How Can I Make These Boxes?

[Doris]

Hi Guys,

I've been having difficulty with a project I want to do to in the near future. I paint glass and after being donated a whole box full of old glass camera filters (square ones) I came up with the idea of painting these with images and then mounting them in a lid. I have tried various methods of making these boxes and still keep failing at making the box itself. I have a marples 043 plough plane that I have been using to cut the grooves into the wood at the moment. The plan was to fit the glass into the groove and then fit the box together. I would then bandsaw the box in half so the lid would be cut away from the rest of the box.

The problems I have been having at the moment is actually making the box itself. I don't have a table saw or router at hand unfortunately and have tried mitre joints with so far very little success. I even made a mitre sled today for my bandsaw and this didn't cut perfect mitres to assemble a box either. I have been told that mitres are notoriously difficult to do and so am wondering if there is another joint I could use to make the box that would also hide the groove made for the glass lid.

I also hope to make quite a number of these so ideally something quite simple to make or not very time consuming would be nice. These boxes are just for framing the glass which will be the centerpiece so don't see dovetailing or making a feature of the joints a priority.

Hope someone can suggest something

 

[marcros]

i made some cool ones with a rebated/housing joint. I used a bit of stringing to cover the small piece of endgrain. you could also do a box/finger joint but given the lack of router or table saw, this may be a stretch.

if depends whether you have the means to cut that joint, and to cut perfectly square. if you were to dovetail, you would see a large amount of endgrain at some angles- you could make a decorative butt joint, and use some dowels in a contrasting timber.

it will only be woodworkers that would see it as inferior to a dovetail!

the 043 is perfect for the grove. great planes.

 

[blackrodd]

The only suggestion I have is make a bench hook and cut a mitre slot in the top "fence", with a stop this would be
quite accurate.
This could also be used as a shooting board, with a small modification, which would make a decent mitre.
I have found a link, so you can see what I mean and "save a thousand words"
Love the sound of this project of you'rs and I hope this may help.
Regards Rodders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bench_hook

 

[RogerP]

First make yourself a mitre shooting board like this ...
http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/wwmitreshootingboard.html

This may seem a lot of work but it will last a lifetime and be endlessly useful.

Clamp lengths of cut to width timber (sufficiently long for four sides of your box) in the board and shoot mitres along both long edges.

Saw up into four equal length pieces, glue and clamp the mitred edges whilst gluing in a square back piece at the same time. You can strengthen and decorate the mitred edges by making saw cuts and gluing in pieces of contrasting veneer

You'll now have a cube box with no lid - the glued on glass filter will be the lid.

If you had a small router table there would be other, quicker ways.

 

[AndyT]

You don't say how big these are - I'm assuming only 2 or 3" cube?

If so, your wood will need to be quite thin so they don't look too chunky. The simplest way would be simple butt joints. PVA is plenty strong enough. Clamping can be by masking tape or rubber bands. You'd need to fill in the tiny parts of the grooves which would show on two sides.

 

[nanscombe]

I don't know if this would be of use to you but it could be entertaining, it's a Jewellery box made using finger (box) joints on a bandsaw.

Jewellery Box - By Gary Rogowski (From the Wood Whisperer)

http://youtu.be/-vfYSjiECRk

 

[devonwoody]

First make yourself a mitre shooting board like this ...
http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/wwmitreshootingboard.html

This may seem a lot of work but it will last a lifetime and be endlessly useful.

Clamp lengths of cut to width timber (sufficiently long for four sides of your box) in the board and shoot mitres along both long edges.

Saw up into four equal length pieces, glue and clamp the mitred edges whilst gluing in a square back piece at the same time. You can strengthen and decorate the mitred edges by making saw cuts and gluing in pieces of contrasting veneer

You'll now have a cube box with no lid - the glued on glass filter will be the lid.

If you had a small router table there would be other, quicker ways.

Roger, I see that article on the mitre shooting board was posted by ALF, is the lady around these days on the forums?

 

[Doris]

You don't say how big these are - I'm assuming only 2 or 3" cube?

If so, your wood will need to be quite thin so they don't look too chunky. The simplest way would be simple butt joints. PVA is plenty strong enough. Clamping can be by masking tape or rubber bands. You'd need to fill in the tiny parts of the grooves which would show on two sides.

Sorry I forgot to mention the size in the original post. But yeah it would roughly be that size. Each filter is 60mm square and was going to make a 2mm housing in each piece for it to sit in.

I have made butt jointed boxes in the past and can shoot square and don't have any problems doing this. Do you suggest making a cube and then cutting the lid off with my bandsaw then? I did toy with the idea and then thought that the lid wouldn't be strong enough to just be held together with just a butt joint. Perhaps I will give it a go and see what happens.

i made some cool ones with a rebated/housing joint. I used a bit of stringing to cover the small piece of endgrain. you could also do a box/finger joint but given the lack of router or table saw, this may be a stretch.

