Trinket Box

[Raymond Stanley]

Hi All,

I'm building a trinket box for my 4 mo old neice! Although it's not really an appropriate toy for this age, I hope that it is something that she will treasure as she gets older and maybe even pass down in the family. I plan on carving her initials into the top of the box.

I haven't done a whole lot of woodworking aside from building my bench, so I'm excited to do this project. I generally do stuff all neander, but have used a power drill, jig saw, and now the air cleaner on projects.

I thought I'd log some of the process so other newbies could see the steps for a basic project and hopefully learn from my probable mistakes.

I've used the golden ratio to determine the dimensions - 1 width: 1.62 length : .62 height. My box is going to be about 6 x 9.75 x 3.75 inches. It is going to have mitred corners and a raised panel lid. It is made out of pine, just because thats what I have worked with before for my workbench.

I have 4-squared all the peices and am ready to set my dimensions for my rabbets and grooves. The peices are not perfect, but they are within about 1/32" of flat and square.

I made the mitred sides of equal length by creating one side to my desired length, and then marking the length of the opposite side with the original peice and a marking knife. I then used the shooting board to get to that line.

I am using stock that is just a hair thicker than 1/2" - it is 9/16" thick.

So now the first question, probably of many:
How deep should I make my grooves for the bottom and for the top? I was planning on using 1/4" deep grooves, but then realized that I was basing that on a design for use with 3/4" stock. Will 1/4" be too deep for 1/2" stock? Will 1/8" be too shallow? Yikes, so many little decisons!

Anybody have any suggestions for good books on the itty bitty details of joint dimensions?

I've added a few pics to show my progress so far.

Shooting my Miters:
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All the pieces lined up and ready to go:
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Thanks!
Ray

[Robert Rozaieski]

Are you using a plough to cut the groove? If so (and even if you use a table saw or router), don't worry about exact measurements. Plough out the first side about 1/3 of the thickness (just gauge it by eye or set a marking gauge and scribe a depth line), then set the depth stop on the plough based on the depth of this groove (take a couple passes after setting the depth stop to make sure you have an even bottom on the first piece). Then plough your remaining pieces to the same depth as the first using the depth stop to get you there. When you make the bottom/panel, gauge the depth of the groove rather than measuring. Gauging is much more accurate anyway. You can basically build your entire project without a ruler and be much more accurate. Get used to working this way rather than measuring and you will be much more accurate in all of the steps in making any project and steps go faster as well. I try to leave my rulers hanging on the wall as much as possible. I probably use them more as rough straight edges than for measuring.

[Raymond Stanley]

Thanks Robert. I plan on using a plough plane for all of this. The reason I am concerned with the absolute depth of the groove is just to keep it from being so deep that it makes the piece weak, or so shallow that it isn't sufficient for holding in panels an leaving room for growth.

So, it seems to me that a general rule for groove depth is 1/3 of stockness thickness.

How much room would you leave for wood growth when building in the end of summer georgia weather, with a 6" width across the grain? 1/16"?

[Robert Rozaieski]

6" isn't a lot so I would not expect a lot of movement. At this time of year I wouldn't leave much if any space at all as I would expect the panels to shrink. Definately no more than 1/16" (on each side) and likely less than that (again, I really don't measure much).

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi Raymond,

Like Robert, I don't measure much for grooves per se. And 6" wide won't experience hardly any movement, so no worries there. I use an eyballed 1/3 as a guide.

Usually after I plow the grooves, I measure the depth for cutting the panel, but I do tend to eyeball the depth. I usually place the first piece to be grooved in my bench vise, lay the plow horizontal on the edge of the piece to be grooved, deice the depth, set the depth stop, check it (make any adjustment to the depth I deem necessary, and groove away.

Also, if the cutter is relaxed during grooving (or reset for a ranker cut) the depth stop isn't an absolute distance anyway.

Take care, Mike

[Raymond Stanley]

I finally got all my groove/panel dimensions straight.
I've left about 1/16th extra in the groove for expansion/contraction of the bottom.
However, when I've rabbetted the bottom, I didn't leave any extra room between the edge of the rabbet and the sides. So, the panel doesn't really have room to float around due to the lip of the rabbet, but does have room to expand within the groove.
Should I have left some room for shrinkage there, too?


Thanks!
-Ray

[Raymond Stanley]

Just thought I'd post some pics of my progress...


I put the grooves into the sides using a Record 44 plough plane, with a wedge of wood in place of a lost blade calmp. I put a 1/4" wide, 1/4" deep groove into my 9/16" stock. Because I didn't put the groove in before I sliced my board up, holding without blunting the miter ends was a challenge. I used a mitered stop block to help.
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Putting in the grooves was relatively quick and easy. Anybody who says getting a groove with hand tools is imprecise and slow must have not used the right tools:
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Then I took my moving fillister plane out to make the rabbets in the bottom piece to fit into the groove. I put a the rabbet 3/16 in from the outside, and tried to leave 1/4" of thickness leftover.

