Gift box finished (w/pics)

[Rob Horton]

Just finished this gift box as a present for my wife's best friend. The main body of the box is poplar and the lid and bottom are red oak. The finish is three coats of shellac and was my first attempt at this type of finish. I usually follow in Mr. Davids Marks footsteps and use tung oil. But I like shellac other than the EXTREMELY fast drying time. But that may have been my mix too.

And as a tease - I'm working on my 2x4 workbench and should have pics of it soon as well as my workshop/garage that I've never posted pics of before. I'll try and post those by this weekend.

Thanks for looking!

[Jim Becker]

Very nice! Shellac is a wonderful finish that I am so glad I started using about a year ago. And with so many different refinements available, you can get some nice color variations that compliment the species you are using in a project.

BTW, Marks uses a General Finishes product that no longer claims to have Tung Oil in it... ;)

[Rob Horton]

Very nice! Shellac is a wonderful finish that I am so glad I started using about a year ago. And with so many different refinements available, you can get some nice color variations that compliment the species you are using in a project.

BTW, Marks uses a General Finishes product that no longer claims to have Tung Oil in it... ;)

Be still my heart! He abandoned his favorite? What heresy! :D Well I am fan of both tung oil and shellac now. Shellac has a much more pleasant smell than tung oil (to me at least). I really enjoyed it and I think if I had thinned it out more with the denatured alcohol, I would have had longer drying time.

[Tyler Howell]

Rob,

Very Nice.
What is the function of the dowl and ribon?
What is the size of this fine work of art??

[Jim Becker]

No, he is using the same finish to the best of my knowledge. While he referred to it as tung oil, he uses General Finishes Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal, the first being a combination of "oils and urethanes" and the latter being a "urethane topcoat". (From the General Finishes web site) These are typically wiped on as shown on his show. If I am recalling clearly, GF originally had some notation about "tung oil" on the cans...which was removed. (This is analogous to Minwax's "Tung Oil Finish"...which also has no tung oil in it.

Adding more alcohol to shellac reduces the "cut" (making the coat "thinner"), but the alcohol still flashes off just as fast! Shellac is an evaporative finish and "drying time" is purely about the alcohol "going away".

[Rob Horton]

Rob,

Very Nice.
What is the function of the dowl and ribon?
What is the size of this fine work of art??

Tyler,
Well the box is actually one part of a two-part gift. My wife makes decorative cakes as her hobby and she came up with the idea for me to make a keepsake box to deliver the cake in to her friend.

So those ribbon-handles were a way to lift the cake out of the box when it was completed. There is just a loose piece of baltic-ply in the bottom of the box and the ribbons loop under it - creating sort of a lift-out serving tray.

Then after all the cake is gone you still have a gift (the box) to remember it all by. :)

[Rob Horton]

Almost forgot. The box is about 7" deep inside, 17" long and 13" in width. So it holds a lot of cake :D

[Tyler Howell]

Ahhhhh!

Now I understand. Puts everything in perspective.
A team effort:cool:

[Vaughn McMillan]

Nice job. Rob. What a cool way to present a cake to someone. Way to go.

- Vaughn

[Corey Hallagan]

Awesome box, very very nice. Thanks for the pic!

Corey

[Dan Forman]

Rob---Very handsome box, and cool idea to give a box with the cake. I'll bet your friend is the only one on her block to have a cake arrive in a wooden box!

Dan

[john whittaker]

Rob, please post a pic of your wife's cake.....I'm hungry !!!

Great Idea...nice project.

[Rob Horton]

Thanks for all the comments and to answer John's request ... here is a picture of the cake ...

Yes, the cake got talked about quite a bit more than my humble box did but I took comfort in the fact the cake would eventually disappear :D

My wife has been taking cake decorating classes and yes, EVERYTHING on this cake was hand-made, hand-colored, and WAS edible. The only not edible was the little stems inside two of the large orange flowers - those stems were paper but the flowers were all icing.

Now, I just need to come up with a box design that is as nice as her cakes!

[Lee DeRaud]

BTW, Marks uses a General Finishes product that no longer claims to have Tung Oil in it... ;)He acknowleges the GF stuff on his website but on the show he still calls it "tung oil"...what's up with that? GF too cheap to pay him for an endorsement?:p

[Jim Becker]

He acknowleges the GF stuff on his website but on the show he still calls it "tung oil"...what's up with that? GF too cheap to pay him for an endorsement?

I don't know, Lee. David seems to be pretty down to earth based on my conversation with him at the AAW Symposium last year in Orlando. It could just be a habit. I haven't seen many of the shows. Does he still call it "tung oil" on the current episodes?

[Lee DeRaud]

I don't know, Lee. David seems to be pretty down to earth based on my conversation with him at the AAW Symposium last year in Orlando. It could just be a habit. I haven't seen many of the shows. Does he still call it "tung oil" on the current episodes?His website says he's been using the GF combo since "the mid-80's"...this is season #7 of Woodworks (as DIY counts them), which seems to imply the stuff used on the show was always the GF stuff. He went from saying "tung oil" to "a mixture of tung oil, linseed oil, and polyurethane" at some point, also switching from using a glass jar to working out of a pint can (label away from camera).

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

There are days, Rob, when I wish I could make good Square corners. Today is one of those days. I saw your gift. I'm sure they will love it.

Bruce