Birthday present for my wife

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bobscarle

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Not sure how anybody else copes with birthdays, but I can never think of anything my wife wants or needs for her birthday. Anyway, this year she said she would like me to make her a nice pen. Ok, I thought, and a nice box to put it in on the table as well. It also gave me a reason to do a couple of experiments with box lids and hinges, but more of that later.

The pen is a Sierra kit. I used a piece of yew for the barrel, finished with sanding sealer and wax. Lovely kit, looks really well made, quite heavy.

I found a few bits of cherry and walnut, about 30mm thick

Scribe a line all round the piece then put it in the vice, I like to angle the timber.
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I start the cut with a tennon saw. Obviously this can only go so far, but it does establish a kerf. I then use a pull saw, not a wonderful saw but it does this job quite well.
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Cut completed, still plenty of work to do.
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Plane up the faces, lots of shavings, and we end up with 2 sides. Glue two more pieces together and form a lid. Another piece makes the base. I have just started to mark out the cut out for the lid.
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Cutout completed
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Cut sides and base to the same length and square ends
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Take a couple of pieces of scrap oak and plane them to the same width. Then screw the base to these to form a sled for the router. Then route a grove in the base.
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And....Oh no. What has happened to my bit of cherry. It's come over all walnut. I changed the wood for the base, it looked better and not because I messed up the groove, :oops: You measure the centre point, set the fence and router for depth and then cut a groove. Now you wouldn't forget to add on the width ot the sled, would you?
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Glue up
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Small piece of walnut for the ends, gets cut down the middle as well. Just the pull saw this time. Then cut to length.
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Coming together.
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The hinge is a piece of 4mm brass rod drilled through the sides and into the lid. A plastic washer gives a little bit of clearence for the lid.
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To allow the lid to piviot the edge needs to be rounded over. I did this with a block plane.
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Dry fit. For assembly, the pins are pushed through most of the way then super glued before pushing into the sides.
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Finished. Went down quite well as a present.
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A few lessons to be learnt here, mainly with the hinge. I was slighlty off with the drilling into the lid on one side and it doesn't sit quite square when open. I think I need to find a better way of drilling this. I like the brass of the hinge against the walnut, doesn't show on the pictures, you'll have to trust me on that.

All in a good project. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Bob
 
Very nice and well done, but the most important question is was the wife happy with her birthday present =D>
Im sure she was :D
 
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