First Box

**Tony Hunt** · 18th July 2008, 11:33 AM

This is my first box, made to house my ten-year-old son's butterfly collection. The top is a piece of beautifully figured coastal cypress I bought at the Sydney woodworking show a couple of years ago. I had no idea what I was going to use it for but it was such a wild-looking piece of wood I bought it anyway. The sides are an unknown timber, Australian white cedar perhaps, that I picked up during a "council clean-up" (where everyone dumps all the junk on the kerbside and the council hauls it off to the landfill), I got a couple of nice unmarked pieces, each 12mm x 120mm x ~3 metres!

The box came together quite nicely in the end, with only a moderate amount of swearing, although it doesn't bear close inspection

. The splined mitre corners were fun, the splines and the internal lining were made from pieces of an old timber venetian blind (again courtesy of a council clean-up, I get a lot of interesting timber that way!).

**Slavo** · 18th July 2008, 12:03 PM

Nice work Tony, I'm sure your son will be more than happy with it.

**RufflyRustic** · 18th July 2008, 12:07 PM

Hi Tony,

what a lovely box! The figured cypress is very impressive! Glad to hear only a moderate amount of swearing was needed

So what's next?

cheers
Wendy

**Tarant** · 18th July 2008, 01:23 PM

Impressive, the blend of the unknown timber and the cypress looks great!

What are the dimensions if I may ask?

**Tony Hunt** · 18th July 2008, 01:39 PM

Thanks folks, I'm glad you like it. It certainly was a lovely piece of cypress, I'm happy to have found a good use for it.

Tarant, I don't have the box in front of me but it's roughly 2 feet by 1 feet, in other words a fairly large box.

I have enough of the cedar-ish timber to make another (and as the first one is pretty much full I'll have to), and as I picked up a lovely piece of purple-heart leatherwood at the most recent Sydney show I might use some of that to make a matching-but-different box.

**Chipman** · 18th July 2008, 01:42 PM

Very Nice

The wood in the top is stunning!

A question: How did you cut your splined mitre joints? I stumbled across this type of joint a few years ago and I have a simple angled jig and do them on the router table with a slot cutter. Interested in how others do them...I know some do them on the bench or table saw...

Look forward to seeing more of your work

Chipman

**Tony Hunt** · 18th July 2008, 02:00 PM

Thanks Chipman. I was a little worried that such a big piece of wood with such wild grain might be unstable when cut so thin (it's only about 8 mm thick) but after a couple of years slowly drying between a couple of pieces of melamine (with some weight on top to keep it flat) it seems to have settled down nicely. It was quite green when I got it. Smelt lovely!

How did I cut the spline slots? Thanks for asking - the wrong way, I suspect

. I played around with the height of the blade on the 10" tablesaw until the curve of the blade gave a suitable angle of cut and then edged the boards (with the mitre already cut, outside face downward) into the blade until the cut was within a whisker of the edge of the mitred edge on the upper (inside) face of the board. This method requires considerable care to make sure the slots line up after assembly, and a lot of test board stock. I then glued the box up, with the splines inserted, all in one operation (this was where the swearing came in

). In hindsight, in future I'll assemble the box and then make a sliding jig to cut the spline slots on the tablesaw afterward - much neater and much less risk of misalignment. I believe this process is called "experiential learning"

.

**Wild Dingo** · 18th July 2008, 02:27 PM

Gidday Tony! Well done on the box mate beautiful job and I bet the young fella loves it

Hey do you mind me asking what did you end up making with the bunch of offcuts I gave you when you came over that time?

When are you due to return mate? Wouldnt mind meeting up again and having a yarn

Shane

mmm looking at the work youve done on the box IF you ever get around to building or renovating that luggar you drool for the finish would be bloody awesome if thats anything to go by!!

**Tony Hunt** · 18th July 2008, 02:35 PM

Funny you should ask Shane, I picked up those two pieces of sheoak just last weekend (they're still sitting there under my bench) and thought to myself "Come on inspiration, strike me" or something to that effect. In other words, I haven't yet made anything from them, and they're such nice timber that whatever it is I do make from them has to do them justice. I just haven't figured out what that is yet

.

No plans to visit WA in the immediate future, but I'm sure I'll be over there sooner or later and I'll certainly give you a hoi when I do. As for finish on luggers, I'm a big fan of the "workboat finish" school of philosophy when it comes to boats, and it suits luggers perfectly.

The finish on the box is Minwax satin wipe-on poly, wonderful stuff.

Cheers

Tony

**KorDes** · 18th July 2008, 09:07 PM

Great job on your first box, reckon it came out very nicely. And beautiful timber too. Your son must be proud of it.

**ciscokid** · 18th July 2008, 09:31 PM

Very nice box.

Fantastic piece of timber for the top. What a nice thing to do for your son. He will cherish that forever.

**avengers63** · 19th July 2008, 12:57 AM

This piece finally told me what to do with a a long piece of highly figured bookmatched redwood. The whole thing probably measures 15cm x 55cm or so. Maybe one really long box or two matched boxes. Thanks for the inspiration!

OH YEA....
And your's looks nice too.

**Willard** · 19th July 2008, 09:45 AM

Tony,

Great box, as others have said an amazing piece of timber used in the top!!

I also really like the proportions, sleek and stylish.

Will

**artme** · 23rd July 2008, 07:48 PM

A stunner Tony. Well made and great use of the materials.

**munruben** · 26th July 2008, 06:47 PM

Nice work. Looks great.

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