Project advise needed

[Smeagol]

Hi guys,
I'm planning to make two toy boxes for my sisters children but i'm not sure what to make them out of. I have no facilities to join strips of wood together (i.e no biscuit jointer,etc) so was thinking of making them out of 3/4 " ply. Would this be a good solution or can you suggest another material i could use? Also should i use rebates on the sides to fix to the base or would butt joints suffice? I'm also planning to personalize them for the children and make them something nice enough that they would be able to treasure them for a long time.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i'm pretty new to woodworking.

 

[mailee]

Hello Smeagol. It would help if you could tell us what tools you have for this and what finish you intend to apply? :wink:

 

[Smeagol]

Hi ,

I have very little in the way of tools. Basic hand tools include, tenon saw, coping saw, another old saw but not sure what it is (either a rip saw or cross cut saw), 5 x bevel edge chisels, mallet, hammer, screwdrivers , Block plane and smoothing plane and marking guages, rulers, tape measure .

Power tools wise i have a power drill, Circular saw, Compact mitre saw, planer, belt sander, palm sander and cordless drill / impact screwdriver.

Not much in the grand scheme of things but just starting out with a few easy projects before i can convince the wife to let me shell out on a router, table saw, etc and build a proper workshop.

 

[mailee]

Right, in that case I would make them in Pine laminated board. The best way would be to rebate the ends and glue/screw them together for the strongest joint with the tools you have. You could just butt join them and screw them together but then have to hide the screws and the joint wouldn't be as strong. I normally make these using dovetail joints but this requires a router and a jig, unless your hand tool skills are up to this? Laminated Pine boards can be bought from the likes of Wickes and B&Q although you may find your local timber merchants stock them much cheaper. I pay about £35 for a 10' x 2' panel. You could use ply for the bottom and mount this on some 1" square bearers glued onto the insides of the box. You could of course make them in ply but you would have to make sure you get a good quality birch ply as the cheaper stuff tends to splinter a lot and has voids in it. HTH. :wink:

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi guys,
I'm planning to make two toy boxes for my sisters children but i'm not sure what to make them out of. I have no facilities to join strips of wood together (i.e no biscuit jointer,etc) so was thinking of making them out of 3/4 " ply. Would this be a good solution or can you suggest another material i could use? Also should i use rebates on the sides to fix to the base or would butt joints suffice? I'm also planning to personalize them for the children and make them something nice enough that they would be able to treasure them for a long time.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i'm pretty new to woodworking.

Welcome to the fold...

If your skills are really limited, (No disgrace in that) have a look on Youtube, and search for the 'Kreg Jig'.

If you soak up all the videos on the jig, (Especially building the cupboard) then you will be able to formulate a plan of action. You can buy Kreg Jig equipment in a range of prices, depending on how comprehensive a set-up you want. All you need then is an electric drill, a box of the right size Kreg Screws, and a bit of imagination.

You will end up with a strong job and if you use the laminated pine boards, a bottle of Evostik Resin-W glue will make it even better.
Once you make a success of that, you will surely be tempted to learn more woodwork.

Edit: You will probably benefit from a wood merchant who will cut your pieces to size, on a panel saw. It will almost be a 'flat-pack' project then!


Best of luck.

John

 

[Smeagol]

Thanks for the advise guys, was looking for a wide board (at least 8' x 4') so will definately check out the laminated pine option. Definatley want to progress my skills, as the better i get the more tools i can buy without the wife moaning about expense lol.

 

[No skills]

Late to the party again but here goes...

I made a toy box for my daughter just before xmas, was made from a product similar to the laminated pine that has been mentioned, as my user name suggests I have no real wood working skills so it was all just but jointed and screwed together. I cut some strips of hardwood and used them to trim the edges of the box - both making it look better and hiding the screw heads and my dodgy cutting. Might be worth considering if you worried about the corners/edges.

hth

 

[worsley947]

we need some photos so that we can see what you made

 

[barkwindjammer]

Hi Kev, personally I'd steer clear of ply for kids stuff-you can be garaunteed they will manage to 'extract' a 3/4" splinter without much effort-like the other guys have said go for pine lam board-look for 'fix-board' at your local timber merchant, you could go for the 'tuff-box' approach to jointing the pieces (great idea from Benchwayze to get the timber yard/big shed to panel cut btw) then a very simple joint-with lashings of PVA and screws