Poplar File Box

[Jim Koepke]

Making boxes is a fundamental part of woodworking. Whether one is making a bookcase, drawers or a container for keepsakes it often is made in the form of a box.

It was my good fortune to purchase a bunch of files in a hardware store clean out sale a little over a year ago. One of my friends is like me a tinkerer. He is more likely to work with metal whereas mine is more likely to be done with wood. My thought was to take some of the duplicate files along on a visit to his new home near Nevada City, CA. Unfortunately a pandemic and a forest fire in his area has put that on hold for a while.

Since his birthday is in the near future it occurred shipping them to him might be best. Then it seemed making a box to hold them would be a good idea.

First the length of the longest files were determined followed by figuring out how wide and tall the box would need to be. My usual design is to make a note of the inside dimensions. A hunt around the shop of all the scraps to see what was available turned up a piece of poplar big enough to do the job. The piece was re-sawn on the bandsaw to the desired thickness before planing.

This was convenient since it is easier to get all the plowed slots holding the bottoms to meet if they are done on a single piece instead of a lot of small pieces:

443373

It was a bit of a hunt to find longer rods to fit on my #50. Turns out my #46 rods fit well. That is why it is on the bench. The rods on various Stanley combination planes are somewhat standard but the fence mounting holes and rods do vary slightly.

The plan was to make the box with two chambers, thus the two slots.

In another thread someone suggested this would be a great way to make two drawers.

When making multiple square cuts it is easy to set up a miter box:

443374

When making a dovetailed box having the work square is imperative. The shooting board was set up at the other end of the bench:

443375

Shooting the stock on a dovetailed box is helpful. Starting with pieces matched for length and truly square helps to keep the finished box square:

443376

Some of my time in the shop before this was spent in determining the layout for the dovetails and cutting practice dovetails. My attempt at making a story stick for the layout didn’t work as well as hoped. This led me to a different approach. The tail board was lain out starting from the center as this is how the center slot was positioned about a quarter inch above center.

443377

From this the position of the tail from the slot was marked. It was duplicated for the other slot. Then the position of the tail below the slot was set. This was duplicated at the top of the box. The spaces created between the top and bottom tail edges was then divided. At the division point a divider was set to a little more than half the width of a 1/4” chisel. This was used to mark the space between two tails on the top and two on the bottom.

The pieces were gang cut. After using a fret saw to cut out the waste the idea came to me to flip the pieces end for end and mark the tails from the first ones cut:

443378

For cutting tails first a knife line is often used. For me a pencil line also works well.

For clearing the waste enhancing the gauged base line is helpful:

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This is only done where waste is to be removed. Another aid is to chamfer the waste if the fret saw line is above the base line:

443380

It seems to be easier to set the paring chisel on to a chamfer then a flat edge.

Eight images is the limit for a post.

To be continued.

jtk

[glenn bradley]

Great stuff Jim. Looking forward to more.

[Frederick Skelly]

Hi Jim.
Great post and tutorial! Almost like attending a class. Thank you.

Could you talk more about camphering the waste? I understand it's easier to pare but how do you (eventually) get it square/flat? I've usually just chopped it square, but if you do that wrong you bruise the baseline. So I'm interested in your approach. Thank you!
Fred

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Jim.
Great post and tutorial! Almost like attending a class. Thank you.

Could you talk more about camphering the waste? I understand it's easier to pare but how do you (eventually) get it square/flat? I've usually just chopped it square, but if you do that wrong you bruise the baseline. So I'm interested in your approach. Thank you!
Fred

Hi Fred, As posted the gauge line is often cut deeper using a square and knife. Then the waste is chamfered using a skew chisel. Just start at the far end of the waste and carefully work back. Having the chamfer helps get the majority of the waste cut without pressing against the base line. For the last few paring cuts the chisel can be at an angle to avoid the gauge line and do a light undercut in the middle of the surface.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks Jim!

[Jerry Olexa]

Good project Jim....Well done.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks Jim!

You are welcome Fred.


Great stuff Jim. Looking forward to more.


Good project Jim....Well done.

Glenn, Jerry, Thanks for the kind words.

