# Dovetail Bible Box



## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*Milled Parts*

This blog will document the process I'm currently using to build bible boxes. I generally make a box large enough to hold a bible and give it to a person who has either been recently baptized or married, or in some other way come to my attention. My hope is that I can build a box that will last long enough and be strong enough that there's never a good reason to get rid of it. Then it can always remind the person receiving it that it came with a bible and hopefully that little reminder will always be there no matter if the person drifts away from Christ for a few years or not.

In my effort to make a box that will last, I've come to a few conclusions about how I want to make the boxes. The first has to do with the lid. In order to prevent the lid from weakening the hinges by swinging too far accidentally, there needs to be a mechanism for stopping the lid from opening too far. I've seen some hinges that will stop part way open but the cost makes them prohibitive. I have to keep an eye on the expense so I can give more boxes away. That means that I have to use something else to keep the lid and hinges from being a week spot. I've found that by making the lid larger than the box, at least having the back of the lid overhang the back side of the box, keeps the lid from opening too much. This allows for affordable hinges also.

The next part of the box that I feel can be a weakness is the bottom. I've always thought of a bottom made of plywood to be weaker because if enough pressure is put on the ply, it can crack or blow out the dado that holds it. I know, who goes and steps on a box right? But, just to be sure, I wanted to use a solid wood bottom and not use a dado. If I put the solid wood into a dado, it would run the same risk for blowing out the dado and I'd still have to deal with the wood movement. That's how I decided to use solid wood and let the sides sit on top of the bottom.

To use a solid wood bottom, I need to allow for wood movement. That means I can use no glue to attach the bottom to the sides. That leaves screws which I have no problem with but it means I need to use a slot hole so the wood can move and the screw won't restrict the movement. That can be a problem because the side that is attached to the wood in the direction of the expansion has to be wide enough to hide the slot in the bottom, maybe more than a half inch. That made me rethink how to attach the bottom because the thicker the sides, the more expensive the box, etc. What I came up with is to use a sliding dovetail to attach the sides to the bottom. I've been cutting the bottom into two pieces and cutting two dovetail trenches in the direction of the expansion to hold both sides.

As for the sides, I decided on dovetail construction because it's stronger than a mitered corner and more decorative than a plain box joint.

I am attaching several pictures to illustrate.









Here you can see that I've milled the top and bottom and glued them up. I've also milled the sides to final length and width and cut the tails in the sides.









This shot shows the dry fit after I cut the pins and put all the sides together. Can you see what will become the sliding dovetails on the wider two of the sides?









This is another shot of the dry fit for the sides.









This is the dry fit after the sliding dovetails have been cut.

More next time. Thanks for reading.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Milled Parts*
> 
> This blog will document the process I'm currently using to build bible boxes. I generally make a box large enough to hold a bible and give it to a person who has either been recently baptized or married, or in some other way come to my attention. My hope is that I can build a box that will last long enough and be strong enough that there's never a good reason to get rid of it. Then it can always remind the person receiving it that it came with a bible and hopefully that little reminder will always be there no matter if the person drifts away from Christ for a few years or not.
> 
> ...


Looks interesting Jim


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## StephenSC (Nov 13, 2009)

OutPutter said:


> *Milled Parts*
> 
> This blog will document the process I'm currently using to build bible boxes. I generally make a box large enough to hold a bible and give it to a person who has either been recently baptized or married, or in some other way come to my attention. My hope is that I can build a box that will last long enough and be strong enough that there's never a good reason to get rid of it. Then it can always remind the person receiving it that it came with a bible and hopefully that little reminder will always be there no matter if the person drifts away from Christ for a few years or not.
> 
> ...


Looks good. How thick is the stock? Looks like 1/2 inch but cannot tell. I am waiting to see the lid. A good gift for anyone and nice that you do it to celebrate something.


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

OutPutter said:


> *Milled Parts*
> 
> This blog will document the process I'm currently using to build bible boxes. I generally make a box large enough to hold a bible and give it to a person who has either been recently baptized or married, or in some other way come to my attention. My hope is that I can build a box that will last long enough and be strong enough that there's never a good reason to get rid of it. Then it can always remind the person receiving it that it came with a bible and hopefully that little reminder will always be there no matter if the person drifts away from Christ for a few years or not.
> 
> ...


