A couple of small boxes

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speeder1987

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Hi guys,

I thought I would share a couple of small boxes I have made over the last few weeks. No WIP at the moment will do that for the next box I make as I am starting to get some confidence on how they are made. There were a lot of firsts making these as you can probably tell ....... first attempt at mitres, veneering, and cutting splines, which made this very interesting. The finish is simply 2 coats of danish oil, though I am going to wax them with Mylands light brown wax when it arrives.

Anyway here are the two boxes:

boxes.jpg


The first box I made was made from walnut with a burr maple lid (need to check this). The splines are zebrano and the inserts are maple. Learnt a lot of thing with this box, like making sure the box is square before glueing #-o , The box also kept slipping on the sled when cutting the splines and so they ended up twice as big as I wanted them. This meant I couldn't use the maple I had put aside any more and had to instead use a piece of zebrano I had as it was the only contrasting wood I had. This turned out to be a bit of a disaster as not only did the dominant grain of the zebrawood look really strange, when I applied the Danish oil it went nearly the same colour as the walnut!!!! #-o . But in the end, I am actually pretty happy with it and I don't think its bad for a first attempt. Here are some better photos of it:

box2CompleteShrunk.jpg


box2LidOffFrontShrunk.jpg


box2LidOffBackShrunk.jpg


The second box I'm not actually sure what wood it is, I got a big box of offcuts of which this piece was one of. I think it is Sapele, but what do you guys think? I have a picture of it here:

sapeleWoodIdent.jpg


The second box is Sapele (assuming that's what it is), with a burr maple, burr walnut and black stringing lid and maple splines and inserts, with the bottom being blue velvet. I am much happier with this box as I already new a lot of the pit falls from the first box. The only problem I had was a major one ..... when I parted the lid, for some reason the bandsaw cut a very nice wave pattern in the box :evil: after a lot of swearing, I managed to plane two faces so that the lid and bottom fitted nicely and then added a chamfer which hides any imperfections. I modified my jig so cutting the splines went a lot smoother :)

boxComplete.jpg


boxComplete2.jpg


boxLidOffSideScale.jpg


boxInside.jpg


Anyway, that's it for now, as I said I will post a WIP next time for those that are interested.

Thanks for reading and as always all comments/criticisms are welcomed

John
 

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Both very nice, attractive. There are some minor imperfections but the overall impression is great, especially for a first attempt!
The mitres look nice and tight and I think the proportions look right.
 
I agree, it is those minor imperfections which I imagine will be very difficult to stop. All it takes is one slip of the plane or, a slightly to heavy cut through the veneer and there's a blemish. Maybe I'm the only one who knows most of the ones which are there, but they don't half bug me!

Thanks for the comments

John
 
Hi Speeder

Nice effort and thanks for sharing the pics. You may wish to consider in buying Steve Maskery Tableswaw dvds and there are some very useful jigs on there. I have made the one for cutting splines and it is quick an simple and works a treat.

Cheers
 
riclepp":vfgbjb7a said:
Hi Speeder

Nice effort and thanks for sharing the pics. You may wish to consider in buying Steve Maskery Tableswaw dvds and there are some very useful jigs on there. I have made the one for cutting splines and it is quick an simple and works a treat.

Cheers

The problem I have is I do all my work in the corner of the conservatory, so I try and do as much as I can with hand tools to avoid excessive dust, and I have severe limitations with space .....

I'm going to buy his band saw dvd's when I get a chance, as I have a small Burgess mk3 which works quite well, but sometimes with unexpected results, as with box 2. But this is probably down to user error, I have replaced the blade with some tuffsaw blades and they are great.

If you don't have access to a table saw, how do you go about parting the lid of a larger box? Very carefully using a tenon saw? I'm not sure I can saw accurately enough for that ....

Cheers
John
 
Do you have a router and table. If so router the opening, but not fully through and then cut the lid off with a sharp knife and then sand flat. Well that's one way of doing it :)
 
riclepp":1g5n8m5m said:
Do you have a router and table. If so router the opening, but not fully through and then cut the lid off with a sharp knife and then sand flat. Well that's one way of doing it :)

Hmm yes I have a router table I suppose you do that to stop the two halves folding in on itself and therefore giving an off square cut. I suppose the same could be achieved by using shims of the same thickness as the diameter of the router bit.

The only problem with this method is the potential for mismatch grain from loss of wood

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
or failing that, buy/make a suitable mitrebox. That way, if the saw is guided front and back it cant go far off track. You may need an extra high one, and may need to research suitable saws.
 
Yep think I'm going to give the slot cutter a go, wealdon do one with a 1.5mm kerf, and an extra long 85mm shaft. That should do the trick nicely and that removes the problem I have with a small band saw.

Thanks for the suggestion

John
 
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