When laying out dovetails my chisel sizes are always taken into consideration. The spacing between pins or tails is always set a little bigger than the chisels to be used.

For clean paring the chisels needs to be sharp. My paring chisels are beveled at 15-20º. A piece of wood is under the tail board and it is held by a pair of clamps. This not only protects the bench it supports the wood to help prevent blowing out the other side. The chamfering on both sides also helps:

443398

Making thin cuts will also help to prevent unwanted deformation of the wood. Once the baseline is cleared the tails are checked for square:

443399

This little square has really helped to improve my dovetails. If the face of a tail is found out of square it is marked on the high side. A slightly out of square face will get a light single line at the edge. A bit more out of square will get a heavier line or two lines and so on. The out of square faces are then pared to square. At this point the tails are checked to make sure the corners at the base are all clear of any debris.

There are many different ways to line up the tail board to mark the pin board. Using a straight piece of wood clamped at the base line works well for me:

443400

The image shows the side to be registered to the pin board. The piece of wood on the other side is to protect the tail board from clamp prints. It is set 1/16” or more away from the base line. Marking the pin board from the tail board like this can eliminate having to set the tail board on something while marking the pins.

There are also many techniques to enhance or make the marks clear. Some like a red pencil. Others use blue tape. Whatever one is comfortable using is likely fine if it produces the desired result. For the pin board my preference is a knife line. My biggest problem used to be taking a slice off of the tail when not being careful. Holding the knife at a lower angle has helped to avoid that. When the pin board is marked it helps me to make the lines deeper:

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Sometimes it helps to use a sharp pencil to darken the line. For dark woods a white pencil or chalk can help. This also makes drawing the vertical lines easier:

443402

The poplar was a cooperative wood in this venture. The sawing and cleaning the pins wasn’t photographed. The pin faces were checked for vertical square and adjusted as needed. Tight spots were corrected with 13 & 15 grain rasps. After this a dry fit was accomplished:

443397

Most of the time my dovetails are marked to have proud pins & tails. The plowed slots are a little unsightly. An easy way to make them less noticeable is to add some plugs to the end.

A piece of scrap was rabbeted to the size of the slot. A gauge with a knife grind to the pin was then set a little proud of the slots depth:

443403

The image shows the pin in this gauge is sharpened more like a knife blade than a pin. The gauge was then used to slice an edge off of the rabbeted piece:

443404

The slicing took multiple passes from both sides until the piece came off.

This brings us to the eight image limit.

To be continued.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

When the box was dry assembled the end of the long side’s slots were marked from the depth of the short side’s slots. This was used to mark cuts for the individual plugs:

443536

The plugs are cut and then set in place ready for gluing. A plug can be seen at each end of the slot near the saw. The plugs were moved outward a bit at glue up as a little insurance for the fit of the bottom panels

Clamping is easy:

443537

Binder clips can be useful in the shop for many things. They are used to hang kitchen knives in the shop whenever their wooden handles need a coat of tung oil.

The depth of the plug stock was cut proud of the slot depth. Trimming this was fast work. Use a wide chisel and hold it flat on the surface of the pin board.

443538

Having not yet made up my mind as to leaving the pins proud or to cut them flush, the plugs were trimmed flush to the ends of the pins. It was very quick. It also makes the ends of the slotted pins look a lot better:

443539

This image also shows a photographic trick that works with many automatic cameras. The blurry piece of wood falling from between my fingers was being held flush with the pins to help the camera’s automatic focus have a large enough area on which to focus. It was dropped just as the shutter release was fully depressed.

The bottom panel was made from another piece of scrap long enough to make both panels. The sides were rabbeted with a Record #778. The ends were done with the same plane with the nicker lowered:

443535

This was a bit rough on the cross grain so it was followed with a shoulder plane:

443534

The thickness was checked regularly with a piece of scrap from the side stock:

443540

This should slide over the full length of the rabbet. This can be a helpful gauge on any project with grooves and panels.

The shoulder of the rabbet was given a few passes from a small hollow plane. Passes were taken from both ends toward the center.

443533

This gets us to the eight image limit.