Thanks Stephen, the sides are about 1/2" and the top and bottom are only slightly less thick. You can see the top in the first picture above. It's the piece on the top right with the hole and knots and rustic look. I don't know why I like that look. All this wood came from a pallet I salvaged from a tile store here in Houston. I've found a lot of good wood from the tile store I think because the tile's imported from south of the border.


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*Box Bottom Blowout*

*Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*

I explained in the previous blog entry how I plan to use a sort of blind sliding dovetail to attach the sides of my boxes to the bottoms. The bottoms are first glued up from smaller boards since they need to be around 12" x 9". After final dimensioning, the bottom has to be cut into two pieces so the dovetail trench can be made without the ends of the trench showing. Then I trap the box sides in the trench and glue the two bottom pieces back together. Simple huh?

The problem is I have a Triton router that uses an adapter for 1/4" bits. The bits are very hard to secure well enough in the chuck so that they don't slide out a little bit during routing. I can usually deal with the problem by making the cuts very slowly and checking the bit depth after each cut. This time however, I forgot to check the depth and retighten the bit. Below is the result.


















This one shows the two pieces a little better.

Not only did I do it once but, after I quit kicking myself for doing it the first time, I got in a hurry and did it again. So, that leaves me with two corrections to make. I'm trying to mull this ove a little before jumping into anything. I guess the obvious way is to use the router to make the holes into something I can veneer a piece of the scrap wood from the project into. I'll have to be careful to make sure the wood movement isn't compromised by the glue.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


Good blog


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## bigike (May 25, 2009)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


u still should go through with tha plan, if the other board is the same color it shouldn't show too much. Then if it's the bottom not to many people look at the bottom of stuff. good luck in any case.


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## Woodbear (Jan 2, 2010)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


One thing is sure. You are not alone my friend. You are not the first one to have to kick himself for trying to get in a hurry. I manage to chew myself out on a pretty regular basis. One friend of mine made this comment to me one day. "Michael, you make screing up look pretty natural." Don't that just beat all. Chin up Outputter. It only gets better.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


That is the pits ;-(( Is that a common problem with 1/2" routers?


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


Thanks for the comments. I'm definitely going to do something with the blowout because I just love this wood. The problem with the bit changing depth is I think mostly because of the bit I'm using. It's longer than other 1/4" bits I have and I think having more of the bit extending past the end of the chuck puts more stress on the bit and makes it easier to come lose.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

OutPutter said:


> *Box Bottom Blowout*
> 
> *Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.*
> 
> ...


You might need a new 1/4"collet for your router or else there is something drastically wrong with it when it can't hold a bit tight. Could be dangerous too. I suggest you find out the cause and get it fixed before something bad happens.


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*Glue Up Bottom and Sides*

I decided that the next step after blowing out the bottom while routing the dovetail trenches was to glue up the bottom and trap the sides in the trenches. Even though the trenches were at different depths, all I had to do to get the side dovetails to fit was a little sanding. Here are some pictures of the glued up box bottom.
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This shows the glue line down the middle of the box before clean up.
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This one shows the bottom of the bottom and those pesky blowouts.
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This one shows what the finished box will look like before finishing. I just layed the top onto the sides to get an idea of what's to come. I just love all the figure and holes and stuff in that pallet wood. ;-)

Next time I should have a start on the repairs to the blowout. Wish me luck.


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## bigike (May 25, 2009)

OutPutter said:


> *Glue Up Bottom and Sides*
> 
> I decided that the next step after blowing out the bottom while routing the dovetail trenches was to glue up the bottom and trap the sides in the trenches. Even though the trenches were at different depths, all I had to do to get the side dovetails to fit was a little sanding. Here are some pictures of the glued up box bottom.
> .
> ...


it still came out good and we can't see the bottom unless u show us. ;-)


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Glue Up Bottom and Sides*
> 
> I decided that the next step after blowing out the bottom while routing the dovetail trenches was to glue up the bottom and trap the sides in the trenches. Even though the trenches were at different depths, all I had to do to get the side dovetails to fit was a little sanding. Here are some pictures of the glued up box bottom.
> .
> ...


