A Graduation Present for My Wonderful God-daughter - Hannah

[jkljosh]

I've been thinking of doing so for a while, but I've finally plucked up the courage to post an example of my work. Not sure whether I'm more worried about the quality of photographs, or the design/workmanship of the piece! Gents for your consideration a jewellery box with 6 individual trays that sit above a 25mm lspace across the whole of the base of the box. Hopefully something that she will cherish in years to come, although I'm not sure her Dad/boyfriend will thank me if she tries to fill it immediately with pretty baubles! All comments/suggestions welcomed.

For those who are interesting in the what and how - the box (38x19x11cm) is burr elm with a solid cedar base set in a rebate to allow for movement. Home made holly dowels strengthen simple butt joints, and the hinge is a straightforward shouldered dowel and cup affair that I turned separately out of solid brass rod. Although the photos don't show it well, the lid is curved front to back to match the curves on the ends of the box.

The dovetailed trays were my first effort with a woodrat and are of sycamore with maple dividers and birch ply bases. Linings are the usual velvet on card affairs, with the ring section using the same material around bandsawn foam "sausages".

The biggest headaches I encountered during construction was the seemingly constant movement of the elm (despite my best efforts to ensure that it was stable following extensive conditioning in my workshop) and the traumas associated with trying to get the sycamore down to a uniform 5mm thickness for the trays, without having the benefit of a drum sander in my workshop. I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

Cheers
John

 

[CHJ]

That's a great piece of work John, showing both dedication to the project and the depth of your commitment to your God-daughter.

 

[DIY Stew]

Very nice John. =D>

I like the way you have used the nature of the wood to form the handle, really nice design feature.

Stew

 

[condeesteso]

Excellent - very fond of burr elm, and keeping the organic shape for the lid complete with an easy lift is nicely thought out. The details are personal taste, and I was not sure about the raised holly pegs - like the idea and contrast but I might have cut them closer or flush... but I stress all that stuff is personal. And if we all liked exactly the same thing, imagine finding a wife.
Well done indeed.

 

[wallace]

I think its a lovely piece of work. Very nice
Mark

 

[disco_monkey79]

Very nice, I just love the grain of the lid

 

[gregmcateer]

Really nice - and a lovely thought for your good-daughter. I am sure she'll be thrilled.
Greg

 

[marcus]

I like that! What was the problem with thicknessing the sycamore?

 

[Ian]

A lovely piece John and and lovely thought. Your workmanship is very clean and uncluttered>

Ian

 

[mickthetree]

Beautiful! I'm a keen box maker myself and would love to make one that looked so honest yet skillfully crafted.

Could you elaborate a bit more on the hinge and how you managed to produce the curved lid?

 

[Anima]

I like that a lot.

Ditto on the question about the curved lid.

I might have missed it but what is the finish?

 

[kernowjoiner24]

Looks nice that, very well made 8)

 

[jkljosh]

Hi Chaps,

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments, it's great to receive positive feedback from an informed audience! Box delivered after Hannah's graduation on Wed last, and she was absolutely delighted - .

To answer the questions raised:
Marcus - thicknessing the sycamore down to 5 mm seemed to be something of a lottery in my Sedgwick MB, which allows me to do stuff down to 10mm without trouble, but below that requires the use of some form of riser. As this was my first time, I chose to fabricate a false base to raise the floor of the thicknesser with the sycamore running over the top of it. Several of the pieces "shattered" as they went through. Next time, perhaps I'll try to leave them wider than the 80-90mm pieces I had, or maybe try the double sided tape on an MDF carrier option. Any other suggestions would be welcomed. LOL, I'll give anything a go once!

Mick - the 2 piece hinge was made out of some 8mm brass rod that I turned in a model makers lathe. The "cup" (that was expoxied into a blind hole drilled on the inside of the side of the box) was simply a short length of the rod with a 5mm hole drilled through it's length. The other part was a brass "dowel" with a short 5mm diameter spigot on one end, that was again expoxied into a hole drilled down the back edge of the lid. It took a bit of fine tuning, to get the fit exactly right, so that the joints on the sides of the box pulled up exactly, rather than being held apart by the shoulders of the brass dowels. Keeping an equal sized gap at either edge of the lid was also part of that challenge!

As for the curved lid, I did that using a router mounted on a length of ply as a sled running over a pair of concave (for the inside) and convex (for the outside) formers with the lid held between them. The formers were made from the same template that I used to for shaping the box ends. The multi winged Wealden surface trimming cutter left a pretty good finish, that I then cleaned up using cabinet scrapers.

Anima - the finish was nothing fancy - simply a couple of coats of Liberon Black Bison Fine Paste wax - I use it a lot as I love the way it brings out the lovely grain in woods like sycamore and elm, and prefer it's soft sheen to other more highly polished finishes.

Hope the above explanations make sense, although if not and anyone wants more details, pm me.

Thanks again for your comments, they've given me the confidence to take some phots of some other recent projects and put them out there for your scrutiny :?

Cheers
John

 

[mickthetree]

Thanks for the update John.

I recently thicknessed some MAple to 3mm in my Dewalt thicknesser. I had a few bits shatter. Speaking to a guy at work he recommended passing the wood through at an angle, making a shearing cut (I think he called it). Apparently it can reduce the likelyhood of tearout and shattering. I'll be trying it soon.

Did you put a ceiling coat of sanding sealer on before the wax? It looks like a very nice finish.

 

[jkljosh]

Hi Mick, thanks for the suggestion - something else to try out, I too will give it a go!

As for the finish, no I didn't seal the box/trays first before applying the wax. I tend to try and get as clean a surface as possible off the blade - plane or scraper - and then run through the sanding grits - 150, 180, 240, 320 and stopping with 400 - trying to sand as little as possible, commensurate with achieving a smooth, scratch free surface. I generally leave the first coat of wax unbuffed for a couple of hours, to allow the wax to absorb before polishing it to a shine. I then leave it a few days to harden and then apply a second coat, leaving it for a shorter time before buffing. I then assess the finish and depending on how things look, I'll either leave it, or perhaps repeat things for a final coat. I know wax isn't necessarily the hardest wearing finish, but love its "feel".