How to make curved box sides

[Lee Schierer]

LOML wants me to make a box like the one in the photo. I don't know how the sides are made. The box is 4-1/2 High x 12-1/2 long and 8'1/2 deep. Any one have any idea (and instructions) of how to make the curved sides on a box like this. 12" seems a bit long to try to cut the curve standing on end on a band saw.

[Jim O'Dell]

How about a big honkin' cove bit on a shaper? Just make sure you have enough wood thickness and you should be able to build the box, then run it through the shaper. Jim.

[Andrew Williams]

That is the same shape as ogee bracket feet. Glen Huey has a video on how to make it with mostly tablesaw. Not sure if you can buy it alone but it is bundled with the "Making Period Furniture" book. I guess the other option would a a curved-sole plane.

[Fred Gross]

If you don't have a shaper, you can do it on the table saw using an auxilary fence(s) clamped across the top. It requires multiple light passes, but it shouldn't be too bad for your project.

Here's a link to help you figure out where to clamp the fence to your saw top:

http://dknudson.unixcab.org/covecut.html

Here's a link to a thread that shows it with a circular saw:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=42619&highlight=tablesaw+cove

[Steve Wargo]

Lee,
You can always make a trip to Cleveland (not too far away) and we can cut it with moulding planes. That's a piece of cake.

[glenn bradley]

You may like these:

http://eagleamerica.com/product.asp?pn=175%2D1405&bhcd2=1186248523

[Todd Jensen]

Fred, thanks for the links - I really like the cove calculator. I'm going to have to try this myself.

[John Timberlake]

Lonnie Bird also has a good description in his book "Shaping Wood". I made similar molding for bracket feet using a table saw, hand plane and scrapers.

[Jim Becker]

The best way to visualize the above is to remember that boxes like this usually have flat sides on the interior...it's basically a picture frame type construction... ;) ...so you make your stock up just like any other molding, using the method(s) of your choice. I'll also suggest that will entail multiple passes, perhaps with different cutters, unless you have a big shaper or are working with a custom molding plane by hand.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

All the suggestions are pretty good. However, for just one box you might make a plane from maple and hand grind the blade from a blank you purchased just for purpose of making a plane to make that profile.

Sounds like a bit of work but the plane needn't be a work of art nor terribly accurate. It's not to be used for jointing so hand grinding the profile is perfectly adequate.

[richard poitras]

Just use crown molding to make the box it works and looks good!

[Bob Feeser]

Another way of doing it that would be pretty easy, would be to start with a wider board than you need, in order to give you some flexibility in working it. Then draw the shape you want on one end. Pencil it in. You would be free to create whatever shape pleases you. You would also be able to create a base plate to finish the bottom off with a bull nose bit, or any other bit that would create the shape you want on the "skirt" Once you have tweaked your design. Then with your table saw, resting the edge of the workpiece on your fence, raise the standard table saw blade as close to your pencil line as possible. Then make a pass. Move your table saw fence over a little bit, change how high you raised the blade, to make it correspond to your pencil line, and make another pass. Keep doing this until you have all of the material removed. If you take your time, you will avoid a mistake by over cutting the depth. That would ruin it. So creep up to the setting, making more than one pass if neccessary. Once you get it all real close to your line, then you can sand it out smooth with 80 grit. Then with finer grits until you get it smooth for finishing. Once you are happy with it, run it through your table saw, with the blade set up high enough to do a through cut, and make 2 passes, one for each side to size.
You want to use one board, that is long enough to make all 4 sides at the same time. so that way they all match.
The key to doing a precision job with this method would be to get all of your saw cuts as close to the line as possible. That would minimize sanding, which would give you the greatest possiblity of having both ends of the board, that will mate up on the final corner, aligning properly. I imagine that you would be doing 45's on the corners which creates a very fragile edge. Something that you could not sand like crazy to make up for any kind of poor alignment, that would be the result of trying to sand too much to make up for not getting the blade close enough when removing material.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Lee,
Use your Band Saw. This is just like making ogee feet for a cabinet.

[Lee Schierer]

Upon further review and input from this and another forum, I will be using crown molding for the sides. I can get the crown molding that exactly matches the sides from my local supplier in Cherry which is what LOML wants for this box.