Wood movement and book-shaped boxes

[Wend]

Hi folks,

Inspired by something I saw in a charity shop, I'd like to make a book-shaped box, and I wonder whether anyone could give me some advice please?

The idea is something like this, with the red piece shaped to look like the spine of a book, the orange and green pieces resembling the front and back covers, and the blue pieces resembling the pages. The front cover is hinged and is the box lid.


The problem is, the obvious way to make it is to just glue the blue pieces to the green piece. This is fine for the long side, as the grain would be running in the same direction, but for the two short sides the grain would be perpendicular.

Is my best bet going to be to just ignore the potential problem, and hope that for something this size that's kept inside that there won't be enough movement to cause problems? Is there anything I can do to reduce the likelihood of problems? I found a few videos (e.g. Steve Ramsey (WWMM)) of people making something similar online, and that's the approach they seem to take.

The only alternative I see is some kind of groove in the bottom, e.g.

with a matching groove in the blue pieces, so that they slide on rather than being glued on. I'm not sure how easy this would be to do well, though, or how strong the lip would be.

Am I missing a better way?


Thanks
Wend

 

[J-G]

I did something similar a while ago.

Front & back covers are Olive and the spline is Pink Ivory (IIRC)
The issues are less to do with the grain direction - I applied Gold Leaf to the 'page' faces - but more to do with the hinge.

Here is a screen shot of the SketchUp file.

If you would like the original SketchUp file, I'd be happy to send it attached to a PM. It might give you a better understanding of how I solved the issues - and you could fathom dimensions.

More important, you could see exactly how the pin hinges work.

I'm still using SU 2014 so if you have a leter version it should import without problem.

(If you don't have SU at all I could even make this free version available.)

 

[Hornbeam]

You could make the base (green bit) as an internal ply panel glued into a groove all round in the sides. Then to get the effect on the outside glue a strip of wood onto the bottom of the 3 sides
Using ply/mdf for the base you wont have to worry about timber movement and the glued in panel will strengthen the box
Use long mitres for the front of the box where the side join and butt joint with dowels/domino/small groove for where the sides join to the back of the book

 

[Wend]

I did something similar a while ago.

That looks great!

Front & back covers are Olive and the spline is Pink Ivory (IIRC)
The issues are less to do with the grain direction - I applied Gold Leaf to the 'page' faces - but more to do with the hinge.

So if I understand correctly, your grain direction is parallel to the shading stripes on both pieces? So the two pieces don't have matching grain direction, but it doesn't matter because you covered it with gold leaf so it isn't visible?

My plan is to have the wood visible, with a series of grooves in it to suggest it is made up of multiple pages (even though, now I think about it, leaving it smooth would more closely resemble an actual book!), so I don't think that would work for me.

If you would like the original SketchUp file, I'd be happy to send it attached to a PM. It might give you a better understanding of how I solved the issues - and you could fathom dimensions.

That would be great, thanks!

More important, you could see exactly how the pin hinges work.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for hinges yet. One possibility is I have some barrel hinges like these that I thought might work well.

In fact, maybe what I'll do is to make a box ignoring wood movement, so I can experiment with hardware and wood-shaping without spending too much time on the box construction. And then I can see how that box fares over the years.


Thanks
Wend

 

[Wend]

You could make the base (green bit) as an internal ply panel glued into a groove all round in the sides. Then to get the effect on the outside glue a strip of wood onto the bottom of the 3 sides
Using ply/mdf for the base you wont have to worry about timber movement and the glued in panel will strengthen the box
Use long mitres for the front of the box where the side join and butt joint with dowels/domino/small groove for where the sides join to the back of the book

Ah, one thing I forgot to mention is that I'd like it to resemble a book when closed and standing up on end. If I understand your suggestion correctly, then the back cover of the book would look like a wood frame with an inset plywood panel, which wouldn't have the aesthetic I was going for.

Thanks
Wend

 

[J-G]

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for hinges yet. One possibility is I have some barrel hinges like these that I thought might work well.

They may well do the job.

PM sent

 

[Inspector]

A suggestion that is a little unorthodox. Make those two sides with endgrain. Glued to the bottom "cover", "front pages" and "spine" it will move the same amount as the rest of the "book" and never crack. As long as you don't use thin pieces or subject the "book" to extremes like beating someone over the head it shouldn't break. It wouldn't be any different than a bandsaw box where the grain all runs in the same direction.

Pete.

 

[--Tom--]

Stopped sliding dovetails (slid from the spine) would work if you wanted the challenge