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I struggled with this process a lot more than with the grooves. This is my first time using the plane, and I should have done more practice and test pieces before I did the bottom. I'm going to try to work the blade a bit more and practice more, and hopefully it will go smoother. The tongues came out a little thinner than desired, unsquare to the rabbet ledge, and generally pretty rough.

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But nevertheless, by putting the rabbeted side down, it still fits into the box sides nicely.

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Thanks for all you help everybody! I know this is rather elementary, but I figured maybe some other beginners would benefit from it.
-Ray

[Mike K Wenzloff]

It looks pretty good, Raymond.

In the future, you would want a skosh of room all the way around the rebate for expansion, not just within the groove. 6" wide bottom will probably not be a problem, though.

As for the MF plane, on thin narrow stock they can be a bit fussy. Not much room for correcting the cut as you go because it is done so quickly. That's something just using it more will take care of.

Again, good job! Not only on the result, but the problem solving on holding the mitered stock.

Take care, Mike

[Robert Rozaieski]

Looks like you did just fine to me. Nice job!

[Raymond Stanley]

Well its been a while since an update...I've been toiling on raising a panel with limited tools. I finally got something acceptable, but still a little rough:

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I marked out a 25 degree angle on the edge so that 3/16" in from the edge, it would be 3/16" thick. I used these numbers based on a 4/16" deep and 3/16" wide groove that the panel was going to go into. Referencing my pencil marks, I set the fence on my moving fillister for the raised field, and set my marking guage for the edge thickness of the bevel.

I used the moving fillister to cut a 2/16" deep rabbet, then just used a low angle block plane to shave the angle until I got down to the marking guage line and was as close to the edge of the field as the non-rabbet block plane would let me be. I tried the moving fillister on the edge but I am still struggling with fine adjustments of wooden planes. I also tried to get a bevel that came right up to the raise field by finishing up with a shoulder plane, but it was more difficult to get a smooth edge, and just seemed to create extra work when the lip looked fine to me.

The panel still needs a bit of clean-up work, especially in the form of rounding off the lip between the raised field and bevel. I'm also doing some final sizing and dealing with wood movement issues (see my recent post on frame & panel + wood movement).

Sorry for the not so great pics - cell phone camera is what is available to me for now.

Thanks!
-Ray

[Raymond Stanley]

Hi All!

Well I've had some to time to do the next step on the box: carving my neice's initials in the top!

I learned how to do this through FWW #187, "The ABCs of Letter Carving" by T.J. McDermott.

First I chose my font style and size, printed it out, and then traced it onto the top using carbon paper:
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Then I drew lines along the centers of the letters, as well as my serif
guidelines:

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Now lets get down to business. Using a 3/4" bench chisel and a #7 14mm carving gauge, I "traced" the center lines. By "trace" I mean place the chisel perpendicular to the board, align with the lines, and press down (with harder wood I'd have to give it a wack). For the serifs, I angle the depth of cut so that that deepest part connects to the center line. The serif line then fades up to the level of the rest of the wood.
Then using a 1/4" bench chisel, I carved in from the edges down to those center lines. The result was this:

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And here is the shot of the whole raised-panel top with the carving:

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...And now on to my first attempt at finishing with Shellac!

[Raymond Stanley]

Well, the box I've been working for 3 months, my first non-shop project, is finally done!

I finished the box with blonde shellac and a few coats of wax.
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Hand-cut keyed miters with cherry veneer
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Carved neice's initials into raised panel top
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Back View
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Open Up!
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[Raymond Stanley]

A few more pics - the bottom, with my initials and year burnt in.
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And....a closeup of the scar I gave the thing just a week away from completion. I was fitting the hinges and making the mortises a little bit deeper. I put a lot of pressure into the wood with the chisel (in retrospect, light hammer taps would have been much better), and wham!
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A chisel split off a piece of the side (there is still a small peice missing), and went through the bottom, splitting it, and into the workbench. Yikes. That was no fun, but the repair came out tolerable, and luckily none of my body parts were in the way of that chisel!

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

Very nice, I'm sure your neice will get a lifetime of enjoyment from having it, before passing it on to the next generation.

Regards,

Tim

[David Martino]

Dude! Nice job. Lotta hand skills here you'll be able to use again, and ambitious on the letter carving. Your niece is lucky!

-Dave, another beginner who's counting the weeks to Christmas and wondering if he'll finish that toy chest for his nephew

[Raymond Stanley]

Thanks for the kind words guys!
Dave, Good luck on your toy chest - projects like these sure are a rush (literally and figuratively!)

[Mark Stutz]

Great looking box. Even more impressive is the fact this was a first for many things. I can tell you that I have more than one project with a "scar" in that very same place!:D

Mark