Sycamore and Cherry Box - A Neaderish Experiment

[Jason Tuinstra]

Everyone: Thanks so much for all the kind words and encouragement. I’m glad the hinges were not booed off the stage. I still think they could be refined a bit and tweaked to make them that much better.

Brad: No, there’s no caulk or filler in the joints, but I did use plenty of those little wedges to fill the gaps

Tony: Post away. Thanks.

Martin: Yea, I have to study quick, I’m trying to keep up with you and all your “professional” help

Rick: Small correction – my first hand cut’s for a real project. I have plenty of mahogany scraps (aka fancy firewood) that I practiced on before this point. But I think I’m confidant enough now to tackle dt projects with my saw instead of my jig.

Roy: Yea, the good ole’ deep freezer. What more inspiration do you need for a box with hinges? The problem is, my wife might find as much inspiration to fill this as she does the other. That could be bad.

Zahid: My bad. Old habits die hard. Maybe we should have a gallery section where both sides can post their furniture. I know I’ve missed stuff that has been posted over there that wasn’t here. Everyone’s loss IMHO. But the last thing you guys need is another forum to monitor. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Hans Braul]

Jason,

I'd like to add my compliments to those you've already got. Your post is especially timely, as I am just now half way through a box of cherry and bird's eye maple that is to be a Christmas gift for my mother. The cherry I chose is very much like that on your box. I am also just learning to do dovetails, and I sure hope mine turn out half as good as yours. I will post when I'm done - should be in a couple of weeks.

I am finding that with a lot of patience and persistence, I can get the dovetails to fit pretty closely, EXCEPT at the scribe marks (at the base of each tail). To get them to close tight on the outside, I pare down some material on the inside, leaving small gaps. My box will look a LOT better on the outside than on the inside. Have you had a similar experience? How many hours do you estimate you put into this box?

A great job - thanks for showing.

Hans

[Rennie Heuer]

Well, there is nothing special about this box except that it is my first project in which I cut the dovetails by hand - a long way from perfect.

Not that far!

Looks great. Very nice - well done!

[Jason Tuinstra]

Hans,

Yea, I pretty much have way too much time into this piece. Much of it was spent figuring out how I would not have to put an order into Horton Brass for hinges. But more of my time was spent paring the bottom of the pins to get the tail board to lay flat. Regardless, I've been messing with this box for the last week and a half or so. I have to finish it up today as I have the day off.

Regarding your problem, all I can say is that I had gaps in these spots too. Wedges took care of any noticable mistakes. My assumption is that in time I'll refine my technique and have less clean up work to do. You might consider putting a guide block on top of your tail board so that you are cutting perfectly square and that you use a well sharpened chisel. I realized that my chisels don't hold their edge very long in this kind of work. The Christmas list gets longer...

[Mark Valsi]

Dovetails are fantastic !!

Damn, man !!

[Jake Helmboldt]

once again proving that if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much!

(and making me realize I need to get more shop time.)

Those hinges are very cool Jason. I'm getting into boxes and that is a really neat twist on the usual suspects in terms of hinges.

I really dig the sycamore as well. I only recently discovered that it comes with such figure. Nicely fared front "apron" as well. All in all, a very nice piece.


Jake