Still to come is the trickiness of gluing this up and a design change due to brain farting the size needed.

To be continued.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

The glue up for this seemed as if it was going to be an ordeal. Then it dawned on me to dry assemble one side of the box while holding it in the vise to glue up the other side. Then it could be flipped over and held in the vise to take apart the dry assembled side for gluing:

443609

This worked well. Notice the piece of cardboard under the vise chop extenders:

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This was left overnight for the glue to set. The pins & tails weren’t proud enough to have a dramatic effect so my decision was to make the dovetails flush:

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This chisel is great for paring. It is a Union Hardware 1-1/2” socket chisel. It slices right through the poplar leaving a decent surface:

443608

The band saw was checked for the blade being square vertically before this cut:

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A push stick is being used here to hold the piece against the fence and another push stick was picked up to finish the cut before my hand was anywhere near the blade.

Then my smallest bench plane was used to remove the saw marks:

443613

A #3 or #4 could have also handled this. A small bench plane or a block plane could also have done the job. A smaller plane seems easier for me.

My plan was to make dividers the full length of the box with pieces at the ends using dados to hold the dividers. Somehow my original calculations for this came out wrong. A different way to make the dividers was needed. This will be the subject of the next post.

To be continued,

jtk

[Kevin Adams]

Nice work, Jim, thanks for the pics and step-by-step. Do you turn your own chisel handles and if so, which lathe do you use?

Thanks again.
Kevin

[steven c newman]

Nice work...but...somehow looks very firmilar ....
443617
Except I used a handsaw to remove the lid part...
443618
443619
"The Old Chisel's Home"

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work, Jim, thanks for the pics and step-by-step. Do you turn your own chisel handles and if so, which lathe do you use?

Thanks again.
Kevin

Thanks for the kind words Kevin.

My main reason for choosing to use socket chisels many years ago was for the ease of making new handles. My lathe is a Craftsman lathe, made by King Seely, most likely from the 1950s or so.

Here is an image of my grandson from about six years ago starting to turn a beadle for my froe:

443620

It has also made a lot of handles for files along with many other items.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work...but...somehow looks very firmilar ....

Boxes do tend to have similar yet traditional qualities and appearances. Though my lid will be a solid piece. My scrap for the panels wasn't large enough to make bottoms for the two tills and a top.

jtk

[James Pallas]

Nicely done Jim. Will last a lifetime.

[Jim Koepke]

Due to my error in measuring for the inside dimension of this, my original intent of having full length separators between the files wan’t possible. Plan B was to have short dividers in the center of the box. There are a few ways this could be done.

One thought was to do it in the same way the divider was done in my file drawer:

443779

The fitting of this was a bit time consuming. It seemed it might be faster to cut slots in a base for holding the dividers.

A Stanley #45 was set up for cutting stopped slots:

443780

A slitter stop and an auxiliary stop were attached to a piece of squared stock to use as an outboard sole. This was set even to the bottom of the skates. The blade holding bolt was set so the blade could still be adjusted. The first cut was set very light to help locate the location of the stop cut made with a chisel. After the first cut is taken a chisel is set across the end of the shaving and given a tap.

443781

This is a second chisel cut done after a few shavings remained attached below the first stop cut. This is a mortise chisel since my slots were 5/16” my only 5/16” chisel is a mortise chisel. What the heck, a slot is just a long mortise, right?

443782

This went rather quick. On each stroke the depth adjuster was given about a quarter turn to advance the blade. The blade can move a bit laterally due to the planing forces. It should be checked often and pushed back into place as needed. With the holding bolt tight, it didn’t move much. It occurred to me a cam stop might be helpful for one with a less steady hand. Maybe next time it will be given a try.

Because of the blade bedding angle the start end of a stopped slot will develop a ramp during cutting.

443783

This can easily be removed with careful chisel work.

The slots are ready to be fitted with their dividers:

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Since Candy wanted to use the camera there aren’t any images of cutting some scrap ash and planing it to size to fit the slots. Just the finished piece:

443785

With the dividers removable the box can be repurposed if my friend so chooses.

