Little mitred box with sliding lid

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AndyT

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This isn't a long rambling wip thread, just a quick project to keep me making something. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

It started with two pieces of hardwood, from Custard's generous donation a few years back. One is cherry and the other one I don't recognise. It works like walnut but is paler in colour.

I bandsawed both pieces, one into two and the other into three, then planed the sawn faces.

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The thicker pieces will be the sides and one of the thin pieces of cherry will make the top and bottom.

First step was to make grooves for those.


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To saw the mitre cuts I used this cheap old mitre saw, which actually works quite well.

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But that was just to get close to the right angles and lengths. Most of the proper work was done on this mitre chop

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Here are the four parts in a trial fit.

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The cherry bottom needed a bit more planing to get it flat

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and then some bevelling to fit the grooves. With hand work, you can just go at this freehand. I can't imagine what sort of faff it would be to set up an electric router to do this.
First across the ends, then along the sides.

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It's hard to photograph but you might just see the bevels here.

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The top was much the same as the bottom, but a little bit thicker. I cut across one end, to act as a handle, then glued up the sides using masking tape to hold the corners.

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Here it is with the glue dry.

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and with a couple of coats of shellac on the outside.

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My only issue now is that I have no idea what to keep in it - I made it this size because of the pieces of wood I started with. Maybe something will turn up!
 
Nice work. Maybe you could use it to store your bench pencils and similar things which it is handy to have around.

I've seen that design presented a couple of times as being a very basic kind of box but of course the requirement for exact mitres means that it is anything but that. You met the requirement by using the mitre chop. Are they to be had from anywhere these days? They don't seem to crop up on the second hand websites, which is a shame because I think they would open up possibilities. And they don't seem to be the sort of thing that you could just knock up because they obviously have to be exactly mitred!
 
Thanks Andy.

Yes, the mitre shooting block is the key to success here. I bought this one in Bristol Design quite a few years ago, a decision made easy by the price, which was £16.00. I did spend a little while checking and truing the faces recently, so had been meaning to give it an airing again. (I used a plastic set square as my reference in doing this, which gives easily checkable accuracy at low cost.)

There are detailed instructions on how to make one in the excellent little Charles Hayward booklet on making your own tools (available from Gary Roberts' ever-useful site https://www.toolemerapress.com/2019/07/ ... yward.html ) but it does not look an easy build at all. They used to be in catalogues but were not cheap.

And thanks Mike for the reminder, what was I thinking of leaving it so plain? I'll swap the lid for one with a whole flowerbed carved on it and put a parade of angels around the sides... :---)
 
I've now got the idea that it would be a clever thing to make one of these mitre chops and it's all your fault.

It should/could be possible with careful marking, even more careful paring and scrupulous checking but it certainly wouldn't be something to do in one weekend. And the ability to produce neat little boxes like that would solve the Christmas present problem for ever!
 
Go for it! I reckon mine is a very close match to the one in the book but if you want more photos, do say.
Do you have a way to make the threaded rod?
 
Yes I got one of those kits ages ago to make a threaded handle for a friend and I reckon the rest could come from off cuts. I might have enough cherry lying around to make a sensible go of it.
 
Rubber bands are good IMO but don't really have enough strength in them to pull up a joint. A better way is to get hold of an old cycle inner tube and cut it into strips about 12mm wide, which can then be wrapped round the box (or whatever) and pulled progressively tighter. I use this method for anything that's awkward or impossible to clamp by any other means - Rob
 
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