My adventures in learning by making boxes

[Marc Rochkind]

I've been teaching myself fine woodworking by making boxes, with some success, but with lots of mistakes. You might enjoy reading a little photo essay I put together the follows my progress:

http://basepath.smugmug.com/Other/Boxes/n-zkXP9/

[Andrew Pitonyak]

First, I think that your boxes look very nice. Understand that you are your own worst critic and most people will miss the little flaws unless you spend all your time emphasizing them.

Much of woodworking is learning how to "fix" your mistakes or inaccuracies. As an example, consider the miter joint on box 1 that is not fully closed. Well, first note that I rarely leave a "sharp" edge on a corner. Hmmm, so how to remove that "sharp edge"? Use a screw-driver (or similar) and "burnish" that edge. That will end the wood in at the edge and the opening will disappear. You probably need to be a bit more creative with the slight gap elsewhere, and a bit of glue mixed with sawdust or wood filler would probably take care of that.

Box 2: What type of saw did you order that cuts the splines without issue?I think that your repair looks pretty good. Like the bottom, you should see the first box I did with a bottom like that. Even my biggest fan would wonder if I was sober when I did it (based on what I produce today).


Box 3: Ummm, Wow, that first photo is really nice. I like how the grain flows. Although I do not disagree with your statements of what you did wrong, I think that (1) you are very critical (which is fine, but it is a very nice box) and (2) I need to remember this so I don't make the same mistake (I have never used a kerf hinge. How are you supposed to cut the slot? S multi-tool?

Box 4: You nailed the miters, I mean, that is perfect!

Box 5: Nice fix for the slight gap.

Very nice, i appreciate the post.

[Marc Rochkind]

Thanks for the encouragement, Andrew! I'm going to try that burnishing idea. I assume this is with the rounded shank of the screwdriver? Where the gap is especially large, should I put some glue into the seam first, to keep the mashed-up wood stable?

The saw that damaged the splines was an old veneer-cutting saw I bought (from Constantine, if you remember them) in the 1970s. The teeth are too coarse. The new one is a flexible Japanese saw from Lee Valley.

What I was doing to the boxes I also do to my photographs. It's called "pixel peeping." When I show one of my boxes to someone and challenge him or her to find out what's wrong, they're unable to find anything. Although, now my family has learned to recognize bad miters, misaligned tops, etc.

I went to a crafts show a couple of weeks ago, and pixel-peeped the wood items I found. All of them were better than mine. But, on the other hand, they've been doing it for years, and me only months.

Thanks again!

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Yes, the round shank, because all you want to do is bend over the fibers. You are free to use glue if you want to. I will admit that I have typically done this while the glue was still wet.

That was my guess with the saw (as to what you purchased), I had no idea what you had tried to use.

[glenn bradley]

Boxes are great (yours included). You can learn all sorts of joinery types, figure selection and matching, proportional studies and so forth. The best part is, you get all the education AND a jump on Christmas gift making to boot!

[Marc Rochkind]

Because boxes are small projects, I liken them to a set in tennis. Even if you get clobbered, you start fresh with the second set.

[Marc Rochkind]

Makes sense to do it during glue-up. Then the final sanding smooths it all out. I'm going to give that a try next week.

[Mike Henderson]

For small boards like you're using, you can flatten them pretty easily with hand planes. Much cheaper than a power jointer. But the first rule of woodworking is to get your stock prepared (flat and square) before you start on your joinery.

I cut miters in my miter saw and get good miters. On that box where it's not straight on the side, it's because your miter is not straight (not square to the side).

Hinges are always difficult and just take time and experience to get correct. A Vix bit will help you drill your holes centered. Only drill one hole for the hinge and do a trial fit. If you're off, you can move the hinge and drill one other hole to get a better fit. Fill the original hole with a piece of wood and glue it in. Then while you have the hinge held in place with the other screw, re-drill the original hole.

ALWAYS mark your hinges so you can put them back exactly the same way (surprise - factory made hinges are not exactly the same). You can use a black marker and mark the underside of the hinge. You can put a corresponding mark in the hinge mortise. Most hinges can be reversed so mark the leaf that you fitted to the top as "top" so you don't reverse them later.

To make the box more useful, consider making a tray that goes into the box. You can support the tray with four small pieces of wood in the corners or with two pieces on the two long sides of the box. I can post a couple of pictures (if I still have the boxes) of ways I fitted a tray.

Finally, boxes can be boring. Try to think of some decorative item(s) that you can add to the box to add interest. It might be some special figure in the wood, or a design set into the top, or shaping the box in some way that breaks up the "squareness" of the box. You may not be ready to tackle those types of things yet, but keep them in mind.

I find boxes difficult to do well. You've made a good start in a difficult area of woodworking.

Mike

[Marc Rochkind]

Thanks, Mike!

[Mike Henderson]

Here's some pictures of a tray and how I supported it in the box. It's to hold earrings for my wife.

Here's a picture of the outside of the box. It's a small box.
Box-1.jpg

And here's a picture of the tray in the box. The top of the tray is just below the top of the box, to allow the top to fit on.
Box-2.jpg

Here's a picture of the tray. The wood is fairly thin, maybe 3/16"
Box-3.jpg

And here's a look into the box to show what holds the tray up. Four pieces of wood in the corners. Not as pretty as it could be. I added the tray after the box was made at the request of my wife. Probably would have done better if it was part of the original design.
Box-4.jpg

Mike

[Brian Holcombe]

It can also help to cut the mitres on a shooting board with a hand plane. My mitres are much much tighter after moving to this method.

When you lay out the outside edges of the hinges, do so with a marking tool that has a good reference edge and a sharp point. If you are laying them out with pencil lines you'll find you're accuracy will improve with scribed lines.

[Marc Rochkind]

Brian--

I used Doug Stowe's flip-stick technique on a router table to lay out the hinge mortises, and they were dead on. As I think I mentioned in my post, the problems were (1) I didn't center the pilot holes and (2) in the process of playing around with the hinge locations, the mortises became larger.

[Brian Holcombe]

I like quadrant hinges for these types of boxes, even though they are a PITA to install.