My first attempt at wood working - Jewellery Box (WIP)

[Benchwayze]

Craig,

That is very nice for a first attempt. Nothing too worrying for sure.

Just fill those cracks in the dovetails with some veneer, of the right sort, with the end grain showing. Put some glue into the gap, then tap the veneer into the gap, like a wedge. Two or three pieces if necessary. When the glue is dry, clean up and you will barely notice the gaps.

For the rebate repair, rout a 6mm wide housing all the way round, deep enough to take some sort of banding. Square the corners and glue in the lining. That will hide the joint and the mistake you made on the rebating. I have some bits of banding (Boxwood and ebony) lying about, if it's any use to you.

Overall, nice work. Better than my first attempts at dovetails.

Regards
John

 

[andersonec]

For the rebate repair, rout a 6mm wide housing all the way round, deep enough to take some sort of banding.

John

John, That is exactly what I have done to mine (copied Ian Hawthorne's) and it does help to hide any flaws in the corners of the lid, also any gaps between lid and sides, it can also add a bit of decorative interest.

Craig, ref the home made router table, have a look on youtube for designs, it doesn't have to be anything technical as long as your fence is dead straight. As for books, they are ok but a bit restricted for information, a still picture can only relay that instant in time when the picture was taken. There is a good video available "Basic Box Making" by Doug Stowe, moving pictures seem to be more helpful to me, it shows how a process is done and he doesn't use anything too technical, if you get it you will see what I mean about the router table.

I'm waiting for when Ian Hawthorne makes a video of one of his boxes from start to finish..........come on Ian :lol: :lol: :lol:

Andy

 

[Benchwayze]

For the rebate repair, rout a 6mm wide housing all the way round, deep enough to take some sort of banding.

John

John, That is exactly what I have done to mine (copied Ian Hawthorne's) and it does help to hide any flaws in the corners of the lid, also any gaps between lid and sides, it can also add a bit of decorative interest.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Andy

I'm glad you didn't ask me how I 'discovered' that little dodge Andy! :mrgreen:

John

 

[cmwatt]

Thanks for the tips John. I don't have any elm veneer, but I do have of other types of wood. Is it possible to make some small slithers from some of my elm off cuts? How would I get them really thin? Also would this achieve a better look than just using some elm saw dust?

As for the rebate repair, not 100% sure what you mean, but I think I have an idea. You mean create a rebate around the completed edge of the lid then apply some banding, to cover the joints? I think that would work well, but not sure if it would work with the design I had in mind. Looks like I'm going to have to rethink how I do the top... :-k Don't want to do a straight copy of Ian's work as much as it as inspired my design, so might try something different.

For the router table, I bought the Dakota Deluxe Router Table from Rutlands for £99 inlc delivery. Haven't used it yet as I just got it at the end of last week and assembled it on Saturday. Seems a good sturdy piece of kit, seems they've improved the stand from previous versions. Got the router bits now too, so it's just a matter of practising on some scrap first. Will try and post some more pics this week sometime.

Thanks guys.

 

[Benchwayze]

Craig,

Perhaps you could take some thick shavings off one of the offcuts. That might do the job.


You could also put the stock in the vice and with a wide, sharp chisel cut some thin lengths off. Rest the piece you cut off against the stop of your bench-hook, and stick it down with some double-sided tape. Carefully shave it to a wedge shape, as thin as you need.

See Codeeteso's WIP on his workbench, and note how he cut the wedges for his Mortice and Tenons.

I can assure you if you get the shavings set down tight, and resist cleaning up until the glue is dry, you wont see the join, as long as it is the end-grain of the infill that shows.

The only other answer for the top is to make another piece and re-cut the rebate; if there is enough stuff left around the edge to do that. One other way would be to cover the top completely, but stability might be an issue; especially with elm.

HTH
John

 

[condeesteso]

Very nice indeed, excellent dovetails., nice proportions, not over-fussy etc. =D>
re the hinges and lock, routing etc on small pieces like this ... something could so go wrong! If that was mine I would go for the chisels and do the lot by hand. Try an adjustable square as the depth gauge for the hinge recesses for example. It's just that by hand and with patience, I think you might have more control and it would be a shame to make an error now. A router can make a really big error very quickly of course... I know that.

 

[cmwatt]

Hi John, that's just the kind of stuff I needed to know! Thanks. Regarding the top, I was talking to Devonwoody. It was suggested cutting strips of elm and alternating the grain, which should make it more stable. So I might have a go at doing that. I did think about trying to flatten the existing piece since is only dips about 1mm on the top. The problem is more on the underside of the rebate which is a maybe a couple of mm out. However I was told it would probably still warp after doing that. When you seal the wood, isn't that suppose to stop the wood moving to an extent? If it went wrong, I could always use it as a practice piece for doing an inlay on the top using some veneer I've got.

