Guild jewelry box

[Pwk5017]

This has been in the works since February, but finally got it over the finish line today. Ton of shop time between February and today, but most of it was on commissions. Pretty happy with the continual grain on the drawer fronts along with the tight fit. The swing open doors could be better done. Mostly just imperfect hinge installation. You really need to be dead on to keep the door perfectly square once it’s installed. I was off probably 1/16” over the width of the door. Interior case and drawer sides are mahogany, ebony drawer pulls, and the rest is walnut. The drawer fronts and door panels were resawn out of the same 12-16/4 walnut crotch. 

[treeslayer]

Very nicely done sir, thats some great figured walnut you have there. Whats the finish? Oh, and if you didn't tell me i would have never noticed the gap on the doors, never point out your mistakes, no one will notice unless you point it out. PS: one of my least favorite parts of a project is the hardware, it's so hard to get right sometimes.

[Chet]

Well done.  That came out looking nicer then Marc's. 

[Klappco]

That is spectacular! Way to go!

[Coop]

Friggin awesome! Well done! 

[Chestnut]

I love that you used 1 species on the entire thing.

Take that thing outside and get some decet light for your pictures man. They'll look 10 times better

[pkinneb]

That turned out great!! I love the wood choice for the panel and drawer fronts.

[wdwerker]

Beautiful piece ! Signed & dated ?

Installing hardware is far more exacting than most of us expect. Super accurate mortices and perfectly centered pilot holes are important. VIX bits really help a lot. Practicing installing hardware does eat up some time but it greatly improves the results. I always buy steel screws that are the same as brass ones, use those to do all the test fitting & adjustments, then swap them for the brass ones. It is so easy to bugger up the head on a brass screw. Installing them in pre threaded holes manually goes very smoothly. Cheap hardware is no bargain when the looser fit eats up so much of your time installing it.

[Pwk5017]

Yeah, I don’t put much care into photography, that is my brother’s hobby. I should have him photograph my stuff someday. Anyways, you are right, the crotch figure would come through much better under better lighting. I also did not care for mixed species on the exterior. I like contrasting drawersides, and I even like the interior case sides being mahogany, but I’m happy with the exterior. The top was originally straight grain like the bottom, rails, and stiles. Something happened that I scrapped the original piece and this top was in the shorts/scrap section of my wood rack. There was some intention towards trying not to go overboard with figure. Then again, I did have that large chunk of walnut crotch that I was bent on using as much as possible. 

 

Steve, this was my first non-euro cabinet hinge installation, and you are absolutely right with how exact you need to be. I thought I did a good job, and still I had one door that had the hinge recessed just a bit too much. This resulted in the door not closing completely, because the door would hit in the rear. The other door was rubbing the base in the front and about 1/32-1/16th above the base in the back. I ended up hand planing a bit off the front to keep the gap consistent. In any case, there was a ton of fettling after the hinge installation that was really annoying. To compound that annoyance, I installed and uninstalled the hinges enough that I sheared the head off two brass screws. Had to take the piece over to the drill press to drill out the brass remnants before installing the hinge again. 

[wdwerker]

Sorry to hear about the snapped screws. That's why I getting matching steel screws. You want the same pitch threads & diameter of the center. One time I got new brass screws that matched steel screws.