Dyed Box is in the Mail!

Posted on December 17, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

DyedBox-InspirationYou may recall the beginnings of this project, a lady found my Etsy store and requested a custom box that was black and made of wood.  The size she requested was 5″ wide by 7″ tall and 11″ long.  Here’s the picture she sent to illustrate what she was after. Well, right off the bat I knew I couldn’t replicate the “bling” on top but she assured me that would be her department — thank goodness!

After several convo’s back and forth to make sure of what she wanted I told her I’d like to make a sample box before committing to her project.  Luckily she wasn’t in a rush for it so that was no problem.  The box is of splined, mitered construction and made of 1/2″ thick, plywood core, Oak plywood.  If you’d like a re-cap of the construction of this box you can search for each post listed in the Splined Miter Plywood category.  The dye I used for this project is water based so the box was sanded to 220 grit paper after pre-raising the grain with distilled water.  Since it’s been quite cold here lately I allowed two days for the dye to dry completely.  Next was multiple applications of Platinum shellac applied with an air brush.  Again, due to the weather I allowed extra time for this finish to cure before rubbing it out with Liberon Black Bison wax.  Here are some photos of the finished box, I really like how the grain of the wood still shows in spite of the darkness of the finish, you can’t get that look with a stain or paint.

Box Closed

Box Closed

Box Open

Box Open

Next up is a possible project making an overlay for a game table, something called Mexican Train which I must admit is a game I’m not familiar with at all.  Also continuing to work on the Tools of the Trade series of relief carvings.  Currently working on a hand drill (aka egg beater) and a brace.  Pictures to follow.

 

Posted in Splined Miter Plywood, Types of Boxes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dyed Black Box — Built in Dust Check

Posted on December 13, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

DustCheck-Precut-DyedBox-2You may recall this photograph from a previous blog where I explained how to make a built in dust check.  To re-cap that,  a dado was cut inside of the box where the lid will separate.  The thickness of the piece that will become the dust check determines how deep the cut will be.  The box was completely assembled as a cube and then cut apart.  I’ve mentioned that we’ve had some very, unseasonably cold weather here in Las Vegas so work is slightly behind schedule — more on that later.

DustCheck-WoodworksbyJohn-LasVegas-1When boxes are made this way I use the tablesaw to cut the lid off.  To prevent them from binding during the final cut the process is to make the cuts go completely through the sides for the long sides but then lower the blade so the end cuts do not go all the way through.  This will leave a thin piece of wood that will not allow the two pieces to close, bind on the saw blade, and possibly kick back.  This thin piece can easily be cut with a utility knife or zero set saw, in this instance a utility knife was used.

DustCheck-WoodworksbyJohn-LasVegas-2Now you can see how this all works.  I carefully marked the location of the dado and set the rip fence so I’d leave about 2/3’s of it for the box and the remainder inside of the lid.  This is the first time I’ve done this with a plywood box and it works okay.  Solid wood will leave a smoother cut but I think this will be acceptable. Next up fitting the dust check into the dado.

 

Here’s that process:

I mentioned that we’ve had some unseasonably cold weather and my shop only has a portable propane heater.  This has slowed things down a little bit. Usually with a project this small I’m able to assemble it inside the house but I won’t be able to do the finish that way.  It’s finally warmed up enough to where I think spraying the shellac will be safe.  If you ever need shellac I’m going to recommend Shellac.net out of Ukiah, California.  I prefer to mix my own so that it is a fresh product.  I ordered some new flakes from them and asked a question regarding the temperature problems.  Within one hour of placing the order via the internet I received a phone call from Ron, the owner of the company.  In my order I asked if he could send me an email to answer the question.  Instead, he called me directly saying it was easier to answer questions like that over the phone rather than email.  That’s what I call customer service!  This was early evening and not regular business hours.  To me, in this world of internet businesses, to receive this kind of service is a rarity so I’d like to recommend Shellac.net highly to any of you that use shellac.  Ron carries many different colors of shellac as well as related sundry items.  I doubt I spend $75.00 a year with him but he still takes the time to service and give advice.

