Building a small box to hold my feeler gauges


Marty Backe

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Pretty cool vid Marty. I picked a couple of good ideas.  I like how you cut the top at an angle. I've made small boxes before that weren't exactly, exactly square, where the lid only fits one way. This ensures that it can only go one way. Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for the vid. Marty. That's a great idea on how to secure small stock.

Just out of curiosity...why do you keep your blade so high when cutting 1/8" ply? Do you feel like it gives a better cut?

To sand those tight inside spaces, like where you were easing the inside edges, sometimes I use an emery board. The kind you use to file your finger nails. It works well and they often have two grits to work with.

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1 hour ago, davewyo said:

Thanks for the vid. Marty. That's a great idea on how to secure small stock.

Just out of curiosity...why do you keep your blade so high when cutting 1/8" ply? Do you feel like it gives a better cut?

To sand those tight inside spaces, like where you were easing the inside edges, sometimes I use an emery board. The kind you use to file your finger nails. It works well and they often have two grits to work with.

The blade is at 45 degrees so it looks higher than it really is. But generally you will get a cleaner crosscut when the teeth are hitting the wood at a high angle. This is particularly true at the end of the cut where you can get breakout. You'll get much less breakout (if any) at the end of a cut when the blade is high vs barely above the wood. Try it some time and you'll see the difference.

Thanks a lot for the emery board suggestion. That's fantastic - I'm going to get some right away for my future work. Thanks again!

13 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Pretty cool vid Marty. I picked a couple of good ideas.  I like how you cut the top at an angle. I've made small boxes before that weren't exactly, exactly square, where the lid only fits one way. This ensures that it can only go one way. Thanks for sharing!

With these small boxes, not being out-of-square is even more important since there's not enough wood to offer any 'flex' to get the lid on. It happens to me more often than not, where they are just a tiny bit out of square. So cutting the lid at an angle makes it a don't care.  Thanks.

15 hours ago, Chet K. said:

Amazing lil' project Marty.  My ten fat thumbs would be constantly in the way of a project like that.

Thanks Chet.

15 hours ago, Janello said:

Cool small parts sled, Marty. I like the toggle clamp trick. ;)

Thanks. Toggle clamps are a wonderful invention.

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This is awesome! I really like small craftsmanship it is almost more difficult than building large items because like you sad you don't have a large span to bend things to fit. I learned a lot from this video thanks. This instantly made me think of a playing card holder. I have a friend who always carries playing cards with him everywhere. I'll have to take what i learned here to try and make him one.

One question, would making something this small from solid wood work or is that not advised because it could warp or shift?

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26 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

This is awesome! I really like small craftsmanship it is almost more difficult than building large items because like you sad you don't have a large span to bend things to fit. I learned a lot from this video thanks. This instantly made me think of a playing card holder. I have a friend who always carries playing cards with him everywhere. I'll have to take what i learned here to try and make him one.

One question, would making something this small from solid wood work or is that not advised because it could warp or shift?

Thank you. Ideas for boxes are endless, and they are nice to work on when you only have an hour or so in the shop.

Solid wood is even better. I only use 1/8" plywood because they are for utilitarian boxes. I use wood for nicer boxes. Here's another post of mine where I made some boxes from ebony and rosewood: 

 

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