Nice boxes.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!
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
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
I’m sorry to say this really but in my opinion for (nice) outdoor work like those I would have used the Gorilla glue, the blue in my experience isn’t as waterproof as they would have us believe.Thanks - the blue I bought for my recent outdoor work - in particular these:
View attachment 191677
And for my shed windows as well.
I'd kinda forgotten about lap joints - possibly because I'd mentally categorised them as "table saw" work and not "hand tool" work, but worth a re-think as well - thank you. I do like how the top and bottom panel rebates are hidden in the lap joint - very clever design.
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