My first ever completed project - loads of pics, sorry!

[chipchaser]

Mark,

that is a really handsome box you have made, she will be well pleased with it.
I don't think the curved lid looks too thick, it looks right to me lining through with the dovetails. I guess if you wanted it to look lighter then you might have rebated the curved part and made the semicircular infill a little larger lining it through with the outer ends of the dovetails where they are stopped. I only put that forward as an alternative. They say: "If it looks right it is right" and it looks right to me as is.
I did like Tusses idea of working it down a little to give a barrel shape but would you not have to make the profile semi elliptical so that the corners met the square body of the box on which the lid sits? Then the visible thickness of the top would vary when viewed end on.
Love the hinges and nail head details!
Excellent work.

Graham

 

[seaco]

After working out the optimum number of slats for the top, in this case 17, you divide 180 (half circle) by 17 (number of slats) giving you the total number of deg per slat, which you then half for each side of each slat :shock:
Mark

Hi Mark

What a brilliant first effort you should be really proud I'd get a cereal packet and some sticky back plastic and knock the girl up a pirate chest and keep that myself... :wink:

How did you work out exactly to keep to the circumference of the semi-circle end piece, I understand about dividing the 180 by 17 and half the degeees but how do you get the exact circumference you need as when you cut the wood the narrow side of the slat would in my eyes make the circumference smaller or have I lost the plot?

Please help a thicko...

 

[Gary M]

Thats fantastic looking Mark and the WIP pics are a treat, thanks for sharing.
Something to be treasured by your friends daughter indeed.
Well done.
Cheers,
Gary.

 

[9fingers]

Lee,

All you need is a bit of schoolboy trig. Finished arc of the lid will be the inscribed circle of a 34 sided polygon as all the 'corners' of the polygon will be sanded off.
Each section of the polygon is a triangle of length R where R is the radius of the finished arc and the angle centre of the circle is A= 360/34 degrees

Therefore the width of each slat on the wide side is 2 x R x Tan (A/2)

= 0.18533 X R
I think I've got that right.

As the number of slats increases, the slat width becomes ever closer to the circumference of the circle divided by the number of slats in a full circle.
= 0.18480 x R which is only 0.3% error. The wood will likely move more than that!

The other way to do it is by a large scale drawing and measurement or rod as wood workers call it. Using 16 slats would have been easier for the drawing method as the angles can be found by repetitive bisection of the circle.

Bob

 

[dennis]

Lee

You would either draw a semi circle to the external radius and using dividers split it to 17 equal sections measure across two points and this gives you the wider size of the staves,or do the same with the internal radius and this gives the narrower size.

Dennis

 

[mailee]

Talk about jumping in at the deep end! well done for your first project Mark. It isn't something I would have tackled for a first mate but you have certainly done a nice job of it. Can't wait to see what your next project is! Keep up the good work.