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Thread: Walnut Box

  1. #1
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    Default Walnut Box

    The love of my life wanted a box for her Pilates instructor who is getting married. Something simple and traditional was the brief.

    The box and tray are American Black Walnut (Trend Timbers in Sydney), the hinges and locks are from Andrew Crawford in the UK as is the figured sycamore banding. The escutcheon is Hard Maple and the lining is burgundy ultrasuede from Fabric Online in the UK.

    B0AA803F-170E-40F4-B180-97F19DAADBAA.jpeg

    5CC0985F-3659-4DD3-ADF6-FE9F9B352E73.jpeg

    The finish is Osmo Poly-X gloss (not sure they make that any more) rubbed out with Liberon Black Bison wax and Rustins 0000+ steel wool fom Timbecon. I find the 0000+ much finer than any 0000 I’ve used. On reflection (no pun intended) I think I’d prefer french polish or Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil. For anyone unfamiliar with Tru-Oil there are some very good videos on YouTube of guitar makers using it to get a brilliant high shine.

    OK, back to the woodpile

    Brian

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  3. #2
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    Default

    Now that's a wedding present not to be beat!! Very nice indeed.

  4. #3
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    That is a beautiful box and will be very well received and treasured by the lucky recipient.
    I reckon that isn't the first box you have ever made, practice makes perfect!

    Alan...

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    Top class!
    Visit my website
    Website
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  6. #5
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    Default

    Very nicely done and finished ! I think the Polyx is still available in gloss, although I only ever use the satin.

    I've seen many boxes constructed in this manner (referring to the corner joints) - can anyone who does this tell me what reinforcement there is, or does it just rely on glue bond between the surfaces?

  7. #6
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    You might have stuck to the traditional in the brief but I think you lost your way on the simple. Looks fantastic to me and a great finish. Are those hinges wider than the traditional 1/4" variety or is it just an illusion with the box sides being finer than they look?
    I will have to look up the use of Tru-Oil. Is that the finish they use on gun stocks? If it is, I have seen it used very well on some wooden pieces when I went to the Ballarat wood show a couple of years ago.
    Like the other box hiding in the corner of the photo too.
    Dallas

  8. #7
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    Fabulous, this is something for many of us to aspire to.

    Regards
    Keith

  9. #8
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    Good question, Mr B!

    I don’t usually reinforce these, but I have done. I used internal L-shaped slipfeathers cut from 4mm ply inserted in pre-routed corner slots.

    Generally, though, I rely on the glue. The joints are side grain to end grain so this helps a bit. Also, on a 12mm wall with a 9mm ‘rebate’ there is 12+9=21mm of glue surface which is 4mm more than on a mitre surface. Finally, I give the end grain a coat of slightly thinned glue before final glue up just to ensure the end grain doesn’t slurp up the final glue.

    I haven’t had any joint failures yet - but never say never!

    Brian

  10. #9
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    Hi Treecycle,

    The hinges are 8mm wide, which doesn’t give much room either side - just 2mm. I’d prefer a 6mm hinge but I haven’t been able to find high quality 6mm stopped rail hinges.

    Yes, Tru-Oil is the gunstock finish as you said, very versatile!

    The other box in the corner of the pic is the first box I ever made. Sadly I finished it with polyurethane and over the years it has yellowed a lot, so now I never use poly on my boxes. Mostly it is french polish or Behlen’s spray nitrocellulose lacqer from a rattle can. I keep promising myself I’ll buy a proper spray gun...

    Best regards,

    Brian

  11. #10
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    homey - thanks for the detail on the corner glue/reinforcing. I agree that if the end grain is "sized" with thinned glue first you should probably be OK, but the internal slipfeathers you describe are good insurance. Even allowing for this extra operation, I think I could produce those corners faster than dovetails (!) or getting a really tight-fitting and slip-reinforced mitre.

    Thanks also for adding a new item to my shopping list. I always wondered what kinds of nitrocellulose lacquer were available in rattle cans, and that Behlen stuff looks worth a try for the small home user like myself.

