A Bunch O' Boxes


wtnhighlander

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I wanted to use up some short stock in my stash, so I decided to make as many keepsake / jewelry boxes as I could manage. Most of my stock is rough 4/4, with some 2" x2" cherry, and a bunch of S4S, 3/4 white pine.

Here is the pile during inital milling. There are also a bunch of odd sticks for another cutting board or two.

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A decent pile of shavings from my little jointer:

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Several days later I found time to resaw these boards to 1/2 & 3/8 slices. I find it helpful to scribe the cut line, since I don't have a proper resaw fence.

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Enter the "Little Bandsaw That Could". I have a 10" Craftsman benchtop bandsaw with a 1/3 hp motor. I split a couple pine boards at the max cutting depth of 4 1/2" before the blade snapped.

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Worked pretty well, but there was a lot of dust buildup in the cut. The only other blade I had on hand was a 3/8, 6 tpi band. It was ok on pine, but the first stick of hardwood was almost impossible. After seeing Matthias Wandel sharpen his band with a dremel, and John Heinz cut his band in half while running on the saw, I felt bold enough to try some modifications. I used my rotary tool to grind off half the teeth, and sharpen the rest.

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When I was done, it looked like this:

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And it worked incredibly well! I finished the stack, which included pine, poplar, mulberry, walnut and red oak, all at 4 1/2" width. It was starting to dull by the end, but it made it through this stack ...

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All taped up so I can keep track of the book matches. There was surprisingly little dust on the table, but the shop vac looked like this:

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So, a good deal of beating was in order to clean it out. By that time, I was ready to call it a day. It was 98* F all day, and my only A/C in the shop looks like this:

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Maybe I'll have an update by next weekend.

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That, Ross, was a ballsy move. One I would never have thought of. But think about it, less teeth, more dust removal!

Good job Dude!

Ross and Dave, start threads on your box making. Well, I guess Ross already has started

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Fantastic Ross!

I will be following intently.

I like the way you work things out and do quality work with whatever the tools available.

I'm in the process of some box making and I enjoy seeing your process.

Thanks, Dave! Beggers can't be choosers, so improvisation is essential. I look forward to seeing some of your box designs, maybe I can steal some ideas!
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My boxes are made specifically to a chocolate company specifications, so I don't follow a certain ratio. I make Ovals, Octagons, hearts, and a couple different size rectangular. The rectangles are mostly with a box joint. One of the boxes is just about the 1 x 2 x 3 ratio the others are a bit different. They are made to hold 6 to 12 pieces of chocolate.

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I make a lot of small boxes also. I usually try to make them as large as possible depending on the piece of wood I have.

I like to make four sides out of one board to get grain match all around the sides. Then either use a nice figured piece for the top and bottom or a contrasting wood for the top and bottom.

I also like to make any knobs or splines or inlay out of the same woods. Kind of boring I guess but I like them most of the times. :)

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I guess I size them about 1 tall, 1-1/2 wide and 3 long. I really don't use any formula. I just use the SWAG method and what looks good to me. :)

Rog

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Is that top box walnut and maple?

No. It is maple and jacoba (I think) (Heck, I cant even pronounce it not to mention spell it.) Anyway it was some exotic wood that my son got me for birthday or something. It was a very hard wood as I remember.

The bottom box is walnut and something else I can't remember. :) I'm old and built those boxes 6 or 7 years ago. :)

Rog

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