# Andrew Crawford Jewellery Box WIP



## frugal (3 Apr 2010)

I have been gradually working my way through Andrew Crawford's The book of boxes. I am currently trying to make the last of the boxes which is a veneered jewelery box. I want to try to make this as detailed as I can and point out why I have done the things that I have done, but I do not want to make it a pattern to follow. After all Andrew has spent a lot of time and effort writing a really great book, so if you want to know exactly how to make this box, have a look at the book.

The first thing was to make up the sides of the box base from MDF with a small piece of hardwood (sycamore in this case) for the sharp bottom edge.





Then while the glue was drying I made up the templates that will be used as the shape of the sides and the top of the box. Each template has a positive and negative version so that I can create the sides and the formers that will be used during veneering as I do not have a vacuum press.









The next thing to do was to make up the former for the lid. This will be used inside the lid frame to support the top when it is glued into shape. This was done with a No. 4 plane and a hollow plane I bought a couple of years ago and have only just found a use for 





I then realised that the veneer I was planning to use needed to be flattened, so I made up a mixture based on Richard Jones recipe and liberally applied it to the veneer. I should say at this time that I am making two boxes at the same time, so I have two different sets of veneer, some burr Myrtle and some burr walnut. The walnut is flat, but the myrtle needs some flattening. When I applied the mixture it really brought out the figure in the wood. (The veneer was really wet when I took the photo).





The veneer was then put into my hi-tech veneer press between pieces of plastic mesh sacks that were originally used to hold metal tubing when it was shipped and layers of newspaper to soak up the moisture. The whole lot is gently pressed together. I was really skeptical of the process when I first tried it, but it does seem to just work and it really makes the veneer flexible.





I will need to take the stack to pieces every day for a few days to change the newspaper until the veneer dries.

I am hoping that I will be able to use the same simple press to form and veneer the lid.

In the mean time I spent some time with a hollow plane shaping the sides of the box to roughly the right shape





I have never really logged how much time I spend on a project, so I am going to put at the bottom of each post how much time I have spent on each activity as a record. 

Time taken so far:

- Templates, patterns and formers: 2 hours

- cutting gluing and shaping the pieces: 2 hours

- Sorting and preparing the veneer: 1 hour

Total so far 5 hours.


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## SVB (3 Apr 2010)

Great wip shots frugal.

Will watch here with great interest!

Simon.


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## frugal (3 Apr 2010)

I got out for a little bit this afternoon. I managed to cut out the hardwood for the frame of the lid and get it mitred. Once I had the lid mitred to size I was able to mitre the sides of the base to the same size.

Then I got the frame of the lid glued up. Unfortunately I only thought about taking photos after I had it all taped up. I will try to take a photo next time I am out.

I also had a look at the veneer that had been pressing overnight. It had gone from hard and bumpy to wonderfully flat and flexible. I changed the newspaper and put it back in again to dry some more. Hopefully after another couple of changes of newspaper the veneer will be dry enough to take out.

Total time taken to date: 

- Templates, patterns and formers: 2.0 hours

- cutting, gluing and shaping the carcass: 3.0 hours

- Sorting and preparing the veneer: 1.25 hours


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## OPJ (3 Apr 2010)

You're a very brave man to be logging your hours publicly like this!! :shock:

 :wink:


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## SVB (3 Apr 2010)

I think a very wise man.

Even at a non-commercial £20 p/h, frugal has £120+ worth of domestic credit banked already.

I see a new tablesaw (with a big scoop of cast iron included) as fair exchange for this little baby when it is ready!!!!

Onward brave man................


Simon


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## frugal (3 Apr 2010)

SVB":u7rvgfaq said:


> I think a very wise man.
> 
> Even at a non-commercial £20 p/h, frugal has £120+ worth of domestic credit banked already.
> 
> I see a new tablesaw (with a big scoop of cast iron included) as fair exchange for this little baby when it is ready!!!!



In That case can you come round and explain those economics to SWMBO


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## SVB (3 Apr 2010)

TAXI :!:


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## frugal (16 Apr 2010)

The next thing to do was put a lid on the frame. The thinnest ply I had was was 3mm and there was now way that it was going to bend into the shape of the lid. So I had to wait a while whilse I ordered some 1.5mm ply.

The lid is made of two sheets of 1.5mm ply each pressed onto the frame with a former inside the frame to hold it up in the centre and a second former to press it down from above. After the first sheet was dry I added a second sheet on top.





I have also started to put the first pieces of veneer. I have veneered the edges of the lid and the carcass and applied some veneer to the top of the lid. Next I need to veneer the sides and then start the difficult bit which is going to be inlay and edging.


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## devonwoody (17 Apr 2010)

I've got his books , but veneering as not yet attracted me to this type of work todate, however your craftsmanship is obviously working well.


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## frugal (17 Apr 2010)

I went out this morning and had a look at how the veneering had gone overnight. The lid has come out pretty well, but there are a couple of issues. 

Firstly I did not glue the 4 quarters together first, I thought that I could get away with just taping them all in place and letting the glue do the job. I think that this has lead to a couple of places where the joint is not very neat. There is also a little bit along one of the seams where the glue has not taken and I think I am going to ned to lift it with a scapel in order to get a bit more glue under there.