Unique box thanks for sharing


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## noknot (Dec 23, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Glue Up Bottom and Sides*
> 
> I decided that the next step after blowing out the bottom while routing the dovetail trenches was to glue up the bottom and trap the sides in the trenches. Even though the trenches were at different depths, all I had to do to get the side dovetails to fit was a little sanding. Here are some pictures of the glued up box bottom.
> .
> ...


Nothing is perfect if you dont point it out they wont see it great job


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*Repairs -R- Us*

I blew out the hidden dovetail trench in the bottom of my bible box so I had to make a repiar. I picked a piece of the offcut from the sides or top, I forget which. The color matched pretty well I thought. Here are a few pictures of the repair process. I just cut little bitty pieces and glued them in the trench hole.
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You should be able to see the offcut I used laying across the bottom of the box along side the two blowouts.
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This one shows one of the patch pieces on the sanding block I used to help make them fit.
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Patch pieces glued in the trench holes.
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After drying and sanding flush. Still pretty obvious I think. Oh well.

Next time I should had the lid and bottom sanded and ready for finishing. Maybe the patch won't look so obvious after I apply the finish.

Thanks for reading.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Repairs -R- Us*
> 
> I blew out the hidden dovetail trench in the bottom of my bible box so I had to make a repiar. I picked a piece of the offcut from the sides or top, I forget which. The color matched pretty well I thought. Here are a few pictures of the repair process. I just cut little bitty pieces and glued them in the trench hole.
> .
> ...


Good save


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*Boxalicious Tung Oil Finish*

The box has been plugged, sanded and we took a Dremel to the punky wood. I think all the holes are ready to be finished and so we move on to the tung oil. I usually have help with this part from my wife and my youngest daughter. They love to see the wood come alive as the finish is applied. This box has been pronounced "boxalicious" by my daughter who also says "it's so pretty it's like a wedding dress." So here are a few pictures.
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This shows the setup I use for finishing a box. The tray has the painter's triangles under the top and bottom of the box. The brush is to flood on the tung oil.
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This is a closeup of some of the great rustic knots and grain.
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Another closeup.
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The master at work. ;-)
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This is the first after picture.
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Another after picture.
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Final after picture.
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I will be wiping, wooling, applying more, wiping, wooling, etc. for the next few days before attempting to attach the hinges. I'm a little concerned about the hinges and the rustic stuff interfering with each other. Hopefully, I can get them attached in a place that is solid and secure.

See you next time,
Jim


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## bigike (May 25, 2009)

OutPutter said:


> *Boxalicious Tung Oil Finish*
> 
> The box has been plugged, sanded and we took a Dremel to the punky wood. I think all the holes are ready to be finished and so we move on to the tung oil. I usually have help with this part from my wife and my youngest daughter. They love to see the wood come alive as the finish is applied. This box has been pronounced "boxalicious" by my daughter who also says "it's so pretty it's like a wedding dress." So here are a few pictures.
> .
> ...


nice work


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

OutPutter said:


> *Boxalicious Tung Oil Finish*
> 
> The box has been plugged, sanded and we took a Dremel to the punky wood. I think all the holes are ready to be finished and so we move on to the tung oil. I usually have help with this part from my wife and my youngest daughter. They love to see the wood come alive as the finish is applied. This box has been pronounced "boxalicious" by my daughter who also says "it's so pretty it's like a wedding dress." So here are a few pictures.
> .
> ...


It came out very well Jim


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## Skylark53 (Jan 8, 2010)

OutPutter said:


> *Boxalicious Tung Oil Finish*
> 
> The box has been plugged, sanded and we took a Dremel to the punky wood. I think all the holes are ready to be finished and so we move on to the tung oil. I usually have help with this part from my wife and my youngest daughter. They love to see the wood come alive as the finish is applied. This box has been pronounced "boxalicious" by my daughter who also says "it's so pretty it's like a wedding dress." So here are a few pictures.
> .
> ...


Good project. Looks and sounds like fun.


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## racey13 (Jan 30, 2010)

OutPutter said:


> *Boxalicious Tung Oil Finish*
> 
> The box has been plugged, sanded and we took a Dremel to the punky wood. I think all the holes are ready to be finished and so we move on to the tung oil. I usually have help with this part from my wife and my youngest daughter. They love to see the wood come alive as the finish is applied. This box has been pronounced "boxalicious" by my daughter who also says "it's so pretty it's like a wedding dress." So here are a few pictures.
> .
> ...