Oh yes, his advice was to bring the shellac and the item being finished in the house to let them warm up completely.  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 40’s so after applying the shellac he suggested waiting until it was “gnat dry” — what’s that you ask?  Well, if a gnat lands on it it won’t get stuck to the surface!  Makes sense to me.  At that point he suggested using infra red lamps which I don’t have but due to the size of this box I can easily move it into the house to cure.  I’ll repeat that for multiple coats then leave it in the house to fully cure before rubbing the finish out.  Here’s what the box and lid look like now that it’s been dyed.

DustCheck-WoodworksbyJohn-LasVegas-DyedBox

Posted in Splined Miter Plywood, Tutorial, Types of Boxes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dyed Plywood Box Assembled in Spite of Cold Shop!

Posted on December 7, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

DustCheck-Precut-DyedBox-AssembledYou’re right, that looks more like a kitchen than a woodshop!  It’s been pretty cold here in Las Vegas as it has been through-out our country this week.  It hasn’t risen much above the low 40’s even with my portable propane heater and that is just not good conditions to glue up in.  I did one of the additional boxes and the glue squeeze out looked more like whitewash than glue!  I decided it would be wise to bring the pieces for this commissioned box into the house, let them and the glue acclimate to “room temperature” and then glue it up using the breadboard as a temporary work bench.  So, this one is complete and I feel good about the integrity of the glue joint.  The tech directions for the glue (Lee Valley Cabinetmakers) says “apply at room temperature” but fails to tell you what room temperature should be — I’m sure it’s not the low 40’s though!

You may recall my previous post about making the L-shaped fence for the tablesaw.  Here’s where it came into use for this project.  In a nutshell,  one of its functions is to replace the sacrificial fence we often put on a rip fence when cutting rabbets.  The top and bottoms of these boxes feature a rabbeted piece that will be glued to form a solid cube.  Here’s how that is done:

After making some trial cuts to check the adjustments the rabbet around the underside of each piece.

DustCheck-Precut-DyedBox-1There was one more use for the dado head on this project.  The commissioned box will have a 2″ high lid which will require a dust check to have it close properly.  A trick you can use is to cut a dado or groove before you assemble the box.  The depth is equal to the thickness of the piece I’ll use for the dust check.  Now the piece is being guided against the fence and I’m being careful that the correct edge is being held against the fence.  This is where marking all of the pieces with the painters tape pays off.  So easy to flip a piece the wrong way!

DustCheck-Precut-DyedBox-2Here’s all of the pieces with the groove cut, ready to be assembled.  The other piece is Poplar and it will be shaped to become the dust check.  Glad I’m able to take it into the house to assemble.  The weather forecast calls for this cold spell to continue for the next week and I need to complete this order within a specific time frame.  No problem now,  shellac isn’t effected by low temps as much as other finishing materials.

Posted in Splined Miter Plywood, Types of Boxes | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dyed Plywood Box — Cutting the Sides

Posted on December 3, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

The last custom order I received from my Etsy store was one that involved primarily hand tool work.   The only power tools on it was preparing the rough stock for the dovetail joinery.  This latest order is almost a direct opposite as it will be primarily power tool work.  Each type of work has its own set of technicalities and procedures.  Whereas the success of the hand tool work relies, to a large extent, on my ability to control the tool being used machine tool work relies on how well I’m able to set the tool up to perform the work.

I mentioned this project briefly in a previous post, it’s a request for a black dyed box that will open similar to a shoe box.  Lucky for me, this client hasn’t been in a rush for it because I wanted to experiment a little to make sure I could produce what she wanted.  She had sent me a picture of what the box should look like along with the dimensions required.  I had some black dye that I used on one of Diane’s picture frames but wasn’t sure how it would work on the ply.  Well, to shorten up a long story I built an example, sent her the pictures, she approved of it and ordered the box.  Like I tend to do whenever I receive a custom order is to make several of them of various sizes to add to the stock on my store.  I’ve experimented with using Mixol universal tints with clear shellac and some of these boxes will be finished that way.  But first, all of the pieces needed to be cut to size.