    Cheers

  12. #11
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    Hi Brian (Homey), Just perusing through a few old threads. I am curious here, how did you apply your suede to the lid please. Interested in how you adhered the side strips etc.

    Thanks, Paul

  13. #12
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    Hi Paul,

    My usual approach is to fix the suede to white card that I buy at the art shop. About 1mm thick. I do this using double sided tape. If I’m using a non-fraying material like suede I only fold over at the top (by about 10mm). The sides aren’t seen as they are tucked up against adjacent sides - ditto the bottom.

    I leave a 1 to 1.5mm reveal on the sides, i.e. I start the lining that far down from the edge.

    I do the sides first then the top or bottom panel.

    To fix the individual pieces onto the walls/top/bottom of the box I generally use double sided tape, or, if I’m doing a few boxes I buy A3 sheets of XPress-It double sided film and put a sheet either side of my card so all I need to do is cut a piece to size, peel off the protective layer and away we go.

    in the past I’ve also used Sikkens spray glue (Bunnings) which is fine provided you work carefully. Spray glue doesn’t come off if you overspray onto the good side of your material.

    Recently I’ve also used ‘Tacky Craft Glue’, also from an art supplies shop. Seems much like white PVA glue to me, but it does have good holding power. Most of my boxes have used ds tape, though. I buy it online as the stuff at Bunnings is very expensive.

    Hope this answers the question, Paul.

    Happy lining!

    Brian

  14. #13
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    Hi and thanks for all that info Brian, very informative indeed. I've never worried about attempting to line the sides of boxes or trays. I guess I just prefer to see the nice timber there. But I do line all bottoms with padded velvet of some description. Reason why I was asking this time was,...a bloke contacted me about one of my watch boxes. The box has 6 compartments for watches, all nicely padded on the bottom, but not on the sides (of course). Each compartment was 100mm x 54mm, adequate room for a watch pillow to sit in. But then this bloke wanted the sides of each compartment lined with the velvet also. I played around for a bit but the lining procedure would have shrunken the available area too much for his watches.

    (I've looked at heaps of other similar timber watch boxes online and basically all only have the bottom lined/padded).

    He said he was afraid his watches might get scratched on the timber.! Anyway, as I told him I am heading off for 8 nights away (in the morning, heading up to the Maleny Wood Expo which is on this coming weekend for 3 days and making a little getaway trip out of it,...600kms from me),...he now intends to design his own box with the measurements he wants and get back to me upon my return home. And of course he will be asking for the sides to be lined also.

    So hence my question. Gives me something to think about now.

    Thanks again Brian,

    Paul

  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by homey View Post
    My usual approach is to fix the suede to white card that I buy at the art shop. About 1mm thick. I do this using double sided tape. If I’m using a non-fraying material like suede I only fold over at the top (by about 10mm). The sides aren’t seen as they are tucked up against adjacent sides - ditto the bottom.

    To fix the individual pieces onto the walls/top/bottom of the box I generally use double sided tape, or, if I’m doing a few boxes I buy A3 sheets of XPress-It double sided film and put a sheet either side of my card so all I need to do is cut a piece to size, peel off the protective layer and away we go.

    I buy it online as the stuff at Bunnings is very expensive.

    Brian
    Hi Brian,
    Do you have a link to the double sided tape you purchase online? I have some which is super tacky but coming to an end and I have no idea where I originally got it from.

    Thanks,
    Dallas

  16. #15
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    Hi Dallas,

    This time around I bought:

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/SCRAPBOOKIN...4AAOxykmZTN76X

    For about $50 you get 7 rolls of tape (different widths) each one being 50 metres long. I didn’t really want different sizes but as it has turned out I find it great. Hardly waste any at all.

    No failures so far. An alternative would be woodPixel’s recommendation in another thread. He buys from Aliexpress and says it’s super strong.

    Regards,

    Brian

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