Beech and Walnut Jewellery box WIP

[Unib]

I thought I's share with you, the build of this 'ere jewellery box. This may turn out to be something of a mistake on my part 'cause I'm not used to making such fiddly little things – I'm more used to tables, cupboard and the like, but haho...

This will be for my fair lady's 40th birthday which is a week on Saturday, so this needs to be finished for a week on Wednesday when we're off to Edinburgh, so, no hanging about! I was initially planning on using some elm I've had for a while, but after some consideration I decided to plump for beech – I've had some magically figured boards waiting around for about 8 years, as something of a timber hoarder I actually hate using the stuff, I always think a more worth project will come along. I s'pose the missus's 40th is a suitable occasions to part with a couple of boards

The design has an outer body made out of the beech and four inner drawers which will be made from walnut, I think the contrast will be nice. I'm not one for making like easy so I designed the inner drawers to appear to float – they run on supports that are fixed to the back of the unit with runners underneath the drawers – this took a bit of designing but who knows; it might just work :roll: The door pivot at the back corners and will have hangers for those glittery things girls hang round their necks. Haven't quite decided on handles yet – I think the door will have a routed groove along their meeting edges and the walnut drawer fronts... well, I'm not quite sure yet! The whole thing is about 320mm high by 355mm wide, 180mm deep.

So stage one was to decide which bits of my lovely beech to use – I roughly marked them out and then sliced them up into manageable pieces that my planer can deal with. The stock was also thick enough for me to bandsaw it in half for the drawers.

Here are the initial pics – I've done some more on it today to get the wood just about dimensioned so I'll post some more pics of progress tomorrow. Hopefully have everything cut to size tomorrow and ready for some very little routing action!

The wood put up roughly into manageable chunks (please avert your eyes away from my bench top – nothing to see there... it's next on my to-do list! (hammer) )

The doors will be made from this chunk of loveliness – went to work on it with my 5 1/2 to flatten up its face side, thankfully it planes really well with no tear out from a good sharp blade

Hope it's of interest - more soon!

Dav

 

[woodbloke]

Looks interesting, but I hope that stuff is nice and dry as I can see problems looming if it t'ain't - Rob

 

[Unib]

Thanks Rob, the beech was seasoned when I got it 6 years ago, it's been stacked in the workshop since and doesn't seem to have cupped or anything. I shared your concern, I'd rather it had sat in the house for a couple of months before I used it but I'm not that organised. I guess if things go wrong I'll be making another outer body bit!

 

[Unib]

Few pics from today...

I tried something I haven't done before - I printed out the components 1:1 from Sketchup and Spray Mounted them onto the boards, as there's a lot of fiddly bits I thought it was an easy way of getting things marked out without messing up any measuring. I must say it worked really well. I first squared up a face and edge and then aligned the paper templates, then trimmed to the lines. I cut out where the rebates etc need to go with a scalpel and square/steel rule.

The beech components with the templates attached

I’ve started to route out the rebates with the paper guides in place

 

[Chronosoft]

Very brave that method lol

 

[Unib]

Brave it may be but all worked just fine with lots of checking with squares and caliper, all the routing's finished this evening on the outer case without a hitch

 

[Ian]

Look forward to seeing the progress - interesting method of layout looks good.

Cheers

Ian

 

[devonwoody]

In the past when I have printed something to size, the printer or the app. did not always obey the measurements input.

Perhaps things have improved on this front?

Watching your project with interest.

 

[gasman]

I too am fascinated by this method - very innovative. Like Rob tho' I am also very concerned about the moisture content of the wood and how this will change when it is in the bedroom / wherever it will finally be kept. I can just see that very interesting design being prone to a non-uniform gap opening up in the midline between the two doors - or the doors catching on either the top or the base due to non-uniform expansion. DAMHIKT. Really good luck though. Also very interested to see the design detail of the drawers
Regards
Mark

 

[woodbloke]

I too am fascinated by this method - very innovative. Like Rob tho' I am also very concerned about the moisture content of the wood and how this will change when it is in the bedroom / wherever it will finally be kept.
Regards
Mark

As said, I agree with Mark. The grain on this particular slab of beech is pretty spectacular but it's going all over the place and unless it's really well conditioned to the environment where it'll finally stay, my guesstimation is that it's going to move. Were it me doing the job, I'd plane the material to rough sizes (say within a couple of mm) and then leave it indoors somewhere cool for a month and see what it does. If it remains flat, then it ought to be 'good to go' but if there's any sign of movement then you'll know it's not quite dry enough...and as we all know, beech is almost as bad as elm :evil: - Rob

 

[Unib]

Oh why oh why didn't I just make a simple walnut box!?

