What's the best way...

[Andy Sowers]

...to shape a box like these? (to give credit I think I saw these from last year's FWW box contest)

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I've been thinking about making something along these lines, but I don't know how best to uniformly shape the convex sides.

I thought of using the TS to make a series of beveled cuts and then finish it off by sanding, but somehow I'm not sure that would give me the result I'm after...

Thanks!
Andy

[Maurice Ungaro]

A bandsaw is probably the most efficient and safest way of doing it. Of course, you could take a belt sander to it.....or a rasp.

What ever you do, layout your lines distinctly prior to removing any material.

[Andy Sowers]

Hmmm... I was afraid of that... I don't have a bandsaw.

But even if I did, how would you do it? I was thinking one would assemble the box first then shape the sides... but after you've shaped two of the sides then you wouldnt have a flat surface to rest the piece on the table while making the last two cuts. Maybe I'm missing something...

[Alex Shanku]

Hmmm... I was afraid of that... I don't have a bandsaw.

But even if I did, how would you do it? I was thinking one would assemble the box first then shape the sides... but after you've shaped two of the sides then you wouldnt have a flat surface to rest the piece on the table while making the last two cuts. Maybe I'm missing something...



You could shape the radiused/curved profile you want on one side, then scribe the mating side off of that. Then layout your joinery.

[harry strasil]

double stick tape the cutoffs back to the core for the other two sides.

or if you gonna shape not cut, clamp it between two pieces to have a means to hold it.

[Jamie Buxton]

The convex exteriors are simple compared to the concave interiors. Or are you planning on leaving the interior walls straight, but doing tricky dovetailling to imply a concave interior?

[Andy Sowers]

Jamie

My initial thoughts were to make a "ordinary" rectangular box except with thicker than normal sides to allow for shaping on the exterior only.

For this round, I wasn't planning on doing the dovetail joinery...

[Jim Rimmer]

Jamie

My initial thoughts were to make a "ordinary" rectangular box except with thicker than normal sides to allow for shaping on the exterior only.

For this round, I wasn't planning on doing the dovetail joinery...
It's hard to tell from the photo whether the box is concave in the interior. However, the dovetails tend to get smaller from bottom to top of the curve. I had the same questions and think I will make a box out of scrap and experiment. I'm thinking like you - make a rectangular box out of sightly oversize material and then shape it.

[Andy Sowers]

ok... I tried a rasp last night... at least with the el cheapo wood rasp I have, it would take months to shape the sides of the maple I'm using.

Any other ideas on how to shape these sides?

[Nate Folco]

I've never done it but I think this is how I tackle the problem:

Make a template of the curve you want out of MDF.

If the box is small enough to use on your tablesaw safely glue it up first. This will let you avoid making tricky bevel cuts on short peices.

Start with extra thick sides. Rough out the curve using a series of bevel cuts on the table saw. Use hand planes to bring the curve to near perfect.

Use this template with a straight edge to find and attack high spots with hand planes. Sand everything smooth.

If the box is small enough you could use the table saw to make a cove-cut of the curve you want. Use the cove-cut with some sand paper as a custom sanding block to finish.

[Alan Greene]

Andy, I saw these bits the other day at Eagle. See if they will help you:

http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/v199-1405/ea_-_specialty_bits

Not associated with etc.

Alan

[Gary Herrmann]

Find someone local with a bandsaw. If you're a neander - coping saw, maybe. Maybe a router sled of some kind.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Hand plane.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Cliff. As the sides are convex only; rasp and handplane. I am betting that is no help to you as you have stated your rasp is not helping so I'll guess a super tuned block plane or small bench plane isn't readily available. . . . .BELT SANDER ;-)

[Andy Sowers]

I have a small block plane... I'll give it a try this weekend.

I don't have an arsenal of hand planes, I assume something other than a block plane would be better? If so, what would work better?

[Tom Sontag]

I have done similar work. I removed the biggest bit on the TS; draw your final edge line along the top all around. Then I rock and roll it on on my inverted beltsander with a 40, 50 or 60 grit belt. Yes this is crude but we are interested in roughing out and removing material, right? I find moving the piece on a stationary sander easier to control than the sander to the clamped work. Besides, I get to clamp a drop from my DC to the handle and have no dust in the air. Check progress frequently. The rasp and hand planes come in later to fine tune your curves. I had mitered corners which had to match just so. From square to curved and ready for finish is a matter of 10-15 minutes.