I’m using 1/2″ thick Oak plywood that is good both sides and has a plywood core.  I’ll be making an additional, six boxes besides the custom order one.  The process begins by cutting the plywood to the required width.  Next, a sled is used on the tablesaw with the blade tilted at exactly 45 degrees for cutting the pieces.  I’ve been using one of those electronic angle cubes to set the tilt on the blade and find it’s easier than using a combination square.  Here’s a tutorial set of photographs to illustrate my process:

There are a couple of things I’d like to point out.  First of all, as each piece is cut I lay it out in order so that when the box is assembled the grain direction of the face veneer will be continuous around the box.  After experimenting with various ways to mark them I’m finding that painters tape and a sharpie work best for me.  Pencil is okay but sometimes it’ll stay in the grain of the wood only to show up when the final finish is applied.  Grain will be an almost perfect match on three of the four corners with the last one being very close.  This sled set-up is one I’ve shown before but if you haven’t seen it the spacer block is the difference of the length between the long and short sides of the box.  As an example, if you were making a box measuring  5″ x 8″, the stop block would be set at 8″ and your spacer block would be 3″.  Works very well for me!

After all of the pieces are cut to length they need to have a kerf cut on the mitered edge to accept a spline.  I have some mahogany plywood that just happens to be the same thickness as the kerf made by a Tenryu blade — lucky me!  The stop block locates the position of the spline and the blade is adjusted so that it cuts about 1/4″ into the edge.  The splines measure 7/16″ wide which allows just enough room for glue and some adjustments if needed.

Next step will be cutting the pieces for the top and bottom of the boxes.  Here we’ll be using that L-Shaped fence on the tablesaw to cut rabbets all the way around them so you’ll be able to see how that works out.

Posted in Splined Miter Plywood, Tutorial, Types of Boxes | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Applying Felt on Box Sides — not just the Bottom!

Posted on November 30, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

Applying Felt on Box Sides — not just the Bottom!.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Always Something to Learn!

Posted on November 30, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn

One of the greatest things about working with your hands is that you can always find some new techniques to increase your skill set.  In the annual issue of Fine Woodworking’s Tools and Shops (the one that published my scrub plane, shameless plug!) there is an article by Bob Van Dyke featuring the L-Shaped fence for the table saw. Although I’ve seen these in use on rare occasion it wasn’t something I thought I’d need until now.  Here is a LINK to the article although you have to be a member of Fine Woodworking on-line to access it.  You could buy the Tool and Shop issue or check it out from your local library.

WooodworksbyJohn-L Fence- 1There are a number of things you can do with this, easy to make fence.  You’ve more than likely used a sacrificial piece on your rip fence when rabbeting a board — this is a way to have a permanent fence that won’t get destroyed.  Other uses are for tenons, squaring up a rough edge on a piece of raw stock by using a guide, and template work.  I just started a custom Etsy order that needs rabbets cut on the top and bottom pieces so I thought I’d give it a try.  This one is made of 3/4″ Baltic Birch plywood.  He used F-Clamps that fit into large holes drilled into the fence.  Since I have these Rockler fence clamps it was easier to simply drill 3/8″ holes and use them.  I cut a slight rabbet on the piece that is clamped to the fence to aid in registering the fence during glue up.  Five screws and glue is all that was needed.

The area cut over the blade is there so you can safely clear scraps as needed.  WoodworksbyJohn-L Fence-2I found that it also serves as a hand hold when you attach the pieces together. You can see there is a dado head installed which is set for a height of 1/4″.  In this photo you can see the underside of the piece that was rabbeted all the way around.  It was very easy to cut the rabbets using this L-Fence.  The custom order I have is for a plywood box that will be dyed black.  My client sent a photo of one from a catalog which is no longer available and asked if I could make it.  After some experimentation I think I can and will blog about it as work progresses.  It’s an opportunity too for me.  There is a series of boxes I’d like to try using tinted shellac on, an experiment that’s been on the back burner until now.

I truly wish I could share a project I recently completed but can’t!  Here in Las Vegas we have a group called the Sin City Woodworkers.  You can click that link to our latest newsletter from Novembers’ meeting.  We’ve been in existence for 5 years now so I’d say we’re well established.  We meet every third Wednesday of the month and for our annual Christmas party we have a contest.  The challenge is to see what you can make with a construction grade 2″ x 4″ x 8′ piece of material purchased from any “big box” store.  I just completed my project for the contest  but since the projects will be brought in anonymously for voting I can’t share what I’ve made with you at this time.  Wish I could though, pretty amazing that it started out as a $3.00 stick of wood!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Applying Felt on Box Sides — not just the Bottom!