Secondly the burrs in the veneer mean that the top is a little bumpy and I am going to need to sand it quite a bit to get it flat.






Total time spent so far:

- Templates, patterns and formers: 3.0 hours

- cutting, gluing and shaping the carcass: 4.75 hours

- Sorting and preparing the veneer: 1.25 hours

- Veneering: 1.5 hours


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## Sportique (17 Apr 2010)

Frugal - very brave to undertake that box.

I have the same Andrew Crawford book and, over the years, it has inspired me to making a variety of his boxes.

But, as said above, I too have not got into veneering yet. 

That is really fine work so far - looking forward to seeing the completed article. 8) 

Dave


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## frugal (17 Apr 2010)

Sportique":25ffj2p7 said:


> Frugal - very brave to undertake that box.
> 
> I have the same Andrew Crawford book and, over the years, it has inspired me to making a variety of his boxes.



SWMBO gave me one of Andrew's courses for a birthday present. The course is in the middle of May, so I thought that as the veneered box is the one I have the most questions about, that I should have a go at its o that I know exactly which questions I want to ask when I get there


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## Sportique (17 Apr 2010)

Aha a thinking man too.

(PS must introduce my SWMBO to yours :wink

Dave


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## frugal (17 Apr 2010)

Sportique":2wwjqkb5 said:


> (PS must introduce my SWMBO to yours :wink



My wife kindly gave me the Boxes book and a voucher for a course with Andrew for Christmas 2 years ago as a way of rekindling my interest in woodworking. Two days later I found this place and it has been downhill ever since 

This year for my Birthday as I had kept failing to actually go on a course, she just booked one for me


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## devonwoody (18 Apr 2010)

Frugal I hope you return the birthday present in kind to your wife


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## frugal (18 Apr 2010)

devonwoody":2bg76c5u said:


> Frugal I hope you return the birthday present in kind to your wife



I took her to see Wicked... on Broadway!


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## TrimTheKing (19 Apr 2010)

Nice WIP mate, looking good thus far.

Keep up the good work


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## frugal (13 May 2010)

Eeep! It has been nearly a month since I last did an update for this. This is mainly because I a bit of a disaster with the veneering and came close to doing a Rob and shoving the whole lot through the bandsaw . I have now overcome these and have been working feverishly on it as I am leaving for the course with Andrew tomorrow afternoon and I want the box in a state where I can ask questions about the next steps and not have it look like I have just started it.


I had two problems. The minor problem was that I had not used even pressure on the lipping on the edges and the lid rocked quite a bit on the base. On further investigation, my attempts at sanding it down had domed the lipping slightly so that there was a small reveal when the box was shut. Just enough to be really annoying.

The major problem was that I had a complete brain failure when veneering the top. The top was quartered veneer and the front and back were book matched veneer, so obviously it was important to get the line where the veneers joined to match up. Unfortunately it was a bit late at night when I veneered the top and I had forgotten that I had not trimmed all of the quartered pieces to the same length. I then for some unknown reason decided to make sure that the overhang was the same on both ends, which meant that the centre line of the top was not in the same place as the centre line of the front. Not noticing this I then veneered the back carefully matching up the centre line of the back with the centre line of the top (and thus making that off centre as well). Given that this veneer needed quite a bit of flattening and I now needed to either throw it all away, or restart the veneering from scratch I decided to have a stop and a think for a while.

About a week or so later I came back to it and decided to use the walnut burr veneer that I have cut to rough size for the second box instead. So I carefully took a block plane to the lipping around the top of the box and removed it. Then I carefully took the block plane and flattened out all of the sides so that the lid sat on the base without rocking and with out any kind of a reveal. I then re-veneered the lippings.





Once this was done I then carefully measured the middle of the front and the back and applied the veneers to those faces (over the previous attempt at veneering). Then I did the ends (which were a single piece and not book matched). Only then did I do the top, carefully lining up the centre line with both the front and the back veneer centre lines.









As you can see from the photos the veneer does not meet up neatly at the edges of the box, and it does not extend all the way into the corners of the front bottom corner. This was intentional (well, not intentional, but I have a cunning plan). The veneer is not going to be running all of the way to the edge, it is going to have a banding and then a lipping of hardwood at the very edge.

So the next thing to do was to make up the banding, unfortunately I did not get any photos of this. The basic technique was to make a sandwich of dark, dark, light, dark for the outside (this sandwich was made twice the width of the others and cut lengthways to get two identical ones once it was dry). Then a sandwich of dark, dark, light, light, dark, dark, and a third sandwich of light, light, dark, dark, light, light. One of the sandwiches was cut into 5mm length across the grain. The other was cut into 3mm and 25mm lengths across the grain. Then the small pieces were assembled into the correct order and glued onto one of the outside pieces. Once that was dry the other outside piece was glued onto the other side. Once all of this was dry I cleaned it up on the shooting board and hopefully this is what it should look like when it is applied to the edge of the box:





The photo shows me holding the banding and a piece of sycamore against the box to show how it should look.

