Hi All,
I'm building a trinket box for my 4 mo old neice! Although it's not really an appropriate toy for this age, I hope that it is something that she will treasure as she gets older and maybe even pass down in the family. I plan on carving her initials into the top of the box.
I haven't done a whole lot of woodworking aside from building my bench, so I'm excited to do this project. I generally do stuff all neander, but have used a power drill, jig saw, and now the air cleaner on projects.
I thought I'd log some of the process so other newbies could see the steps for a basic project and hopefully learn from my probable mistakes.
I've used the golden ratio to determine the dimensions - 1 width: 1.62 length : .62 height. My box is going to be about 6 x 9.75 x 3.75 inches. It is going to have mitred corners and a raised panel lid. It is made out of pine, just because thats what I have worked with before for my workbench.
I have 4-squared all the peices and am ready to set my dimensions for my rabbets and grooves. The peices are not perfect, but they are within about 1/32" of flat and square.
I made the mitred sides of equal length by creating one side to my desired length, and then marking the length of the opposite side with the original peice and a marking knife. I then used the shooting board to get to that line.
I am using stock that is just a hair thicker than 1/2" - it is 9/16" thick.
So now the first question, probably of many:
How deep should I make my grooves for the bottom and for the top? I was planning on using 1/4" deep grooves, but then realized that I was basing that on a design for use with 3/4" stock. Will 1/4" be too deep for 1/2" stock? Will 1/8" be too shallow? Yikes, so many little decisons!
Anybody have any suggestions for good books on the itty bitty details of joint dimensions?
I've added a few pics to show my progress so far.
Shooting my Miters:
shootingMitre_small.jpg
All the pieces lined up and ready to go:
boxpeices_small.jpg
Thanks!
Ray