Posted on November 21, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn
Silver Arm Cuff Presentation Box Completed 11-20-2013

Silver Arm Cuff Presentation Box Completed 11-20-2013

Here is the completed presentation box I was commissioned to build through my Etsy store.  The wood is Monkeypod, dimensions are approximately 3 1/2″ deep and tall by 4 1/2″ long.  The finish is multiple coats of Platinum shellac rubbed out with wax.  The box is lined with 100% wool felt and is hinged with concealed brass pins.  Joinery is all hand cut and the project took about eight hours of actual work time.  I’m not considering all of the time developing this project and the many conversations I had with my client — all in all; a very satisfying experience.  Isn’t that what woodworking is all about?

One of the requirements for this project was for every interior surface to be lined with felt.  This box is for a custom made, silver arm cuff which is under construction now.  This  arm cuff will slide down into the box and have minimal clearance all around creating a secure containment.  Lining the bottoms of boxes is pretty straight forward, simply cut a piece of mat board to fit and wrap with the fabric of your choice.  Usually this will be secured with some sort of adhesive (I prefer a spray) and then you’re done.  Bringing the material up to the sides was a different challenge and very little was found on the net so I’ve created this tutorial showing how I completed this task.

FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-1The felt I’m using is 100% wool and is superior to the synthetic variety you’ll find at most “big box” craft and fabric stores.  You can purchase this from FeltonTheFly who has an Etsy shop; here’s a LINK to her store.  When doing something new it’s always wise to start with a trial piece.  In this case some white felt from Hobby Lobby became my pattern piece.  You can see the general shape in this picture.

FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-2One thing that helps with this process is to use a cutting mat and a rotary cutter.  For most of my other work I use a box cutter and scrap of plywood to cut the material on but borrowed these from my wife.  The mat doesn’t dull the blade and the rotary cutter won’t pull on the materials.  When this is put into the box there was a lot of waffling as you can see.  This is solved with a piece of mat board cut to fit inside the bottom giving you some structure.

 

The mat board piece for the bottom should slide in and out of your box easily.  Unless you’re lucky you’ll be making a number of trial fittings so you want that to go in and out of the box without too much hassle.FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-3 Although the distance from the bottom of the box to the top edge is almost 2 3/8″, the felt needed to be about 1/8″ less.  The mat board is already attached to the felt with some double stick tape.  I’m using a Scotch brand product designed for the picture framing industry.  You don’t want to use the foam type or the product designed for scrap booking.

FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-6You’ll find that where the felt meets in the corners there  is too much material and it won’t lay flat. To solve this, cut a very slight wedge shaped piece from the felt.  My guess is that the exact amount you’ll need to remove will vary with the thickness of the felt.  It tapers to the top of the piece, you can see how thin of a piece needed to be removed for this project.  Here’s where that rotary cutter is ideal, using an X-axcto knife here just tears the fabric.  Trial and error, only the front and back pieces needed to be tapered for this project.FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-7Once the felt fit correctly, two pieces of the double back tape were applied to it.  You can see too, a line of tape applied to the inside of the box that is just slightly below the top edge of the felt.  Only remove the backing from the tape applied to the mat board as you begin to slide the piece in position.

After your felt is securely attached to the bottom of the box it’s time to do each side.  This box is pretty small so I wished my fingers weren’t so large!  Start by peeling the backing off of one side at at time and pressing the felt onto the tape.  There is a little bit of “wiggle room” since the felt and tape both have a bit of give.

FeltLining-BoxSides-WoodworksbyJohn-8If you press the tape firmly against the box sides, removing the backing is not a problem.  Work your way around the box, smoothing out any wrinkles as you go.  The final step to this was covering the underside of the lid.  Tape was placed around the perimeter of it and the backing removed one strip at a time to avoid any wrinkles.

Next thing you know — you’re done!

Posted in Hand Cut Dovetails, Silver Arm Cuff Presentation Box, Tutorial | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Down to the Wire

Posted on November 19, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn
Arm Cuff Presentation Box -- Open

Arm Cuff Presentation Box — Open Approximate size is 4 1/2″ long by 3 1/2″ wide and 3 5/8″ tall.

