Couple of Boxes

[Mike Henderson]

I get asked to do all kind of woodworking things. A while back, I was commissioned to make two boxes for a woman who wanted them as gifts for her two daughters. She's going to put mementos in each box and give one to each daughter.

She gave me the size she wanted and specified a heart on top of each. I still have to carve a name on each heart.

The boxes are walnut with aromatic cedar on the inside. The heart is bloodwood (seems appropriate, don't you think?)

Boxes take a lot of time and effort, much more than is apparent by looking at the box. Putting in the quadrant hinges, for example, is a time consuming, difficult job to get the top to line up perfectly afterwards.

I cut the top off with a Japanese saw so that I didn't take too much wood out and the grain would still match fairly well.

Much of the work was done with hand tools, except I glued the cedar to the walnut with my vacuum press.

Not a big project but I enjoyed doing it.

Mike

[Larry Fox]

Beautiful work as usual Mike. I like them a lot.

I hear you on the quadrant hinges. I have actually been working on an improvement to my jig to help set these and will post after I make a run or two to test it. Improvement is in the area of cutting the slot for the hinge arm which has always been somewhat problematic for me.

I also discovered a little trick for setting the hinges and getting the lid to line up. What I do is cut the slots for the arms and make sure I like the depth. I then put a drop of super glue on the back of each of the arms. Put the lid on and arrange it so that it lines up perfectly and give it a while to cure. Then open the lid - very carefully - and set the screws. Seems to work out pretty well.

[Mike Henderson]

Beautiful work as usual Mike. I like them a lot.

I hear you on the quadrant hinges. I have actually been working on an improvement to my jig to help set these and will post after I make a run or two to test it. Improvement is in the area of cutting the slot for the hinge arm which has always been somewhat problematic for me.

I also discovered a little trick for setting the hinges and getting the lid to line up. What I do is cut the slots for the arms and make sure I like the depth. I then put a drop of super glue on the back of each of the arms. Put the lid on and arrange it so that it lines up perfectly and give it a while to cure. Then open the lid - very carefully - and set the screws. Seems to work out pretty well.
I'll be interested to see your jig. I do the hinges by hand, with chisels, and just measure *very* carefully. Sometimes the top doesn't come out right and I fill the screw hole with a toothpick, adjust the position of the hinge slightly and re-drill for the screws. Really tedious work.

I like your idea about the CA glue. I'll try that next time.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work.

Blood wood is a good choice for the heart.

Red heart or purple heart may have also been good.

jim

[sean m. titmas]

Hey Mike,

Nice work. The bevel top has a real subtle effect and gives the boxes a refined look.
How many shop hours did these take you? Was it a loss when compared with your selling price?

[David Keller NC]

Mike - very nicely done. A construction question - at least in photos, it's not obvious whether the top is a captured panel where the sides have been carefully planed down right to the joint - is that the case?

One very nice thing about Bloodwood is that, unlike almost all other tropical woods, it will hold its color over time.

And - I wholeheartedly agree about quadrant hinges. I hate the things, so I went back to Bursso's leaf hinges. I'm not totally certain they're easier to install, but it seems like mistakes are less disastrous. I use a "cheat" similar to Larry's for getting the hinge mortises exactly right - I use blue painter's tape to tape down 1/2 of the hinge (to the bottom of the box), and double-stick tape on the back edge of the top. I just press-fit the top to the bottom, and cut right through the blue painter's tape and double-stick tape with a marking knife.

[Mike Henderson]

I don't really know how many hours because I did the work between other things. For example, one day I resawed the walnut and cedar. Then, a few days later, I got out my vacuum bag and glued the cedar and walnut together. That wood sat around the shop for a while before I cut it for the boxes, etc.

But it's definitely a low pay project compared to the time I put into it. I knew that going in, though. People see a box and think, "That's an easy project." Yeah, it's not too difficult, but it takes a lot of time.

The woman was willing to wait, though, and it makes a good filler project. Her only requirement was that I finish them by October. I don't remember exactly when she asked me to do the boxes, but it was early this year, maybe February. She and my wife are friends so she had my wife to bug me to get them done.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Mike - very nicely done. A construction question - at least in photos, it's not obvious whether the top is a captured panel where the sides have been carefully planed down right to the joint - is that the case?

One very nice thing about Bloodwood is that, unlike almost all other tropical woods, it will hold its color over time.

And - I wholeheartedly agree about quadrant hinges. I hate the things, so I went back to Bursso's leaf hinges. I'm not totally certain they're easier to install, but it seems like mistakes are less disastrous. I use a "cheat" similar to Larry's for getting the hinge mortises exactly right - I use blue painter's tape to tape down 1/2 of the hinge (to the bottom of the box), and double-stick tape on the back edge of the top. I just press-fit the top to the bottom, and cut right through the blue painter's tape and double-stick tape with a marking knife.
I just glued the top on flat (just walnut, no cedar). I cut the cedar piece and carefully trimmed it to fit into the top of the box after I cut the top off.

The taper around the top of the box doesn't actually go all the way down to the side. If you look on the side you see a small amount of end grain. I thought about taking it down all the way but a small slip in planing the bevel (going too far on the side) would really show on top so I chickened out. I marked the limits of the bevel with a marking gauge and planed to that with a block plane. I think it was 1/4" down and 1" in. I left just a trace of the marking gauge line to show the box was hand made - but only another woodworker would know that.

Thanks for the idea on the quadrant hinges. I don't do boxes very often but I'll remember your suggestion.

Mike

[Wilbur Pan]

Really nice job, Mike!

Could you elaborate on how you made the hearts?

[Mike Henderson]

Really nice job, Mike!

Could you elaborate on how you made the hearts?
Sure. I got a piece of clip art off the web and scaled it to the size I wanted. I prepared a piece of bloodwood to thickness and glued the paper to the bloodwood. Then cut it rough on the bandsaw.

I next glued the blank to a larger piece of wood with cardboard between (I use the cardboard from those realtor's tablets they leave on your doorstep). Beyond that, I used carving tools to shape the heart - mostly by eye - and sanded it when finished. [added note: if you do this, make sure the cardboard extends beyond the blank or when you're making a downward cut, the wood will break out on you underneath. I know, don't ask how I know this - but I learned it long ago, not on this project.]

I took the hearts off the backer board to take the picture but I should have left them attached because I need to do some lettering on them - but just a few letters. The woman still hasn't given me the names, but I told her I can't fit a lot on the heart. One thing she's considering is just the name "Mom" since one of her daughters is pregnant (with a girl).

I'll glue them back down to do the letter carving. I suppose if she wants a lot of letters I can have them lasered.

Mike

[One more thing in the "more than you want to know" category. I've worked bloodwood in the past with no problems. But this time, the inside of my forearms got red and itchy after I sanded the bloodwood. I've heard that many people have an allergic reaction to bloodwood and I suppose I'm now one.]