All that is left is to mount hinges and latches. My plan so far is to leave the wood unfinished, maybe a coat or two of wax. The weather has been too cold to do any finishing in the shop. The cold weather is why the dividers are on the dining room table for gluing.

To be continued,

jtk

[Jeff Ranck]

great work Jim!

[Axel de Pugey]

Stanley #45 was set up for cutting stopped slots:



443784


Hi Jim, thank you for this step by step.

I see your stopped slots really clean after the end of the cut part.
When I do stopped slots with my #50, I always have got tracks after the slot ended due to the metal skate of the plane. I have pictures of this somewhere if I am not clear.

Do you have a special trick or are the #45 skate’s different?

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Jim, thank you for this step by step.

I see your stopped slots really clean after the end of the cut part.
When I do stopped slots with my #50, I always have got tracks after the slot ended due to the metal skate of the plane. I have pictures of this somewhere if I am not clear.

Do you have a special trick or are the #45 skate’s different?

These slots were shorter than the length of the plane so it seemed to work well with the skates and the auxilary sole to be at the same height.

Especially in softer woods the skates can leave a mark. In some of my stopped cutting the skates have been elevated above the surface and the plane's effective sole is the depth stops all set below the surface of the skates holding them above the work.

My #50 doesn't have a blade adjuster so it hasn't been used for stopped cuts.

Depending on the work to be done many planes can do stopped cuts. One can use a chisel to do some of the work cutting out the slot's end as long as the part of the plane in front of the blade. This works for cutting stopped dados with a #39 plane.

Here are some of other posts where using a #45 for making stopped cuts came up > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?242089

and > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?257497

Here is the post on a practice stopped cut with a #39 > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?278928

jtk

[Axel de Pugey]

I found back a picture of my issue. I often cut a stopped groove for a bottom in my tails and end up with skates marks.

443981

This was oak by the way. Once the box is put together, it is not really visible so it never bothered me that much, I was just curious

Many thanks for all the links Jim. I confess I always have the same issue but never tried to look for a solution on the web.
Next time I need to do this, I will read your advices again and try to implement the solution of the depth stop and advance the cutter gradually..

Thank you for your help

[Jim Koepke]

Glad to be of help Axel.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Mounting hinges can be as simple as hanging them on the back of a box. It can also take on the mystery of medieval sorcery.

The first paralysis of analysis comes from determining the spacing.

One way is to just measure in equally from the ends and be done with it. Why should things be so bland?

Installing them to look balanced can be a challenge.

Years ago a Fibonacci Divider was made and comes in handy for this kind of thing. It is based on a number called Phi, 1.618, also known as the golden ratio. (1:1.618 or 0.618:1)

A divider is used to find center and the Fibonacci Divider’s outside legs are set to the length of the box:

444101

Then the outside leg and the center leg are centered on this point. For something like this a friction dividers is much easier than one having a threaded adjustment. This sets the point for the outside of the hinges. The hinges are used to make a light pencil line around the edges which is then laid in with a marking gauge, a square and a knife. In this method make the knife lines inside the pencil lines. Making a small mortise bigger is easier than making one made too large smaller.

A chisel makes quick work of clearing the mortise:

444102

In this case the hinges for the top compartment’s lid were done first.

The hinges being used for this are inexpensive economy hinges. The leaves do not close flat to each other. This required the lower mortise to be cut deeper. After the first shaving was removed the chisel was used to reestablish the side and back scribing of the mortise to remove another shaving. This was done until the hinge set in the mortise with the opposite leaf’s inside edge being in line with the top of the mortise:

444103

It may not be clearly visible in the image but the hinge leaves are being held parallel by having shavings from clearing the mortise placed between them.

When the first pair of hinge mortises are finished their location can be transferred to the bottom of this compartment and the top of the lower compartment:

444104

The lower compartment is held in the vise and the upper compartment is held in alignment by clamps. A square is lined up to the first hinge mortise by placing the knife point inside the mortise against the edge. The marks are then struck with a knife on the bottom of the top compartment and the top of the bottom compartment. This is best done with a thin knife.