Now that the shellac is fully cured I find myself wanting to post the pictures of this box so my client can see the progress that’s been made since the last blog.  Pictures will never replace seeing the real thing and holding it in his hands so this will just be a teaser!  There were five coats of shellac applied to the box on Saturday so tomorrow the finish will be cured sufficiently for rubbing out.  I use Liberon Black Bison wax along with a white Scotch-pad.  I find that the Scotch-pad is a better rubbing out medium than the 4/0, oil free steel wool I used in the past.  Even the best quality of steel wool will tend to shred and leave traces any where it can, that’s never a concern with the synthetic pads.

As you can see in the photos, the grain of the wood is continuous going around the corners of the box.  On close inspection you can even see it on the pins and tails.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, when you’re creating a box from a single board there’s no room for errors — no chance for the proverbial “do over” or “mulligan”!

Other than rubbing out the shellac finish the inside of this presentation box will be lined with a 100% wool felt.  There’s an Etsy store I use to get this called Felt on the Fly that I’ve used before for other projects.  She has an amazing array of colors, my client chose Peacock Blue for this.  The bottom, sides, and underside of the lid will be covered to protect the custom, silver arm cuff this box is designed for.  Hope my client will send me a photograph of how it all came together that I can put in my portfolio.

Posted in Hand Cut Dovetails, Silver Arm Cuff Presentation Box | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Arm Cuff Presentation Box

Posted on November 15, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn
Monkeypod-SilverArmCuff-CustomPresentationBox-WoodworksbyJohn

4 sides, a bottom and a lid, plus brass washers and pins — ready to go!

Very happy that the glue up for the presentation box went without a hitch.  Glue ups can tend to be stressful so careful planning is a must; especially for someone like me who’s been accused of even pre-worrying!  Here is a view of the pieces laid out.  You can see the two brass washers that’ll be installed between the lid and the side of the box.  The hinge pin is made of 3/16″ brass rod and is already installed in the two side pieces.

The trick with assembling a project like this is that everything has to come together all at the same time.  The procedure was to apply liquid hide glue to the pins of the back piece and the corresponding tails of the side pieces.  Next the washers were placed on the pins and the lid and bottom inserted in place as the joints were pushed together.  After that subassembly is almost put together the process is repeated with the pins/tails of the front of the box and things are quickly aligned, joints are bottomed out, checked for square, and then clamped to dry overnight.

Here are a couple of pictures of the box along with the block plane I’ll be using tomorrow to level out the pins and tails.  Can’t wait to see the luster of the Monkeypod wood once it’s been prepared for the multiple coats of shellac followed by Liberon Black Bison Wax.  Although working with this material was challenging I think my client will be pleased with how the grain pattern of this box will shimmer.  Also received shipping notification that the 100% wool felt is now in Salt Lake City so it should arrive here on Monday.

Posted in Hand Cut Dovetails, Silver Arm Cuff Presentation Box | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Walnut & Monkeypod Finger-jointed boxes Done

Posted on November 15, 2013 by woodworksbyjohn
Black Walnut with Ebony lid lift and a sliding tray.

Black Walnut with Ebony lid lift and a sliding tray.

After working on this series of boxes they were completed this morning.  The Walnut one with the sliding tray is a custom order and what will make this a different experience from the usual Etsy sale is that this will be hand delivered!  The client is from a neighboring town so we’ll meet at a central Starbucks to make the delivery.  It’ll be interesting to see his reaction first hand rather than through a followup email which is the best we can expect when doing mail order.  Here are some photographs I took of it to show the grain and beauty of the wood.  The finish is shellac and Liberon wax.

At the same time this order was made, two additional boxes were made of Monkeypod wood.  This way machine set-ups can be used for more than one project to be efficient. This is a tricky wood to work with due to it’s rather coarse, interlocked grain but I think they turned out okay.  I experimented with a different style of floating panel lid and think it turned out well.  It does make the box and lid a bit heavier since it uses 3/4″ thick material rather than the 1/2″ thick used everywhere else.  Same finish as the Walnut box and these have the inside bottoms lined with ultra suede.  One is about 6″ square, the other about 4″ x 6″.  I’ll need to take better photographs of them before I list them on the Etsy store.

Posted in Finger Joint Box, Types of Boxes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment