Box making tips and basics

[Radek Kowalski]

I am ready to undertake my first box to store a gift. What are general things I need to know about making a box? There are so many styles online. Do I make feet? Do I make a hinged top? What guidelines do you follow when making a box. Thanks.

[Larry Fox]

While I am certainly not the expert here by any measure, I have done a few and will share my experience in hope that it gives you something to think about before the real experts post their thoughts.

- Always be mindful that you are working on a small scale so any errors / slip-ups will really stick out.
- Don't restrict yourself to solid wood. You can do some really cool stuff on the cheap with veneer. Burls, heavily figured stuff, etc is all avaialble to you if you can do veneer. It is really not that tough and it is reall, really fun.
- Settle for nothing short of perfection on your miters. If you miter the corners and everything is not square and the cuts at exactly 45-degrees you are going to have a gap. Working on such a small scale that gap is going to show. That gap showing will eat you alive. I came into a second cabinet saw recently and I am setting it up with a crosscut sled and fixing the blade tilt at 45-degrees just for cutting them as it is tedious getting the setting right.
- Buy good hardware. It aint cheap but it is worth it.
- If you are using quadrant hinges, use Brusso and buy a jig for setting them.
- pay attention to wood movement issues.
- Give yourself permission to fail. Try some different things, let your creativity go wild. Good news is that you don't have much of a material investment in most cases and the duds fit easily into the fireplace.
- Check out Doug Stowe's video as a good starting point.
- If you plan on doing them in any number and you use a jig for setting hardware, get a dedicated router as the setup can be a pain each time.
- Focus on your precision. Recall the small scale. If you use a router / laminate trimmer get a centering pin and maybe a couple of Pat Warner's sub-bases.
- Do a search on this site and read every related post by Ed Sallee and Bill Wyko as these guys are the masters. There are several others on this site that have built wonderful boxes but I beleive Ed and Bill to be the most prolific builders and their stuff is top shelf.

[richard poitras]

Get Doug Stoves "Basic Box Making" book and or DVD and all your questions will be answered.. I have the book and DVD and found them very helpful.

Richard

[Stephen Musial]

What kind of gift - i.e. how big a box will it be? The size will determine some of the factors such as the joints, if it's hinged, etc.

[Radek Kowalski]

Thanks alot for the suggestions so far. My guess is around 12"x8"x3" in high or so. It is supposed to be a little box to hold a set of 15-20 crochet hooks.

[Tom Hintz]

I have a box-building basics story at the first link below with lots of photos and video. The second link is to another story about routing feet on box projects, something I use all of the time because it is simple and works great.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/basic/buildbox.html

http://www.newwoodworker.com/routefeet.html

[Lance Norris]

Radek... do you have a bandsaw? Heres a post on how to make an easy bandsawn box and your dimensions should work, although you'll need a bandsaw with at least 11" of resaw for that size box.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=81703