After marking and cutting the mortises the hinges can be mounted. Here the hinge has been checked for flush and the centers for the screws are being marked:

444105

The screws are #2 X 1/2”. The shank pilot size is 3/32”. The depth being also ~3/32” it seemed it would be easy to do this without mechanical aid:

444106

This is a small chuck for use in a brace. It is also easy to use as a chuck for freehand drilling. After these were all drilled an egg beater was used to drill a 1/16” pilot hole for the threads of the screw.

There is usually a chunk of wax setting on the bench. Rubbing screws on the wax makes a big difference, especially with brass screws, to facilitate installing them. An interesting discovery was made with this batch of screws. Starting the screws with the slot running in line with the edge of the box ended up with the screw being snug with the slot at 90º to its starting position. Being a little CDO, having all the slots pointing the same way is a joy:

444107

They also look better than the cheap Phillips head screws that came with the hinges.

To be continued,

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Finally on the home stretch. This is where one needs to exercise care as there can be a temptation to rush to the finish line.

The flat head screws for the hinges are 1/2” long. This would have been too long to use on the solid top without cutting them. My plan was to use 1/4” round head screws to hold the latches instead of the little nails that came with them. With the hinges having a gap between the leaves when closed this seemed like a good way to go. A hinge was attached to a piece of scrap to check the 1/4” screw’s holding power and it held fine.

The 1/4” #2 round head screws were too small for my big fingers:

444157

It is helpful not having sold my tools from previous careers. This screw starter doesn’t get used a lot but it and all of its ilk are appreciated when they are used.

Note the stack of scraps supporting the lid as it is being attached.

With all the hinges in place, the next step is to install two latches. This starts by locating and marking center:

444158

The center is carried down to the edges between the upper and lower compartments. After screw placements are marked with an awl they are also carried down with pencil marks. The pilot holes for these were drilled using the freehand chuck. The turns were counted and the bit was used with my thumbnail to gauge the depth:

444159

There is usually a little bit of wood fiber at the edge of a drilled hole. This was removed with a chisel to keep the fibers from creating a lifting effect on the small brass hardware.

Finally it is done! The box was given a coating of furniture oil/wax:

444160

The furniture oil/wax tends to make any plane tracks show up. There weren’t any visible at this point. The slight misalignments of the edges between the upper and lower compartment were easy to correct with a small bench plane.

My friend will most likely repurpose this box since he stores files in a rack. It will hold them well with some extra packing for shipping:

444161

The chisels in the top compartment stay in place when the bottom compartment is opened:

444162

This project has given me a strange desire to make more multi-compartment boxes even though there doesn't seem to be any reason to do so, we shall see.

jtk

[Tim Best]

Really nice work, Jim. I think you might have gone overboard with the Fibonacci dividers though!🧐

[Jim Koepke]

Really nice work, Jim. I think you might have gone overboard with the Fibonacci dividers though!��

Thanks Tim, the divider is just hanging around the shop so it may as well get used.

It is kind of a joke though to maybe impress that the hinges can be placed by any method from just setting them by eye all the way to using rocket science if one so desires.

It is also easy to set them in from the edges 1/6 or 1/4 of the length. Those would be ratios of thirds or halfs.

jtk

[Erich Weidner]

Finally, I get to see the finished pics! :)

Looks very cool.

[Mike Allen1010]

JK, thanks for the awesome build thread exclamation market really appreciate you taking the time to provide the pictures and descriptions of your text me I really learned a lot. For example, never thought about filling the grooves and drawer bottoms before assembly – always just wedged the plug-in afterwards. Duuuuh, your way is much better. Also you had me at "Fibonacci dividers" – yeah I want some of those! Do I know what they are – hell no, still very cool.

Jim really appreciate you sharing your experience and craftsmanship. Following your thread was a super fun ride – interesting and inspirational. At the end of the day, if you're an OCD guy like me don't you have to admit life is simpler when everything has a box it belongs in – right? That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Thanks again Jim for posting!

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the kind words Mike.


if you're an OCD guy like me

Do you mean CDO? It looks better in alphabetical order.

