Building Small Box (4"x6 3/4"x11") from 1/2" Baltic Birch Plywood

[bennie blackwell]

I am building a box to store my DowelMax dowel jig and accessories. I modified a design I found from a youtube video and want to build it from 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood with 1/4" Melamine for some of the dividers. The plywood I have on hand measures 15/32" thick so I used this thickness in my SketchUp drawings. Since there are various tongues/grooves/dadoes/slots/... with dimensions like (1/4"x1/4"), (7/32"x1/4"), (1/4"x7/32"), I can see that there is a high probability of screwing up the milling process. Has someone figured out a methodical procedure to get it right the first time? I am amenable to tweaking the design if it leads to a methodical milling process.
dowelmax jig storage box.jpg

[Jim Becker]

The best way to "dial in" the grooves, slots, dados and rebates for material thickness is to use a cutter that's narrower than the material thickness so you can make these cuts to "exact" fit. Be sure that if you are using more than one sheet of material for the project that you measure the thickness of both... They may vary...err they WILL vary...

[lowell holmes]

Make patterns, one for each part out of paper cards. After you prove the patterns are correct, cut your parts using the pattern.
This is in addition to Jim's suggestion.

[Charlie Hinton]

If the long sides were rabbetted into the short sides then the middle long piece could be the same length as the long sides.
Then you could cut the dados for the small spacers off of the same reference.
Same for the dados for the long middle spacer to lock into the short sides.

[bennie blackwell]

Thanks Charlie Hinton for your suggestion. I have implemented it as shown in the attachments. I don't think I made my original post clear. My issue is that when you have a repeated rabbet or groove or slot or dado that is 7/32" x 1/4", how do you NOT inadvertently get the dimensions interchanged when you mill stock? With no more wood than the box takes, it won't break the bank to cut another piece. However, my professional pride dictates that I carefully plan the project as if the box was made of some exotic wood. In case you are wondering why the lid retaining slot has a strange looking notch, it makes the milling process simpler as it is a through cut instead of stopped.dowelmax jig storage box assembled wo lid.jpgdowelmax jig storage box exploded.jpg

[Charles Lent]

My first recommendation is to measure the thickness of your plywood. Baltic Birch is available in millimeter thicknesses and not 1/2" imperial. For the best fit of your rabbets and dados you will need to take this into consideration. Jim Becker's suggestion is the best way to do this. I made a jig something like this to get my dados the correct width similar to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j4vGS4HY-8

When cutting rabbets and dados I usually clamp the two alternate sides together edge to edge, so I can make one longer cut across both pieces. The result is perfect alignment. Most of your cuts can be made this way and most of your pieces of your box are in pairs, so it helps to do this. It also avoids any measurement errors that might result in the dados not being directly across from one another.

I make a lot of boxes using 12 mm (1/2") Baltic Birch, usually box jointing the corners with my I-Box jig on my Unisaw, but cutting dados for partitions this way. The jig in the video lets you adjust the width of the dado to perfectly match the thickness of the piece that the dado must fit, no matter what thickness it is.

Charley

[Bert McMahan]

One thing to remember is that you don't always have to cut the outside profile first, then your slots/dados/rabbets.

For example, the middle long piece and the right long piece could be a single wider piece. You cut your rabbets and dadoes first, then cut the whole thing in half- this way they're bang on perfect.

You can of course just cut them separately using the same reference, it's just a different way to do things.

[Charlie Hinton]

1/2" Baltic birch is the perfect excuse to buy the Whiteside undersize plywood router bit.
Or even better the set of three.
This is the excuse I used to get my set.

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[Jim Becker]

1/2" Baltic birch is the perfect excuse to buy the Whiteside undersize plywood router bit.
Or even better the set of three.

Have such a set, albeit from Infinity. The issue is that plywood thickness is variable and half the time, the cutters are either too wide or too narrow depending on the specific sheet(s) being worked. So while I agree that the set is helpful in general, one cannot assume that the cutters will actually match the material being used. And yes, even the highest quality BB is variable in thickness...nature of the beast.

[bennie blackwell]

Thanks for all your suggestions. The box is complete. While very functional, it is not particularly pretty. There were a couple of screw ups that I will pass on. The left to right width of one of the compartments was too narrow. I was able to correct that by flipping the center divider end to end; hence the "extra" divider slots. The second screw up was that the underneath side of the sliding lid rests on the top of the center divider. Hence, there is no room for the instruction manuals.finished dowelmax storage box.JPG

[Charles Lent]

Ah, but you likely won't make those same mistakes again. Make another, now that you have learned so much about building boxes doing this first one. The duplicate, with the improvements, will be something to be proud of. Every once in a while one of my boxes doesn't turn out quite the way that I planned, but it's just part of the learning curve, and I don't make the same mistake the next time. I either repair the mistake and move on, or I make another box and later find a use for the one with the mistake.


Charley