It would have been a brilliant idea to leave it roughly dimensioned in the room for a month Rob, but that would have called on me to be organised! I don't think she'll be prepared to wait 'til June for her birthday preasent though

Still, if all goes wrong It'll be a case of taking the doors off and making some more... that's if the top doesn't move... Oh well, yu have to try these things!

 

[woodbloke]

Oh why oh why didn't I just make a simple walnut box!?

It would have been a brilliant idea to leave it roughly dimensioned in the room for a month Rob, but that would have called on me to be organised! I don't think she'll be prepared to wait 'til June for her birthday preasent though

Still, if all goes wrong It'll be a case of taking the doors off and making some more... that's if the top doesn't move... Oh well, yu have to try these things!

The problem is U, is that not only do you have to get yourself organised...you have to get the wood organised as well Agreed that you have to try these things (and if it works then 'whoohoo!..rockn'roll' but if it doesn't, you'll have put in a lot of time and effort for something that's not quite as good as you anticipated it might be and it could end up being a very frustrating process.

I recently made a small wall hung elm cabinet, see here, where the bottom of the door warped (hung in a cool bedroom) by less than a mm...not a lot, but enough for me to notice it and try and correct it. That Blog post shows a pile of timber conditioning for a new door, but I've decided to take the cabinet off the wall, chock up the low end with a piece of veneer and place a moderate weight (a four pint milk bottle full of water) on the warped end to see if it'll go flat again. It's been weighted down now for about 10 days and thus far, seems to have gone flat, but I don't know if it's going to stay like that...fingers crossed - Rob

 

[gasman]

I hardly dare to suggest this - but after my recent foray into JKs world, if I was making what you are doing, I would use a bandsaw to cut 3mm 'veneers' off your lovely-grained beech - and then use something much more stable as a core for the doors - it will take longer - sure - but if you have a 3mm veneer either side of a 6 or 8mm core, you will get very little movement once it is all glued up - plus you could book-match the front with the best piece. Rob waddya think?

 

[woodbloke]

I hardly dare to suggest this - but after my recent foray into JKs world, if I was making what you are doing, I would use a bandsaw to cut 3mm 'veneers' off your lovely-grained beech - and then use something much more stable as a core for the doors - it will take longer - sure - but if you have a 3mm veneer either side of a 6 or 8mm core, you will get very little movement once it is all glued up - plus you could book-match the front with the best piece. Rob waddya think?

I was going to suggest that Mark, as an alternative to making it up in the solid, depends whether or not U has a bs to do the job...I would have thought something with a 150mm doc and a decent blade ought to do it...for sure, making doors in the solid with that beech seems fraught to me - Rob

 

[gasman]

Taken from U's first post -

The stock was also thick enough for me to bandsaw it in half for the drawers.

- so he has got one of some sorts!!

 

[Unib]

Thanks for the advice chaps - and good detective work there gasman - I do indeed have a bandsaw!

I'm seriously considering this veneered door idea now, my reservations are: time – have I got the time to go through the whole ripping up board, gluing up etc?; looks – what I really like about the board in question is the fact it has a hole through it that goes all the way though, this would be lost if I went for the veneer approach and may just look weird if you can see the substrate through it.

Another option might be to look at the design of the edges of the door so it might be less noticeable if it moves a bit?

 

[woodbloke]

I'm seriously considering this veneered door idea now, my reservations are: time – have I got the time to go through the whole ripping up board, gluing up etc?; looks – what I really like about the board in question is the fact it has a hole through it that goes all the way though, this would be lost if I went for the veneer approach and may just look weird if you can see the substrate through it.

Another option might be to look at the design of the edges of the door so it might be less noticeable if it moves a bit?

Time wise, yes, the process is a bit more protracted as you've got to apply lippings, plane them down flush and then veneer over the top. If the particular board you want to use has got an 'ole going all the way through, then I can't see any way that you could use that feature by veneering...as you say, seeing the substrate through it would look a bit daft. My guess is that you'll probably have to go with the original Plan A and make it up in the solid, 'specially if you're working against 'time and tide' - Rob

 

[Unib]

Think you're right Rob, I'll go with the solid door – if it ends up like a 'nana I know I'll have a weekend laminating up a new door!

Good progress today, not some tenons made - couple of days off now to go do some photography so back on it on Friday when I need to get a move on!