My Woodwork Journey is about to begin - Total Beginner - I may need your advice.

[BCS1980UK]

Another example of small boxes using 10mm wood here.
The "chunky" look was a conscious decision. Finished dimensions: 235mm x 72mm x 68mm.
I will second @Jacob 's advice: "keep looking at stuff". It is great to expand our visual repertoire.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Don't over think it Mark.

Here's some candle boxes I made - the sides are all 10mm

View attachment 191649

Perhaps they needed to be 10mm as they have a sliding lid but even if it wasn't I'd still probably not go too much below.

Are you going to use hinges? If so that will determine the minimum thickness.

You'll be okay with dovetails at 6mm. Not sure I follow what you mean by mitred edges? you could do a mitre joint at 6mm but it won't be very strong - it just depends what the box will be used for as to whether it's suitable. I use 6mm mitre joints for jewellery box trays and they are fine.

Dovetailing with softwoods can be a bit of a pig. Cherry or Sycamore are (imho) two relatively inexpensive hardwoods that are easy to work with hand tools when starting out. You may find a local timber yard with an offcuts section?

On sizing I find having the golden ratio (1 : 1.618) in mind comforting. That may say something about how my mind works than anything else though!

Nice boxes.

On the dove tail size you can go pretty small on the timber dimensions . Here is a test corner I did some years back.

And to give a sense of size

 

[Blackswanwood]

It's not box related but a really useful hand tool exercise that gives you something that will help with future projects is this ...

https://woodandshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/christopher-schwarz-sawbench.pdf

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes that blue Evostick will do for just about everything.
Might be an idea as you are inexperienced to start with boxes made with Lap joints. Surprisingly strong joints that can if wanted be reinforced with a couple of pins, ( but not through the thin lap).
Ian