I Like it, can not wait to see the finished product, Jim

Mike


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

*It's A Wrap*

Well, it's been over three weeks since I put the finish on my box and contemplated putting on the hinges. Since then several things have happened. The weather was cold in Houston for a while and I moved the box inside the house for a while. Over that time, I noticed the bottom had bowed slightly and two small cracks formed in one end. Even though my sliding dovetail construction allowed the sides to move as the bottom contracted and expanded, it didn't prevent the bottom from cupping. There was also some bowing in the top. That gave me great pause because I don't want to give away a box that cracks and begs for someone to throw it away especially when it's a rustic box that may look like it should be in the trash in the first place. So, I didn't know what to do. So, I did nothing, for a while. After considering several options including the scrap pile, I decided to add breadboard ends to the top and bottom.









This picture shows the breadboard ends. I cut the pieces for the ends from a wide Santos Mahogany board so I could make the grain run the same direction as the grain in the top and bottom of the box. That way, both should expand and contract at roughly the same rate and I could glue the two together. That seemed to be the approach with the least amount of hassle anyway.








I routed a dado into the mahogany ends and slipped them over the ends of the top and bottom. Here are some more pictures of the final project.








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Finally I had to attach the hinges and I decided to go with the more simple exterior mount. You can see here.








You may be able to tell from the other pictures that neither long edge of the top lent itself to attaching the hinges because of all the rusticness. I attached them to the exterior of the back side and it moved the hinge closer to the edge of the top where there was more solid wood.
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That's a wrap! I hope someone finds this of help in the future. Just putting the blog together and writing out my reasoning has helped me. Thanks for reading.


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## Skylark53 (Jan 8, 2010)

OutPutter said:


> *It's A Wrap*
> 
> Well, it's been over three weeks since I put the finish on my box and contemplated putting on the hinges. Since then several things have happened. The weather was cold in Houston for a while and I moved the box inside the house for a while. Over that time, I noticed the bottom had bowed slightly and two small cracks formed in one end. Even though my sliding dovetail construction allowed the sides to move as the bottom contracted and expanded, it didn't prevent the bottom from cupping. There was also some bowing in the top. That gave me great pause because I don't want to give away a box that cracks and begs for someone to throw it away especially when it's a rustic box that may look like it should be in the trash in the first place. So, I didn't know what to do. So, I did nothing, for a while. After considering several options including the scrap pile, I decided to add breadboard ends to the top and bottom.
> 
> ...


It turned out real good. There are no problems-just opportunities.


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## jacob34 (Mar 14, 2012)

OutPutter said:


> *It's A Wrap*
> 
> Well, it's been over three weeks since I put the finish on my box and contemplated putting on the hinges. Since then several things have happened. The weather was cold in Houston for a while and I moved the box inside the house for a while. Over that time, I noticed the bottom had bowed slightly and two small cracks formed in one end. Even though my sliding dovetail construction allowed the sides to move as the bottom contracted and expanded, it didn't prevent the bottom from cupping. There was also some bowing in the top. That gave me great pause because I don't want to give away a box that cracks and begs for someone to throw it away especially when it's a rustic box that may look like it should be in the trash in the first place. So, I didn't know what to do. So, I did nothing, for a while. After considering several options including the scrap pile, I decided to add breadboard ends to the top and bottom.
> 
> ...


Nice job, I am planning a Bible box for a couple people and found several things helpful in your series thanks again for posting


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

OutPutter said:


> *It's A Wrap*
> 
> Well, it's been over three weeks since I put the finish on my box and contemplated putting on the hinges. Since then several things have happened. The weather was cold in Houston for a while and I moved the box inside the house for a while. Over that time, I noticed the bottom had bowed slightly and two small cracks formed in one end. Even though my sliding dovetail construction allowed the sides to move as the bottom contracted and expanded, it didn't prevent the bottom from cupping. There was also some bowing in the top. That gave me great pause because I don't want to give away a box that cracks and begs for someone to throw it away especially when it's a rustic box that may look like it should be in the trash in the first place. So, I didn't know what to do. So, I did nothing, for a while. After considering several options including the scrap pile, I decided to add breadboard ends to the top and bottom.
> 
> ...


Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the kind words.


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