like that, but in the end, thought that it looked better sitting flush with the front of the box.

In order to rectify this situation, I cut a couple of cork disks and glued them down with CA glue (super glue) at the back of the box to act as depth stops, as well as bumpers so that the drawer could not be slammed shut. Trying to clamp little cork disks at the bottom of the box was not going to be easy, so with the box laying on its back, I set the drawer down on top of the cork discs and carefully stacked a couple of bricks on top of the drawer to weight it down, using a piece of small scrap wood between the drawer front and the bricks:









After pulling the bricks off and removing the drawer, this is what I had:









Now when the drawer is pushed in, it sits between 1/32"-1/64" inset from the front.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9: Glue on the Back of Your Box*
> 
> At this point, this should be the last thing you need to glue to complete the construction phase of your bandsaw box.
> 
> ...


Keep em coming!


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9: Glue on the Back of Your Box*
> 
> At this point, this should be the last thing you need to glue to complete the construction phase of your bandsaw box.
> 
> ...


One more official post to go, although I'm going to do at least one more "extra step" blog on doing the front of the box. I think I might as do a conclusion blog with final thoughts about the project as well.

Hopefully I'll get another one posted tomorrow on final sanding and applying a finish.


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9: Glue on the Back of Your Box*
> 
> At this point, this should be the last thing you need to glue to complete the construction phase of your bandsaw box.
> 
> ...


I found the same thing with my drawers, cork is a good idea and easier to fit than hardwood. I have to do that tomorrow when I fit the drawer depth on mine. Thanks for the great idea.

PJ


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9: Glue on the Back of Your Box*
> 
> At this point, this should be the last thing you need to glue to complete the construction phase of your bandsaw box.
> 
> ...


I actually used the bottom section of a cork from a bottle of Moscato d'Asti since these corks are wider than a typical cork. you could also cut the bottoms off sparkling wine corks if you wanted a bit wider bumper.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 9.5: (Extra Step) Decorating the Front of Your Drawer*

This is one of those extra steps I had planned on taking from the very beginning. I decided that the front of the drawer would be the focal point from which everything would flow.

My plan when starting this bandsaw box was to use the Penn State Nittany Lion logo as the design for the front of the box. I'm going to incorporate it here by woodburning it onto the front of the drawer.

I have done a little bit of woodburning in the past, so I already had a woodburner on-hand. At the very beginning of starting this drawer, my woodburner broke, or more accurately, I broke a tip off down in the woodburner. I thought about trying to extract it, but decided I'd just get a new woodburner. And I'm glad I decided to just get a new one as well because the old woodburner was only a 750-degree one, versus the new one that I picked up at Hobby Lobby was rated at 950-degrees.

With this newfound heat, the woodburning went a lot quicker. One of the other reasons I'm sure it went quicker this time was because I was burning pine, versus hard maple. Whatever the case was, I like this one new one better anyway, as it came with one or two tips that I liked, could use the old tips as well, and had a better stand than the old one. And I still only paid about $11 for it, with tax, as I had a 40% off coupon. So I would recommend making sure you get one that is at least this hot. I know there are certainly better units out there, but at this point in time, I just need basic woodburner.

We need to start by getting our design onto the front of our drawer. I again used the carbon tracing paper under my photocopied logo, then traced around the Nittany Lion with a pencil to transfer the image to the front of the drawer. I would recommend using a pencil to trace your image, as a pen may tend to push into the wood too much, creating more than just a carbon outline of your image! I didn't make that mistake here, but have made it in the past, so that's why I'm mentioning it now.


















Now we need to set up our burning station. I made sure I was at a comfortable spot with lots of really good lighting. This happened to be in our kitchen, where we've got a little run of countertop that a stool fits under, like a little desk area, that's in a corner full of natural light from the windows. I also used a gripper mat to hold the drawer securely. As you can see, I used a small test scrap since this was a new, hotter burner, and a tip I had never used before. I wanted to gauge it all before starting on the actual drawer front:









Go ahead and plug your woodburner in and let it heat up for 10-15 minutes, making sure you have a fairly fine tip in there since we're going to do the outline first, then go back and fill-in the interior. After your burner is nice and hot, go ahead and begin outlining the piece:



























One thing to remember here is that you can always burn darker and deeper, so it's best to make shallow passes/lines at first, since you can't easily undo what you just did (without sanding).

After your outline is complete to your satisfaction, go ahead and switch tips to whatever you want to use on the interior of the design. I chose a round tip that produces a small, even circle and burned to various depths, with some being deeper than others to give me a random burn pattern:









Then go ahead and continue filling in, but feel free to take breaks if your eyes or hands get tired. It'll be waiting for you when you're fresh again!


























































































OK, we're now done with the woodburning step! This took somewhere between 1-2 hours I think. I didn't really time it.

Remember, I'm leaving the ear outline there and not burning it since that's where the drawer pull is going to be glued-on.

That completes our extra step of decorating the front of the drawer.


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9.5: (Extra Step) Decorating the Front of Your Drawer*
> 
> This is one of those extra steps I had planned on taking from the very beginning. I decided that the front of the drawer would be the focal point from which everything would flow.
> 
> ...


Looks like a lot of work to me. I've been working on mine so it will be done for Christmas. Almost there, just have to spray a couple more coats of finish on and epoxy the pulls on. It looks great so far, hope it ends up that way too.

