Quick and easy Xmas gifts from scraps

[John Huber]

I'm sort of a packrat and hate to throw out scraps of wood and veneer, hoping that a small project will come along and use them. Then I stumbled on this solution. The women in my life love decorative covers for tissue boxes. It turns out that this kind of box has a fairly standard size, 4 7/16 x 4 7/16 x 5 1/4 H. If you make them from solid stock, you can saw and glue one in a day; veneering, sawing, gluing, rabbetting, edging, and flush cutting may take three days. Then add on whatever time it takes to do your finishing method on whatever wood you use. Plenty of time to be done by Christmas.

From the left, they are walnut veneer, quilted maple veneer, and curly walnut veneer. The finish is David Marks'
http://www.djmarks.com/stories/faq/What_is_the_mix_ratio_for_the_Linseed_Oil_Tung_Oil _and_Urethane_46687.asp

These boxes may be quick, easy, and cheap to make, but they sell for almost $200 on the internet.

http://www.gasperetti.com/access.html

[Benjimin Young]

Hi John, Looks great.

How do you do the veneer inlay flush with the corner sections? Must be a trick to the process That I am missing.

[John Huber]

Here's how I did it, there may be better ways:

1. Veneer both sides of the substrate which is slightly oversize.
2. Saw the miters to finish size.
3. Glue the mitered edges. Roll up the box the way the box books tell you. Drop in the top. Put a weight on it.
4. After the glue has cured, rabbet 1/4" x 1/4" the edges of the box.
5. Make 5/16" x 5/16" edging stock. Carefully miter the edging ends and glue them on the top edges. Use rubber bands to clamp. Saw the edging stock to fit the side edges. Use rubber bands to clamp. Make appropriate sixed edging for the bottom. Miter it, glue it, clamp with rubber bands.
6 After the glue has cured, use a palm router with a flush trim bit and remove the excess edging. Now the edging is flush with the veneer.

Hope this answers your question.

[Benjimin Young]

Thanks John, I think I get the process although it will be a while before I have the skill ;-)

[everett lowell]

Real nice John, I love the one in the middle! Good idea, I save my scraps, but I tend to overlook them, I should do something with them!