Thread: Some homemade boxes

The next one has movingue box and lid, slides are jatoba and those black curvy cuts are macassar ebenholz. Just some BLO on top, and a lot of rubbing. Movingue is really cool looking wood when treated properly. I think jatoba fits well with it, too.

sumu

The last box is a penbox. The lenght of the cavity is about 1½ standard ball point pens.

The woods are zebrano, jatoba and walnut in the middle. In the curved cuts there is 0,8mm thick mahogany veneer, a thing you would notice only if it would not be there. For some reason, that piece of veneer makes significant effect although it is almost invisible itself. The finish is BLO.

This kind of box can be opened by grabbing the box section and pushing the sliders upwards with fingertips. The fittings are quite tight, and it will not open any other way, there is nothing to hold on in the lid.

sumu

This is actually not a box, but a small sized key locker to be mounted on the wall. I hope I do not break the rules by putting this in here.

It is made of walnut, and the door holes are routed. This locker can be described as "one foot in the Dark Side", because the door is finished with a refurbished smoother plane, which used to belong to my granddad. I hotrodded the plane, learned how to sharpen the iron and... well, it was easy to take "The Final Step". Join Us .

The finish is BLO. Door stays closed due to that piece of beechwood sticking in the matching hole in the door. The lower hinge grins a little, because one night, for some reason , I happened to hit my head to the door while coming back to home. I had a permission to do so .

sumu

sumu

Very nice work, good designs and craftsmanship,

Hi Sumu,

This is lovely work mate! Im always taken by timbers I dont know anything about. I will Google these timbers, Vavona, Movingue and Jatoba. Are they native to Finland. In my Aussie imagination I think of Spruce when I think of Finland,

Sebastiaan

all unique boxes and extremely well made ,well done and thanks for showing us

Thankyou for the ideas! I like the work and the combination of timbers. Well done!

Well, thanks guys .

Those boxes are not really that complicated to make. With a precision jig system like Woodrat, you will make parts for plenty of such boxes during one evening.

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

Hi Sumu,

I will Google these timbers, Vavona, Movingue and Jatoba. Are they native to Finland. In my Aussie imagination I think of Spruce when I think of Finland,

Sebastiaan

As you may know now, Vavona is root burl of Californian Sequoia, Movingue is one African species of satinwood and Jatoba is the same as Brazilian cherry.

Well, in Finland, there is registered natural wood species only about 25-30 different. Some extra differences occurs depending on the place of growth, affecting mainly to timber density. It's quite cold here, mate.

I would say the masur birch is one very sought after Finnish wood, I have some pieces for occasional whittling. Me and my father-in-law took down one masur birch from his back yard, and I took some to dry them. Will make pens, puukko handles, wooden jewelry or such smallish things.

One real speciality there is, namely visapihlaja, or masur whitebeam, Sorbus aucuparia `Padasjoki`. There has been found only 5 different trees, having masur type of figure. The cutout can bee seen here (in finnish, sorry): http://server.perlasoft.fi/epaijanne...c=12&thread=52

sumu

It was a pleasure to open the thread and see your work.

Amazing talent, with a top eye for design !!!

Thank you very many .

Does it show too much that I like woods ?

Kippis,

sumu

Originally Posted by sumu

This is actually not a box, but a small sized key locker to be mounted on the wall. I hope I do not break the rules by putting this in here.

Key locker... Breaking the rules? Looks like a box to me. Six sides and one of them opens and closes... It's a box.

A very nice one at that. I' d like to hear a bit more on those sliding fasteners you make. They look very cool when closed.

Cheers.

D.L.

(funny, I sent a reply earlier, but there is no sight of it... Let's try again .)


Hello .

labolle,

As You pointed out, the "magic" in these boxes is the level of precision they display. I absolutely highlight the fact that I am not bragging on this or with my skills, but trying only to point out that one major reason why to make these, is the luxury of existing precision in them. That's why the make really fine gifts to anyone.

I have made boxes like these using for example sapele mahogany. The nature of grain was large and straight, and the stock was quartersawn. The result was like there would have been a polished shiny piece of wood with strange inserts in both ends. I gave it to my friend who placed it on the TV table, in front of the sofa. One day he got some visitors, some older folks and there was some difficulties to start a discussion. The one of them pointed at the box and asked what it was. My friend said that it is a pen box, and gave it for inspection. Because there was some pens inside, it rattled, but there were no way to see how it would open up. The line between the lid and the box just dissolved in the sapele grain. Then he opened it to show it is a box. When he told that it was a present from a friend, they were impressed. There happened kinda value boom in the eyes of his visitors, because he had such a skillful friends. And he must be somehow very skillful, too . I mean, that story was cool to hear .

At first, consider two things I would keep important:
1. Select the wood or wood combination which is enough stable by nature, even as thin stock
2. Prepare the wood as squared as possible. I can't highlight this enough. With a power router work, everything starts there.

I am very sorry I cant show to You similar kind of pictorial like jow104 does, the dust at the moment seems to be a bit too much for me. But I try to explain.

If made from a single block of wood, you could start in two possible ways:

A:
- route channels for fasteners to both ends and/or sides. Roughing out with saw and chisel might be a good idea, You can do the routing with a single depth setting, it leaves channel sides smoother.
- saw off the lid part of desired thickness with perfectly set band saw or handsaw, rip or crosscut, depends on the cut section grain direction. These boxes do not need the biggest possible saws, but even more important are the adjustments and how to use it. It saves a lot of effort in the present future.
- square the pieces again. Now when you have used already well squared stock, this is quite easy with well adjusted longer scraper plane to smooth the band saw marks.
For this, You could also make a thicknessing scraper descibed in the book called "Making Woodworking Aids and Devices" by Robert Waring, page 113 in my copy. Similar kind of device is described in Fine Wodworking #12, September issue 1978, page 18. What ever is the method, the sawn surfaces should become straight and flat again.

B:
- start by sawing the lid part off.
- smoothen the sawn surfaces as described
- fit and clamp the pieces together well again, and route the channels for fasteners.

Both A and B are good for straight fasteners. For wedge shaped fasteners, go for B.

Now everything is on the same track again:

- route cavity in the box part (and in the lid, if desired).
- prepare fastener block or wedges, they should fit quite snugly at this point, but they may be protruding on both ends and also out of the box surfaces.
- put something evenly thick in between the lid and the box, usually something like 5mm thick strip of aluminium would be good, but it should not be too wide and not touch the fastener blocks.
- apply glue in the lid fastener channels and install the fastener blocks in there so that they go through both box and lid parts.
- clamp the lid and box together so that the spacer block touches both evenly and lid and box become paraller
- clamp the fasteners together with one clamp so that they slightly squeeze the box
- check again that the lid and box are paraller, and the fastener blocks are set in the channel
- turn the thing upside down that the glue does not spill in the box side fastener channel, otherwise you get really .

Let the glue dry. Clean up the glue marks between the box and the lid with a paring chisel or such, and perhaps you might like to relief some of the fastener rails. If everything is ok, the box opens a bit heavily, and closes very tightly.

Now You have a box "template" you can shape and finish in whatever way you like, within the limits of the actual box function.

When you get better in routing, all kinds of curvy banana boxes, round ball boxes, temple shaped boxes with pylons in every corner and so on are possible to make. The basic principle is still the same.

Of course you can always make variations with many pieces of wood, where the construction needs no routing at all, only different sizes of stock and made with same methods as classic type of box. It is kinda my way nowadays .

sumu

Great stuff, mate.