Cherry Box

[Lee Schierer]

My wife and I were recently on the committee for our 40th high school class reunion. It was determined that we needed to do a Chinese auction for a fund raiser to help defray costs. She volunteered me to make some thing from wood and found a similar box in a gift catalog. The box is pretty easy to make. The difficulty was getting the corner angles at precisely 45 degrees so that the corners closed up perfectly. The hinges are brass pin hinges. The sides of the box are cherry crown molding. The top is the last of the salvaged cherry mantle piece I recovered from my neighbor. Two pieces were resawn from the block and book matched to make the top. The finish is Deft semi-gloss clear wood finish with about 2 weeks of sun exposure. The box was highly sought after at the Chinese auction. The box is about 9 x 12 on the inside and 5" tall.

Thanks for viewing

[Raymond Fries]

Very nice box. I love cherry and it looks line the mantle wood was a very close match for the molding.

[John Timberlake]

Very nice. Good match on the wood grain and love the color.

[Jim Becker]

Beautiful work, Lee!

[Garth Keel]

very good looking and used reclaimed wood is a good idea.

[frank shic]

lee, great little box! being chinese myself, i am very curious to find out just what exactly is a CHINESE AUCTION? is it an auction done in chinese? are the buyers chinese? it it done in chinatown? great tip for using up the leftover crown molding. miter joints are tough, aren't they?

[Alex Carrera]

Gorgeous box. What did you end up using to get the corners to match up perfectly? I think I'm resigned to building a shooting board and using hand planes

[Bob Feeser]

Nice proportions, beautiful wood, and in ingenious use of crown moldings. It's wonderful how they flow into the overall design. Nice work.

[James Gillespie, Jr.]

lee, great little box! being chinese myself, i am very curious to find out just what exactly is a CHINESE AUCTION? is it an auction done in chinese? are the buyers chinese? it it done in chinatown? great tip for using up the leftover crown molding. miter joints are tough, aren't they?

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_auction

Cheers,
James

[frank shic]

xie xie, xianzai wo dong le (thank you, i now understand)! :D

[Dean Thomas]

Nice piece, Lee. The color from the late or early sun really plays nicely on the warmth of the cherry. Enjoyed the use of the crown molding to give a special shape to an already special box from good, old wood.

[Greg Crawford]

Doesn't it make you feel great when your piece is one of the choicest at a charity auction? I had a piece that held the State Quarters that was like that several years ago. Great job, especially letting the cherry stay mainly in it's natural state.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Very nice work, Lee. I'm sure the winner is well pleased.:)

[Thomas Kila]

I can see why this piece was highly sought after at the auction. Really nice job!

[Lee Schierer]

Gorgeous box. What did you end up using to get the corners to match up perfectly? I think I'm resigned to building a shooting board and using hand planesI use my TS for cutting the beveled ends. I set the rough blade tilt with a 45 degree drafting triangle. Then make a practice cut in two pieces of scrap wood and check the corner with a high quality combination square. If it is close, then I cut all the pieces I need 1/4-1/2" longer than needed and trial fit the entire box, making sure that opposite sides are exactly the same length. All four sides at the same time. I also mark each corner so that the same pieces are fit together each time. Depending on the fit, I increase or decrease the tilt a bit and shave a little off the pieces and do another test fit. Once the test fit is good, I trim all the pieces to the needed length. This process usually takes 2-3 trial fits to get it perfect. It also gives you practice clamping the pieces so that when you apply the glue, clamping is second nature. Apply a liberal coating of glue since you are glueing end grain.