I know what you're saying condeesteso, the thought did cross my mind trying to do it by hand but don't think I'd be able to get it accurate enough. For example the front edges of the hinges are curved and I don't have any curved chisels. The actual instructions that come with Ian's box hardware say to use a router table. I think the idea being that the box is already glued together, then you cut the hinge recesses, rather than trying to do it on the individual sides/corners. That way it should give you more control. Thanks for the warning though, I know things could go wrong. If I thought that about everything though, then I'd never use a power tool! It's just a matter of being careful.

 

[cmwatt]

Some pictures of my new toy :


_MG_5442 by Craig Watt, on Flickr


_MG_5443 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

and also some veneer I bought, which I might use to do some inlay type stuff on the top:


_MG_5445 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

 

[user 12834]

That's a pretty good first attempt at a box. Getting good tight joints seems straight forward... until you try it

But trying it, and trying again is the only way to get the beautiful finish you see in the magazines and this forum.

The next one'll be even better, but you're starting from a good place

 

[Mark A]

Nice box!

Is your router table fence straight and square? I bought that table and had to replace the fence as the aluminium extrusion was skewed by about 3/8" from one corner to the other and Rutlands wouldn't do anything about it as it was within manufacturers tolerance!

Mark

 

[cmwatt]

Thanks guys, yeah just need to practice lots like you say jkwhinfrey. Not sure about the fence for the table Mark, seems to be straight and square although haven't checked it properly. I was using it for the first time properly today on some scraps to get it set up for doing the grooves for the hinges. Seemed to work fine. (hammer)

No pictures to show just now (maybe tomorrow), but I've glued the sides and base together now with only the top piece to fix now. Tried a combination of using slithers of wood and saw dust to fill the gaps. Need to tidy up the joints which I hope to do tomorrow perhaps. I even managed to flatten the top piece just about, so it might be usable. I'm thinking of doing a contrasting edge banding around the top as has been suggested. I've put some india ink on a tiny scrap of elm to see how it looked and think I might do that for the banding and also perhaps a matching rectangle insert. What do you guys think? Any more suggestions? :duno:

 

[cmwatt]

A wee update on things. Progress has been a little slower than I'd have hoped, but I've had other things to do. Anyway, a few pics:


_MG_5471 by Craig Watt, on Flickr
Routed the gaps for the hinges and face plates for the lock, however I need to make a mortice for the lock itself and drill a hole for the key yet.


_MG_5472 by Craig Watt, on Flickr
Managed to get the top piece basically flat, I clamped it to the workbench upside down and left it for a couple of days and after I unclamped it was a lot better. I then took my block plane and got rid of the high points nearer the sides. It hasn't warped since and that was about 2 weeks ago and now there are no gaps. If I keep it in the same environment for now then seal it when I get to that stage, I'm hoping that should stop it warping again. Everything else is glued together apart from the top, so there's still time to change it in case it does go wrong. (hammer)


_MG_5473 by Craig Watt, on Flickr
View of the back with the hinges sticking out just, as per fitting instructions. They're quite easy to install once everything is set up right. Very happy I got them.

Next step (after fitting the lock) is to make a shelf to sit on the wee ledges on the inside and line it with something. My aunt owns a kilt shop, so might use tartan offcuts.

 

[cmwatt]

Managed to make some decent progress this week. (hammer) Almost done making the tray for sitting inside now, found a scrap piece of plywood in the garage and cut to size. It was a bit messy, so I tried to clean it up. The underside is fine, put the messiest side facing up since that will be covered anyway. The plan is to cut a hole through the centre compartment for easy removal then a small compartment either side for rings and two larger ones for necklaces/bracelets etc.


_MG_5487 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

Found some self-adhesive foam type stuff on ebay which I intend to wrap some of this tartan around which I got from my aunt's shop (It's a unique tartan to their shop, can't get it anywhere else - called Ben Wyvis Tartan). I will use this to line the interior of the box and tray.


_MG_5494 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

The next thing I done was do some test pieces to practise finishing. The plan is to do a large flower (daisy) picture on the top of the lid using acrylic paint (originally intended to do an inlay, but think that would take too long). Here's a quick flower I done in 15mins or so on a scrap piece of softwood:


_MG_5480 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

Here's it with a layer of Chestnut's Hard Wax Oil over it (seems to not affect the paint as far as I can tell, will see once the oil has dried properly):

_MG_5484 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

So getting there finally, only got until a week on Monday until my fiancée arrives and it has to be done by then! :shock: