Thread: Western Red Cedar - first box

Nice box I am sure you're Granddaughter will be thrilled with it.
Regards Rod.

What a beautiful gift your hand made jewellery box is sir....your granddaughter will cherish it and I'm sure it'll become a family heirloom. Cheers, crowie

Looks nice Dave - especially so for a first go.

When you refer to the "perfect ratio", is that the same as what is sometimes called the golden mean or golden ratio?

Very nice box. Talking about western red cedar, I have a lot of it, plus a heap of very very old coachwood, would love to swap, but postage would be a killer.

I also have the "golden ratio" for box making on a very simple spreadsheet, if I think of it I'll put it on here when I get home. Just put in say the length for example and up comes the depth and height.

Paul

Originally Posted by labr@

Looks nice Dave - especially so for a first go.

When you refer to the "perfect ratio", is that the same as what is sometimes called the golden mean or golden ratio?

Yes, it's the Golden Ratio dating back to the ancient Greeks; 1:1.6 approximately

Lovely box. Looks like you made the top and base separately rather than in one piece and then cut apart?

To me, the photos look more like Australian Cedar (Toona ciliata) than WRC as they seem to show bands of pores forming the figure.

Toona is a ring-porous timber so the figure is made up of lines of pores. WRC is a Northern Hemisphere conifer so the figure is made up from bands of dark, denser, "late wood" formed in autumn and early winter and bands of "early wood" formed in Spring and Summer, which is lighter in colour and less dense. Australian Cedar is much more valuable and sought after than WRC.

David

Very nice work ... the finish looks first class

What were the dimensions?

Originally Posted by Xanthorrhoeas

Lovely box. Looks like you made the top and base separately rather than in one piece and then cut apart?

To me, the photos look more like Australian Cedar (Toona ciliata) than WRC as they seem to show bands of pores forming the figure.

Toona is a ring-porous timber so the figure is made up of lines of pores. WRC is a Northern Hemisphere conifer so the figure is made up from bands of dark, denser, "late wood" formed in autumn and early winter and bands of "early wood" formed in Spring and Summer, which is lighter in colour and less dense. Australian Cedar is much more valuable and sought after than WRC.

David

The timber I used was purchased about 6 years ago at the WWW Show and was chalk-marked WRC, so I cannot be sure that the seller got it right. I'll defer to your expertise and call it Australian RC. I loved the grain when I bought the timber and love how the stain has enhanced the grain.

The box was made in traditional style; assembled as a total box and then the lid was separated from the rest on the table saw with shims to ensure that the cuts were neat and that there were no accidents with binding. It's a great treat to see the box opened after it's taken so long to cut and assemble with the base and top. The saw blade kerf is about 3mm and the book matching didn't work out as well as I had hoped. The mis-matched grain is a curious affect - I chose the cut where there was discontinuity in the grain. The front and back are far better.

I need to explain better about the mismatching. I laid out the sides and back and front on the bench and discovered that I didn't have enough height in the four sides, so I carefully cut extra "height" and pre-glued the lid section so that I first had the best alignment of grain where I would eventually cut away the lid (on the glue line). The left side is the poorest match of the four sides. When I had trimmed all blanks, I cut the dovetails and pins and assembled the box. The glue line was by design the cut line for the lid. Then I rabetted the base insert recess on the router before preparing a recess to take the Huon Pine. When the recess was finished I glued up all but the Huon insert which was made to be a tight fit for the lid. When the Huon was in place I used a 3mm straight bit on the router to cut a groove around the edge of the Huon Pine into which I inserted an Ebony beading of 3mm and carefully sanded it level with the Huon. Mind you I learned a very valuable lesson about Ebony; sanding produces a mass of black sawdust that can discolour the Huon Pine and the WRC, so I sanded very carefully on the lip of the Ebony and regularly removed the dust so that there was no contamination of the beautiful yellow Huon Pine. Masking is no use because the tape is thicker than the Ebony inlay; so the last mm is tricky.

I think it is western red cedar

Paul

1.618 is the Golden ratio. Start with the length, then keep dividing to get the other two dimensions.

Look for the thread about " A big jewellery box" on the Forum, showing Australian Red Cedar felled in NQ? I think you will find it matches yours. I have never seen WRC with that sort of grain. ( sorry, PC crashed, can't do hyperlink on this damn iPad)

Lovely box, your granddaughter must be so pleased; great family heirloom.

Care to tell us a bit about the hinges please?

calipers.jpgThese calipers allow you to transfer one dimension to the next according to the Golden Ratio. The three legs are 34, 21 and 34 cms. The pivot points are 13cm.

The dimensions of my box are 290cm by 180cm by 130cm. The lid is 40cm.

The hinge is a brass piano hinge 20cm by 8mm. The difficult bit was countersinking the holes for the tiny brass screws (the smallest I could buy). The hinge had to be recessed sufficiently to allow the lid and base to fit flush and yet not affect the closing motion. If you get the fitting incorrect you will pull out the screws when closing; I tested and tested on scrap until I had the fitting correct because you only get one chance on the work-piece.

I read in another thread that someone had trouble aligning his hinges and a discussion about superglue etc.
You will notice that I designed a 4mm raised lip of the white baltic pine insert-section that fits within the lid as it closes.
That was my way of ensuring the lid will always close neatly and all sides will match exactly, regardless of any slack or microscopic movement of my piano hinge.
I chose the piano hinge because it look Ok and provides a strong support for a heavy lid, but I did a a lot of experimenting to ensure that the axis of the hinge was in the exact spot to allow the lid to fall over the edges of the white frame. The hinge was recessed by about 1mm, so that provided exact placement on the workpiece.

Hi Knurl
Very well thought through and a great result ... the inside of the box is so well done that it really shows the thoughtfulness in construction.

I note that you mention using the Givkin Jig for the dovetails. Did you choose a square cut bit over a dovetail shaped bit ... the pics are not that clear but the joints could be mistaken for fingers rather than dovetails.

Regards

Rob