As usual all of the photos are links to the picture on Flickr if you want to see the higher resolution images. For these photos I have just wiped a little white spirit onto the wood to bring out the grain for the photos, unfortunately it has also shown a couple of areas that have residue glue and where the masking tape has left a slight residue. Any ideas on the best way of removing masking tape glue that has been set on with pressure of clamping?

Total time spent so far: 

- Templates, patterns and formers: 3.0 hours

- cutting, gluing and shaping the carcass: 4.75 hours

- Sorting and preparing the veneer: 1.25 hours

- Veneering: 1.5 hours

- Removing Veneer and cleaning up: 2 hours

- Veneering: 3 hours

- Making up banding: 2.5 hours

Total so far: 18 hours.


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## devonwoody (14 May 2010)

I think your box is coming along very nicely, and if it is a new skill you are learning I think you are being too critical of your work. 

Most things in life are skill learning and your box is way above the basic starting veneer process.


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## frugal (14 May 2010)

devonwoody":1csvjpzk said:


> I think your box is coming along very nicely, and if it is a new skill you are learning I think you are being too critical of your work.



Overly self critical appears on my work performance review every year


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## xy mosian (14 May 2010)

Bloomin ummers! That looks well done.  Well Done!

xy


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## woodbloke (14 May 2010)

frugal":3l1o6b8v said:


> ...doing a Rob


Nothing to beat it when things go TU :wink: :lol: - Rob


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## frugal (17 May 2010)

Well, I had the box making course with Andrew over the weekend and I showed him this box; and he didn't point and laugh 

He gave me a load of great advise, like sand down the veneer and put several coats of sealer on the sides before even starting the banding as that will protect the veneer. I was going to get all of the banding done before even touching a piece of sand paper so as to not thin the veneer too much.


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## woodbloke (20 May 2010)

F, I think this job is coming along well. It's a pretty ambitious one and I reckon you've made a fair stab at it...nice one :wink: 
It's also good that you're '_pushing the envelope out of the comfort zone_' :roll: (I hate expressions like that :x ) 'cos it's only by doing something like this that we can build on experiences. Any project with a curve(s) in it automatically becomes a lot harder but at the same time, generally more interesting - Rob


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## frugal (20 May 2010)

woodbloke":2zjs9264 said:


> F, I think this job is coming along well. It's a pretty ambitious one and I reckon you've made a fair stab at it...nice one :wink:



There are a number of mistakes with this one, and I think it is going to end up being a trial piece so that I can practice the mistakes are all stages on a single piece. Then do the next one properly 



woodbloke":2zjs9264 said:


> It's also good that you're '_pushing the envelope out of the comfort zone_' :roll: (I hate expressions like that :x ) 'cos it's only by doing something like this that we can build on experiences.



Be carefull, the next thing you know you will be leveraging synergies, then it is all down hill to upskilling your core competencies to improve productionalisationalism across the real estate :twisted: Then all you are good for is a straight jacket or middle management :twisted: 



woodbloke":2zjs9264 said:


> Any project with a curve(s) in it automatically becomes a lot harder but at the same time, generally more interesting - Rob



Ironically the curves are the bit that has gone the best. The veneering was a bit hit and miss on the lipping on the sides I needed to put a lot more pressure on it (and a lot less glue), as it has bubbled up a bit. I have also burnt through the veneer a little on one end of the lid whilst sanding it smooth.


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## Mattty (20 May 2010)

Thats looking very impressive mate.


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## woodbloke (20 May 2010)

frugal":1vzliggh said:


> Be carefull, the next thing you know you will be leveraging synergies, then it is all down hill to upskilling your core competencies to improve productionalisationalism across the real estate :twisted: Then all you are good for is a straight jacket or middle management :twisted:


...or retirement :lol: 

Seriously, no piece of work is ever 100% perfect. I was looking at RI's boxes at rycotewood and up close, there were some...not many to be fair and very hard to criticize the quality of his workmanship (design is another matter :evil: ) but there were a couple. It's not the mistakes you make in a project 'cos that's a given that I or you will make them, but recognizing that there are errors there and adopting strategies to get round them.... 
...and _not_ repeating the same error(s) in the next job  - Rob


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## frugal (20 May 2010)

woodbloke":1hbo74c4 said:


> Seriously, no piece of work is ever 100% perfect. I was looking at RI's boxes at rycotewood and up close, there were some...not many to be fair and very hard to criticize the quality of his workmanship (design is another matter :evil: ) but there were a couple. It's not the mistakes you make in a project 'cos that's a given that I or you will make them, but recognizing that there are errors there and adopting strategies to get round them....
> ...and _not_ repeating the same error(s) in the next job  - Rob



It was quite interesting working with Andrew over the weekend, his level of precision is remarkable. A joint not closing up fully and having a gap of about 0.2mm was not good enough and he worked on it overnight to fix it for me (the clamping jig had a small problem). Inlay has to fit perfectly, the corner mitres for the inlay meet with zero tolerances. The great thing was that with a couple of simple techniques we got it to fit that well.


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## Boothie14 (11 Jul 2010)

Frugal, Is there any updates on progress of the box? I was watching this with interest and am keen to see how you have got on


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