There is a little more to this saga, making the cardboard box to ship it in. Also set a small diamond stone into a piece of mahogany to help keep his kitchen knives in good order.


life is simpler when everything has a box it belongs in – right?

A place for everything and everything in its place. In my shop some of those places are a jumble of similar things together.

This may look like a mess to some:

444350

There is actually an order to this. It has grown to being totally full since this was taken. There is another box like this with small carving gouges.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

This is now in the hands of the USPS.

My plan for the visit that never happened was to take my sharpening stones along to put my friends knives and such in order. He is not well equipped for sharping. My intent was to also give him a small diamond stone for touch ups in the kitchen. There was extra room in the box. So a holder was made for the stone and included.

Here is the Veritas Miniature Router Plane being used on a piece of mahogany:

444362

This was my first real use of this little router. It took a little getting used to the size but worked well at the job. The locking screw needs to be tightened down well or the vibrations can wiggle it loose. The little router was much easier than trying to do this with my full size router plane.

The diamond stone was set in place with epoxy. The sides were given a light groove with a plow plane which was followed with a round plane to make finger holds:

444363

The image is a bit soft focus because of condensation on the lens. This wasn’t noticed until it was already packed.

Making cardboard boxes is a bit different than making one of wood.

Using a tee square and a 4’ rule the box was lain out on the outside surface. About an extra inch was added for padding and to compensate for the thickness of the cardboard. This was then checked by setting the wooden box on the layout:

444364

Another tool saved from a previous occupation came in handy here, an electric eraser. Learning from my mistakes has made me a very learned man. :D

First, just like wooden boxes, it is a lot easier if everything starts square:

444365

Many years ago in the printing trades one of my employers taught me a few tricks of cardboard box making by hand. Here are a few. The bench is covered, in this case, with a piece of scrap 1/4” plywood. Also note the long rule is held down by clamps. For this box the fold lines are lain out at 7”. The starting point is from a previous fold on the box from which this piece was salvaged. Also visible on the second fold line from the left in the image is where there was a handhold cut in the box. This was covered with tape inside and out.

The box knife blade was sharpened before starting work on this box. When cutting cardboard, start with a very light cut. For the first cut the focus should be on keeping the blade against the guide. The first cut will help guide the knife on each following cut.

An extra inch and a half was left on one edge for adhering on the inside with hot melt glue. It makes folding in the end flaps easier if there is a bit cut off of this piece:

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For cutting the end flaps there should be a space between them about the thickness of the cardboard being used. Marking the end of the cut is neat and easy with a small carving gouge:

444367

My original plan was for the end flaps to be sized to the inside dimensions of the box. The thickness of the cardboard made this difficult.

Folding the cardboard where desired is made easy by first scoring it. My tool for this purpose was made from a salvaged riffler file that broke and was discarded during my employment working on transit vehicles:

444368

This was ground round on the bottom side. My boss in the print shop would use the backside of a box knife with the blade retracted. The plan is to crease the cardboard without tearing the surface.

As mentioned earlier, the end flaps were originally planned to be the full size of the inside dimensions of the box. This looked a bit sloppy so their length was cut to half the inside dimension and the final check looked good:

444369

Hot melt glue was generously applied to the small flap and held in place with a piece of wood, longer than the box and clamped at both ends to the bench to set. The seam was taped on the outside. My old boss mentioned these seams are always finding something to tear them apart.

In the morning we received a package via UPS that had a lot of paper padding included. One piece of this was used to wrap the wooden box. The bubble wrap that was included was also used to pad the wooden box all around.

Tape was also wrapped around the outside of the cardbaord box near both ends. My roll of tape was bought close to 30 years ago from a independent jobber who would buy all kinds of surplus and sell them to the public. He had acquired the ‘mother rolls’ of packing tape that were over a foot in diameter. It cost me $2. There is still about a five inch diameter left on a shop made dispenser with a piece of hacksaw blade for a cutter.

Hope you all have enjoyed the saga,

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Also you had me at "Fibonacci dividers" – yeah I want some of those! Do I know what they are – hell no, still very cool.

Forgot to include a link to this:

Fibonacci Golden Ratio Phi Dividers

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?223546

jtk