A Box build

[Harlan Barnhart]

I recently finished a Christmas present for my Mother, a walnut box. I thought someone might be interested in the process.

214587
It began as a scavaged walnut board which inspired some pencil sketches. The design changed in every way from the sketches but most of the ideas found their way into the finished product.


214588
Breaking down the stock for the carcass. The parts are laid out so the grain will wrap around the four sides. I'm not sure why the walnut looks so light, it was much darker in real life.


214589
Watch out for hidden nails, they are hard on sharp saws. The defect to the left of the sawcut is the pith, as this board was cut from the exact center of the tree. It was about a quarter of an inch across and hollow. I worked around it mostly but it came to the surface two places so I filled it with epoxy with black shoe polish mixed in.


214598
This cheap bench plane is what I use as a scrub. It does have a gaping wide mouth and I ground a pronounced radius on the iron, which chatters a lot but that's not such a big deal when you're thicknessing stock.

214599
The front and back are 3/8" so I had some sweat work.

[Harlan Barnhart]

Continued...


214601
The sides need a ledge to support a lift out tray and a groove to house the "floor". The thickness of the ledge part is a full three quarter so I plowed a wide groove with a shoulder plane down to carcass thickness (3/8) at the level of the ledge.


214602
I used a block plane to bring the rest down to 3/8" as well.


214603
I don't have long rods for my 45 so I can't plow a groove this far from the edge. With this much reversing grain, I doubt a plow plane would have worked very well anyway. Instead, I defined the sides of the groove with a cutting gauge and removed the waste with a chisel.


214605
A little rough but I'll make it work.


214604


More later...

[Chris Griggs]

Always good to see what other folks are working on.... Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build and the finished product.

[Harlan Barnhart]

I don't have any pictures of dovetailing or assembling the carcass so on to building the drawer.

214622
The sides are white oak. I grooved the sides and front to house the bottom panel but the back is cut short so the bottom can slide out after glue up.


214623
I used the tails on the sides to layout the drawer front. I drilled out the corners of the waste with a forstner bit in brace because that seemed easy and quick. The rest I cleaned out with a chisel.


214624
In the future I need to make some special tools for half blind dovetails this small. A very thin marking knife would improve the quality of my work as would grinding some specialty chisels for getting into those little corners. Since I was short on time I just "pushed through."


214625
This is the layout for the lid frame. I went with a new (for me) joint here because I wanted to avoid seeing end grain on the edge of the lid. This is basically a bridle joint with a mitered band of long grain running around the outside.


214626
Relieving the edges with a chisel to avoid bruising.



214627
Using a forstner bit facilitate waste removal. This will be the male portion of the bridle joint so waste will be removed on both sides of the tenon.


214628
Here it is coming together. I cut the tenons a little "fat" and used a router plane to true them down to size.

214629
I cut the miters on the fat side of the line so they could be "kerfed in." This was a little fiddly but yielded good results.

More later...

[Harlan Barnhart]

Continued...

214631
This picture is out of order but I don't feel like re-ordering earlier posts so just imagine it in its proper place. This is rabbeting the bottom of the lift-out tray which you can see in the background. The tray is red oak and all the bottoms are some sort of clear cedar, very brittle and split prone. The grain is mostly straight but occasionally dives away at an impossible angle.


214632
Here we have the assembled carcass and completed lid turned upside down.


214633
This is cleaning out for the pull on the drawer front. The drawer is already built, you can see the sides and back hanging below the bench.


214634
Another view. Forstner bits often seem useful to me for clearing waste. When used with a brace, they can be quite accurate.


214636
This is the completed drawer pull. The light wood is maple. I didn't want any sort of knob sticking out so a recessed pull made more sense. I left the lid slightly proud of the front, as you can see in this photo, to make it easier to grasp and lift. Again, I wanted to avoid protruding knobs.


214637
I guess this is the glamour shot. It's as glamorous as this project will get. I decided it needed feet to lift it off the ground a bit.


214638
Here you see the web frame that supports the bottom of the carcass and the "keyed" feet that are in process of being trimmed.


214639
One final shot showing the lid panel installed "on top" of the frame like R. Underhill's tool chest.

[Bill Moser]

Nice work, Harlan. I haven't encountered a nail yet while sawing -- i hope it didn't cause too much damage to your saw

[Chris Griggs]

That mitered bridle joint is really cool. Any idea where I can find more info on it and ways to cut it?

Really nice work by the way. Did you follow a plan or is your own design?

[Harlan Barnhart]

Thanks Bill. The saw still cuts, in fact I can't detect any difference at all but it couldn't have improved it any.

[Harlan Barnhart]

I don't know anything about that joint. I just thought of it as a half of a brindle joint with an extra band mitered around the outside. Someone probably knows the proper name for it. As for the design, I just started with the planned contents of the box. Since it's a sewing box, I measured sewing related items likely to placed in it. For example, the width and length were determined by standard size of sewing pattern envelopes. The depth of the drawer and the depth of the internal section (under the tray) were determined by height of a spool of thread turned on end.

[Jim Matthews]

Hogging out waste with a forstner before cutting dovetails, why didn't I think of that?

Does it make a difference to the finish of the pins, when sawing?
I would be proud to call work this good my own.

Well done.

[Harlan Barnhart]

Hogging out waste with a forstner before cutting dovetails, why didn't I think of that?

Does it make a difference to the finish of the pins, when sawing?


Hi Jim,
I drilled a little "in board" of the lines and pared out the rest with a chisel so the quality of the pin was not effected. These were not sawn as they were so small. I just pared out the waste.

[Brent VanFossen]

Nice work. I also have not seen that exact miter.

[Gordon Eyre]

Very impressive work Harlan, I'm sure your wife will love it. Several years ago I made my wife a sewing desk with a lift mechanism for the machine and she is still talking about. You sure know how to please your bride. By the way, I have seen that joint as a mitered half lap and as a mitered bridal joint but can't remember if it has a specific name for it.