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Fred Voorhees
12-02-2007, 10:44 AM
I built this keepsake box for my niece/Godchild for Christmas over the past week or so. I purchased the Freud box joint set of tablesaw blades over last Summer and hadn't gotten around to trying them out. I thought this project would be a good opportunity to give them a go. Obviously, the box is constructed from walnut using 3/8" joints at the corners of the box. I had had a box joint jig made up previous to purchasing this set of blades, but fussed around with it and didn't get satisfactory results. I started from scratch using the video from Wood magazine and came away with a decent working jig. I used contrasting red oak for the feet and also a quarter inch inlay around the beveled lid. I still have a little bit of spalted maple laying around the shop from when I discovered some while splitting firewood a number of years ago and inlaid a panel of that into the center/top of the lid. Speaking of the lid, I recessed the bottom of the lid with rabbits so that it fit snugly inside the confines of the box. I lined the inside with some peel and stick red felt and finished the project with spray lacquer.

frank shic
12-02-2007, 10:45 AM
very nice, fred! thanks for sharing.

Don Bullock
12-02-2007, 12:04 PM
Fred, that's a great box. I like your use of different wood. The splatted maple really adds a lot to the design.

Lance Norris
12-02-2007, 12:30 PM
Very Nice. Never heard of "peel and stick felt"

Jared Cuneo
12-02-2007, 1:15 PM
Great looking box! Do you mind giving some details on the inlay process? Router? Before or after cutting the bevels? Lots of details please :) :)

JC

Fred Voorhees
12-02-2007, 2:13 PM
Great looking box! Do you mind giving some details on the inlay process? Router? Before or after cutting the bevels? Lots of details please :) :)

JC

Jared, it's funny that you should ask for the details of the inlay process. I learned something that should have been somewhat obvious to me beforehand. Try to follow me on this. The process for the lid was as follows:

I started with the flat stock sized to be a quarter inch larger in both width and length dimensions for the box itself. I knew I was going to bevel the edges of the lid and wanted an inlay of the oak somewhere within the bevel. I laid out the bevel on one end of the lid stock and used that to determine where I wanted the inlay groove to be. I used my Freud box joint blades to cut a quarter inch dado an equal distance from each side of the lid stock using my tablesaw fence as a guide. I set the depth to cooincide with the bevel "sketch" on the end of the lid stock. That is to say....the bottom of the outer edge of the dado met the angle of the bevel sketch. That is where an eventual snag hit me. So, I cut the dados and planed the oak down for a nice fit and installed them in the rectangular area with mitered joints that it would appear on the finished lid. Now, when I went to cut the bevels on the lid (material up on edge against the tablesaw fence - blade beveled) I cut so that I didn't meet the bottom outside edge of the dado. I figured to leave a little bit "buried" into the walnut. However, I forgot that the dado cut extended all the way to the ends and both front and back of the panel. That meant that I first ended up with a slight bit of dado cut still present in the actual bevel when I finished the first series of bevel cuts. I had to set my tablesaw blade to exactly meet the bottom outside corner of the dado to totally wipe away any remnants of the dado cut from the beveled areas. Tricky yes, and to be honest, the outside edge of the oak inlay is a bit "fuzzy" to use a crappy term to describe its appearance. It's fine and hardly noticeable, but it isn't nearly as crisp an edge as I would have liked. Lesson learned I guess. Next time, I will use my router with an edge guide and route out only the area of the inlay and use a chisel to square up the corners.

The spalted maple inlay area was routed out using an edge guide and a quarter inch downcut spiral bit. Downcut so that it didn't possibly splinter or chip out the edge of the panel recess. Depth was to match the stock that I had - about an eight of an inch - and simply glued in using a caul and pressure overnight. I left the panel slightly proud and sanded it down flush with the top.

Fred Voorhees
12-02-2007, 2:14 PM
Very Nice. Never heard of "peel and stick felt"

It's somewhat paper backed. Honestly, it was the best I could do on short notice and it isn't as soft to the touch as I would have liked, but it did a nice job.

Jim Becker
12-03-2007, 9:35 AM
Beautiful piece, Fred!!!

mark page
12-03-2007, 10:30 AM
Fred,

Great box, and thanks for the tip on dadoing the oak inlay strips. I would have made the same mistake too as I was envisioning in my mind how you did it. You definately saved me some future grief. Thanks.

Mark Valsi
12-03-2007, 11:24 AM
FRED,

I hope you can take some honest criticism.

Those feet have got to go !!! Wow, that first picture just turned me off to the whole thing ! Those feet are too big and do nothing to add to the aesthetic quality of the box.

I think the Box joints also ruin the box! Miters would have been much better. Box joints are too "busy" for beautiful walnut like this.

The top is "A+" though, the spalted maple is beautiful, and your choice of the piece of wood and how to use it was very good. I like the bevels as well.

The inlay in the top is very nice, but i would have used some kind of Maple, perhaps even some spalted maple.

I am not a fan of using red oak with Walnut ! I don't like the wide open grain of the oak with the tight grain of the walnut.

This is not a personal attack at all, just some honest crticism. I'd love to see you do another one with some of the suggestions I have mentioned

Lee Schierer
12-03-2007, 1:14 PM
I used contrasting red oak for the feet and also a quarter inch inlay around the beveled lid. Nice looking box, tell us how did you go about cutting the slots for the inlay on the bevels?

Fred Voorhees
12-03-2007, 4:54 PM
FRED,

I hope you can take some honest criticism.

Those feet have got to go !!! Wow, that first picture just turned me off to the whole thing ! Those feet are too big and do nothing to add to the aesthetic quality of the box.

I think the Box joints also ruin the box! Miters would have been much better. Box joints are too "busy" for beautiful walnut like this.

The top is "A+" though, the spalted maple is beautiful, and your choice of the piece of wood and how to use it was very good. I like the bevels as well.

The inlay in the top is very nice, but i would have used some kind of Maple, perhaps even some spalted maple.

I am not a fan of using red oak with Walnut ! I don't like the wide open grain of the oak with the tight grain of the walnut.

This is not a personal attack at all, just some honest crticism. I'd love to see you do another one with some of the suggestions I have mentioned

Mark, I think the closeness of the first picture distorts the actual size of the feet in relation to the entire project. If you look at the other two pictures, it gives you a more realistic idea of the ratio. As for the box joints, as I explained, I hadn't gotten around to trying out my new Freud box joint blade set and thought that this project would be a good opportunity to try it out. I don't mind the joint...to each his own I guess.

Fred Voorhees
12-03-2007, 4:58 PM
Nice looking box, tell us how did you go about cutting the slots for the inlay on the bevels?

Lee, if you look up above at my response to Jared Cuneo, I explain how I did it. You may be thinking that I cut the dados after the bevels, but I cut them before the bevels were cut.