Thread: Cubism Competition 2022 - CRaatz"

I sent the billet through the bandsaw and got the four sides and lid and base out of it at about 15mm thick, later thicknessed to about 12mm. (I'll provide exact dimensions in my final post.)

With a couple of rebates made with the router, 4 pins out of the same Banksia using a 6mm plug cutter, and sanding the inside surfaces to 120grit, it was assembly time.

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I gave the base a 45^o chamfer all the way around before proceeding to glue it to the sides. I used pear timber plugs/pins helping attach the base (I used pear only because I could! The pear, as were all these timbers sourced from the one man's [Alan Stoneman] stash). I went and bought an Ogee router bit to mold a decorative shape on the lid.

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Next was to send the assembled box through the bandsaw to separate lid from base.
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Having earlier on figured out I had heaps of depth to the box, I decided to make a lift-out insert with 3 partitions. The lower compartment has 1/3, 2/3 sized compartments for larger items. Amongst Alan's stash was a lump of Cypress that I could see had some spalting. So I used it as stock for the insert which is cut and laid out in the photo below and assembled with box joints. It is lightly spalted. I used red water-based dye stain to colour it, continuing the red theme.
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This is my second ever jewellery box. First one here:
SANY0011.jpgSo I knew how to apply flocking, so I rinsed and repeated on this build.

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I cut-in the recesses for the hinges, test fitted, and then time to apply gloss lacquer to the insert and box:

SANY0037.jpgI got lazy masking-up and just cut some wet&dry paper to fit.

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SANY0040.jpg The eagle-eye will notice the tooth-pick method of filling miss-aligning hinge screw holes! The third time I remembered that you can use painters tape to make a temporary piano-hinge when aligning lid and base. The Banksia was very porous and "airy" on the end grain in places, so my mistakes probably strengthened the screws purchase in the holes anyway in the end.

I wasn't happy with a couple of pin-holes in the resin on the lid. Earlier I had a go at the super glue fill technique. It wasn't a great success. I should have fixed the pinholes with another resin pour way back in the beginning to hide them completely. But I didn't. So as a last attempt I sprayed some lacquer into a cup, added the red resin pigment, mixed it and drop-filled. I had moderate success with this but meant I had to scrap back the lacquer and respray the lid.
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I have subsequently scraped back the high spots and applied two more spray coats of gloss lacquer just on the lid. In the next few days I will add round magnets to the centre-front of the lid and box to secure it firmly if its owner ever lifts from the lid to move it. Final pictures coming soon.

Well done; that’s looking very pretty especially the spalted cypress with the red stain.

And…. you’ve achieved more in 5 posts than I’ve managed in 3 months!

Even though the lid was perfectly level with two coats of lacquer the superglue that had dried white in the red resin pin holes was too much for my OCD, and it detracted significantly from the rest of the finish quality. I definitely should have fixed this way back before any finish was applied. I tried the shortcut and paid the penalty in time wasted.

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So I drilled into the pin-holes (which were actually small caverns) with a 2mm bit, made a some more resin and filled with a needle & syringe.
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I knew I'd now be stripping back the lid and re-finishing it so I ran some 800 wet/dry over to test how much lacquer it would remove and so that's why its dulled in the photo above.

I also installed 5mm round magnets in the lid and base, just to feel like I achieved something today.

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I just to prove this is correct for the smaller cubism category

Products Used:
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Next post should show completed build. Here's hoping!

SANY0050.jpgThe red resin filled repairs look invisible from a distance and way better than the previous white from up close.

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SANY0057.jpgExtra 5mm magnets added to lid and case (2 weren't enough to lift box by the lid without pulling apart the magnets)

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All faces that were covered with flocking were sanded to 120grit. All others to 240. All resin sanded through to 2000 & 3000 on the lid only.

Internal dimensions - 172x70x100mm
Footprint - 200x88x116mm
Materials used - refer previous post photos + Cabot's Cabothane Clear Gloss aerosol used as lacquer finish

I handed this jewellery box to its new owner today. As previously mentioned, this was a thank you gift to a certain 90-year-old Alan Stoneman who has recently gifted me access to his timber harvest pile. He and his wife were well pleased with the box.

Things I was pleased with - That the red resin was reserved to the lower parts of the sides of the case and therefore didn't dominate the beautiful Banksia grain. The continuous grain from case to lid. The ogee lid detail. The two-tiered layout with removable upper insert. The spalting on insert. That the insert box-joints are perfect. The even shadow line between lid and case. The narrow clearance between insert and box.

Things that may have improved the result - try box-joints or dovetails on case over a simple rebate and use higher-end hinges, both mainly for aesthetics. Repeated the ogee on the case base to mirror the lid detail.

I thoroughly enjoyed this build.

Just a gentle reminder that your work needs to be posted in the "Ready for Judging" thread.

Cubism - Ready for Judging thread (woodworkforums.com)

Only a few hours to go.

Regards
Paul

Edit: Apolgies. You have indeed already done this. My mistake. Thank you