These boxes take a lot more work than folks think. I've been sanding on it for a week now. Crazy lot of sanding.

Also, the glued won't take finish in the drawer recesses after the back is glued back on and no way to get to it to sand it off. I'll have to give that a little more though on the next one. Won't matter with the drawers in place though. I'm just a perfectionist I guess.

Yours is coming along great, keep up the good work and I'll drive down and see it soon.

Pete


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 9.5: (Extra Step) Decorating the Front of Your Drawer*
> 
> This is one of those extra steps I had planned on taking from the very beginning. I decided that the front of the drawer would be the focal point from which everything would flow.
> 
> ...


Pete, I took a 1/4" chisel and a dental pick to my glue lines. The chisel worked wel on the back lines. You could also use dewaxed shellac over any minor imperfections to allow your finish to adhere.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

*Step 10: Final Sanding & Applying a Finish to Your Box*

This is it, the moment has finally come to put the finishing touches and finish on your bandsaw box!

(I will try to keep this blog post concise as I had a pretty bad tablesaw accident on December 23rd, trying to finish a couple of Christmas gifts. 3-fingers were cut, but all 3-fingers are still there and luckily didn't appear to do long term damage, even though I now have 28-stitches in them. Needless to say, typing is slow-going.)

If you haven't done any sanding yet, now is the time to do it. Even if you have done some sanding along the way, now is your last chance for any final touch-up work before the finish is applied.

Once all the sanding is done, vacuum the piece off, then wipe it down well with mineral spirits to remove any fine, residual dust.

Lots of different finishes work well on bandsaw boxes and wiped-on finishes work well for all the tight, awkward spaces. Most any finish will work, really, depending on how you want it to look, what your experience is, or maybe just what materials you have o-hand to finish it with.I decided to go with dewaxed shellac after applying numerous finishes to scrap pieces, mainly due to the quick dry time since I needed to get the box in the mail right away.

I did a lot of sanding as I went, but still had to do some to clean it all up. I sanded it all to 320-grit, in preparation for the dewaxed shellac.

I planned on doing a combination of spraying and hand applying the Zinsser Bulls Eye SealCoat Dewaxed Shellac. Below is a picture of the finishing materials laid out, after I had sprayed the secret compartment:









As stated above, I sprayed the secret compartment:


















I let the secret compartment dry, but it was too late… time for a learning lesson! I mistakenly tried to build a finish with the shellac and put waaaaaaay too much on! It now had a thick layer of shellac on it and I didn't like the way it looked at all. I vowed to find a fix, then got out the can of dewaxed shellac and tried to wipe it on, thinking that would be better:

















Here you can see the contrast between the wood before and after wiping-on shellac, although it's not totally dry:









After hand-wiping the rest of the box and box parts with shellac and letting it all dry overnight, I wasn't satisfied with the result. There were shiny spots where there was obviously more shellac.
I had only applied shellac 1-2 other times and wasn't really happy with the way that turned out either, but wrote it off at the time as inexperience. I just couldn't live with it though if it was going to look this way… it just looked sloppy and too amateurish. The directions on the can were less than helpful, so I went on the hunt, trying to locate information on fixing my problem. I came across this link: http://hardwoodlumberandmore.com/Articles/ArticleViewPage/tabid/75/ArticleId/14/Making-and-Using-a-Pad-for-Shellac.aspx about the time I was discussing the issue with a fellow LJer(Bill Davis), who had suggested denatured alcohol.

I went to a nearby fabric store and bought a yard of muslin for less than $2, as well as going to the box store and getting some denatured alcohol for $6-7. The fabric store didn't carry washed wool like the internet article had recommended, so I substituted a piece of cotton t-shirt for the sponge part in the middle of the muslin. Here's a shot of the materials to correct my overly abundant application of the shellac, although you'll pretty much need all these materials to correctly apply the shellac the first few times anyway, until you become proficient:









And a shot of me using the denatured alcohol to remove and more evenly distribute the existing shellac:









After you've applied your finish, make sure to let it dry or cure for the recommended amount of time, depending on your chosen finish. You can certainly wax your box after the finish is cured, or even buff it all out if you're really ambitious.

Me? I just left the shellac as the topcoat so that the box can be easily repaired, if need be, plus the fact that I needed to get it in the mail in time for Christmas!

And that pretty much wraps things up on the construction side of the bandsaw box blog series. I will probably come back and add an additional blog entry to the series with final thoughts, learning lessons, tips, etc. I will also add a link to the finished project posting, but wanted to complete the blog series before posting the project.

*A big thank you to all those that hung in here with me along the way and happy bandsaw box building!*


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 10: Final Sanding & Applying a Finish to Your Box*
> 
> This is it, the moment has finally come to put the finishing touches and finish on your bandsaw box!
> 
> ...


Now for the pics of it finished…


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

JonathanG said:


> *Step 10: Final Sanding & Applying a Finish to Your Box*
> 
> This is it, the moment has finally come to put the finishing touches and finish on your bandsaw box!
> 
> ...


Coming soon, Larry.

Everything is taking me longer to do right now with the hand restriction.

Should only take an hour or so to type out and add the pictures.

Will try to get it up shortly since I can't do much else right now.


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