Do you have any pictures of these? I'm curious by when you say you used stringing to cover the end grain.

if depends whether you have the means to cut that joint, and to cut perfectly square. if you were to dovetail, you would see a large amount of endgrain at some angles- you could make a decorative butt joint, and use some dowels in a contrasting timber.

That's an interesting idea!

it will only be woodworkers that would see it as inferior to a dovetail!

When you're DTR's missus and he makes me boxes like this one everything else seems inferior.

Thanks for the ideas guys, been a lot of help.

 

[RogerP]

Roger, I see that article on the mitre shooting board was posted by ALF, is the lady around these days on the forums?

I don't think so. I made one of those shooting boards many years ago from the original plans.

 

[marcros]

You don't say how big these are - I'm assuming only 2 or 3" cube?

If so, your wood will need to be quite thin so they don't look too chunky. The simplest way would be simple butt joints. PVA is plenty strong enough. Clamping can be by masking tape or rubber bands. You'd need to fill in the tiny parts of the grooves which would show on two sides.

Sorry I forgot to mention the size in the original post. But yeah it would roughly be that size. Each filter is 60mm square and was going to make a 2mm housing in each piece for it to sit in.

I have made butt jointed boxes in the past and can shoot square and don't have any problems doing this. Do you suggest making a cube and then cutting the lid off with my bandsaw then? I did toy with the idea and then thought that the lid wouldn't be strong enough to just be held together with just a butt joint. Perhaps I will give it a go and see what happens.

i made some cool ones with a rebated/housing joint. I used a bit of stringing to cover the small piece of endgrain. you could also do a box/finger joint but given the lack of router or table saw, this may be a stretch.

Do you have any pictures of these? I'm curious by when you say you used stringing to cover the end grain.

if depends whether you have the means to cut that joint, and to cut perfectly square. if you were to dovetail, you would see a large amount of endgrain at some angles- you could make a decorative butt joint, and use some dowels in a contrasting timber.

That's an interesting idea!

it will only be woodworkers that would see it as inferior to a dovetail!

When you're DTR's missus and he makes me boxes like this one everything else seems inferior.

Thanks for the ideas guys, been a lot of help.

I dont have any pictures, unfortunately. But if you think of a simple rebate joint, https://dtatist.wikispaces.com/rebate+joint with the thin piece being 2mm thick, and stopping 2mm short of flush, it leaves a gap 2mm square where the external corner would be. I filled that with some 2mm square black stringing on one box, and the same made up from 2 pieces of black and 2 pieces of white 1mm stringing on the second. sadly they were gifts so i cant get pictures.

 

[scotty38]

Slightly OT but I'm just massively curious that I must be missing something

You said:

When you're DTR's missus and he makes me boxes like this one everything else seems inferior.

But if you're married to the bloke that made that, how come you don't just ask him???

 

[Doris]

Slightly OT but I'm just massively curious that I must be missing something

You said:

When you're DTR's missus and he makes me boxes like this one everything else seems inferior.

But if you're married to the bloke that made that, how come you don't just ask him???

I am making these to sell and DTRs ethos is to make things not to sell. I'm quite happy to make them myself just not as time consuming as he would do them that's all.

 

[AndyT]

Just to prove that simple butt joints can be quite strong, this is a box I made from some old plywood, to hold wire brushes in the workshop. It's not pretty, but it has stayed together and is plenty strong enough. Dovetails would be stronger, but plain PVA, even on this 6mm ply, is plenty. You can see that there are no nails or pins. Your boxes would be quite a bit smaller than this, so could be even stronger.

 

[Doris]

Thanks for posting that Andy T. I can currently do butt jointed boxes but I wonder if I could make the lid the same way as other boxes I've seen and basically create a cube and then bandsaw the lid off. I'm going to have a go at least but wondered if anyone else had had any success with using this joint in a lid. I need to get round to paint some of these lens first though.

 

[marcros]

Thanks for posting that Andy T. I can currently do butt jointed boxes but I wonder if I could make the lid the same way as other boxes I've seen and basically create a cube and then bandsaw the lid off. I'm going to have a go at least but wondered if anyone else had had any success with using this joint in a lid. I need to get round to paint some of these lens first though.

Doris,

This would be my second method of choice. My first would be to do exactly the same but to use a table saw. With the table saw, you can leave it attached by half a mm or so, and use a knife to slice through the last bit. With a bandsaw, you may wish to start on a corner and ease it into the cut, rather than immediately trying to cut the whole side of the box. You may also wish to tape the lid back on for stability, although probably no need with a babdsaw (I would if i fully cut through on the table saw).

As long as the bandsaw is set up well, you will get good results doing as you have described. The small kerf of the bandsaw makes it good for grain matching. If you do have a problem and make a mistake, you can always plane the join flat and lip the join with a contrasting timber.

I am looking forward to seeing these.