Thread: Coopered lid jewellery box: WIP

I made a coopered box some years ago, carcass as well and it has not moved at all. Timber condition plays a great part with these sort of projects imo.;

Originally Posted by hiroller

For example, an expansion of 1mm in the lid, would result in a movement away from the side of ( 1 / Pi ) = 0.318mm.
I.e. not much!

...But possibly enough to break a glue bond or split the wood.
At present, it is extremely humid, with no change in sight. If I were to glue the coopered lid to the end, the staves would shrink circumferentially. If they only shrink by 1%, that's more than 2mm, more than I'm prepared to risk.

I accept that Derek's hasn't moved in 4 years, but it's not a chance I was prepared to take.

I'm now almost back to the stage I was at when the disaster happened.

Well, after the disaster I had to make new sides, and also had a week away. I'm now back on track.
As the box will have trays, I sawed slots in the front & back, and glued in rails for them to sit on.
Tray rails.jpg

The bottoms of the box and trays will be lined with red velvet. I use Titebond II applied to both surfaces. Let it dry completely (at least an hour), then use a hot iron to re-activate the glue and iron the lining on to the bottom. (Put a sheet of paper between the iron and the velvet.) This method can be used with most lining materials, but try a test piece first.
Lining bottom.jpg

After I've waxed anywhere that's likely to get squeeze-out, the box is ready to glue up. I used Techniglue, tinted to try & match the timber (umber + Venetian red).
As this glue up may take me close to the workability limits of the glue, I want it to be workable for as long as possible. Fortunately, it's a cold day. Large blobs of mixed epoxy generate their own heat, which accelerates setting. You can avoid this to some extent by spreading the glue out on the mixing surface, so that this heat is dissipated.
There'a a lot of squeeze-out on the outside, so to avoid getting it on the band clamps, I wrap some glad-wrap around before clamping.
Glue up.jpg

Nice save Alex - looking good

Not so relevant in winter (!), but there is a slow-curing hardener available for Techniglue as well as the standard one. Only problem is, the smallest tin they sell is enough to last the average punter a lifetime !

I've pretty much gone over to West System epoxy these days, mainly because its available in sizes I can use up before they go past expiry, there are several hardener options available for the same base resin, and I find the thinner consistency better for laminating (West System can be applied rapidly with a foam roller, rather than spread with a scraper like Techniglue). If I need a thicker glue, I'll just add one of the fillers available to get the consistency I need.

Looking forward to seeing further progress with your project. I'm sensing one very special box in the making here !

This one is going to be a cracker Alex.

[Ooops]

Watching your thread with great interest and hoping all comes right in the end.

BTW my workshop touches 33C in the afternoons at the moment, and I am considering 04.00am starts.

This one is going to be a cracker Alex.

The glue up went OK, so the next step was to clean up the squeeze-out from the outside. I like to do this about 4-5 hours after the glue up, as the epoxy will be a hard rubbery texture, easy to peel away from the waxed surfaces, but in this case I left it overnight so the glue was brittle. No problems, but you need to watch your eyes.

Next, I saw almost through the carcass on the table saw, to separate the lid and base. The cut can then be finished with a Japanese saw, with the box held end for end in the vice.
Separate lid 2.jpg

The sawn edges are trimmed using a chisel and plane, and then flattened on a 40mm laminate board surfaced with 180 grit abrasive.
Flatten lid & Base.jpg

The edges are then sanded and cleaned, and the position of the lock marked.
Mark out lock.jpg

For me this in impressive work.

Good to see you're back on track, Alex.

The first job is to cut the mortice for the lock. The lock takes a 5.5mm wide mortice, so I marked its position, then drilled out most of the waste with a 4mm spur bit drill on the drill press.
Cutting mortice.jpg

The rest is chiseled out. First, with a mortice chisel, cut across the grain at the end holes, to stop the grain splitting when paring it away at the slide. Then break out the bits between the holes, and pare off parallel to the sides of the holes.Do not pare right to the sides of the mortice yet. You will probably have to repeat these steps a couple of times, depending on the depth of the mortice.
Once it's dug out to full depth, I put it in the vice with a block clamped against the side next to the mortice, so that I don't accidentally pop it out. I then pared back to the marked lines. When doing this, watch the direction of the grain, so that if it does start to split, the split will run into the mortice, and not to the outside face. The final job is to clean out the scraps and test fit.
Mortice cut.jpg

The lock comes with a brass scutch plate, but I think a wooden one looks better. This will be cut out on the scroll saw and shaped.
Scutch plate.jpg

The keyhole is drilled, the recesses for the striker plates cut and the hinges temporarily fitted. I'm using SmartHinges, which are much easier to fit than quadrant hinges. The instructions are quite comprehensive, but the main thing is to route test slots on scrap before doing the real thing. Also, you do one slot each on the top and bottom, before changing the position of the stop to do the other two. It's important that you cut them in the right positions!
The final job is to put temporary steel screws into hold them in position. these will be replaced by brass ones when all is in place. Only putting half the screws in allows fine adjustment of the hinge position by putting the remaining screws off centre, if necessary. Finally, I screwed in (again temporarily) the lock and lid striker plate.
locks & hinges.jpg

The next step is to make a pair of trays, as well as the scutch plate and a handle. I chose Tasmanian myrtle for these. The trays are simple mitred trays lined with the same red velvet as the box. They are pretty straightforward, but I routed a small cove inside to make them easier to lift out. Also, with lined boxes, it's easier to oil the inside before assembling them, being careful not to get oil on the mitres.
The handle is dowelled to the lid with toothpicks. It's essential to get the holes exactly the same distance apart on the lid and the handle, so I dismantled my mortice gauge to do this.
The box is now just about ready for oiling. It had picked up a couple of minor marks, so I steamed them out over using a hot iron and wet towel, then gave it another coat of shellac (wiped on, this time) and sanded lightly all over. Once that was done, I cleaned it with white spirits.
It's now had its first of four coats of oil. In the meantime, I'll be making the ring insert for one of the trays.
Oiled 3.jpg

Oiled 2.jpg

Hi Alex

I've been away and not keeping up, so the progress is all the more noticeable.

Firstly, my admiration for returning to the battle after the episode where the wood split. Many would have sought a make-do repair or alternative. It takes resolve to maintain a battle plane. Well done!

Secondly, the box is looking amazingly good! Small work demands more care than large work. It is all detail work and, as said, the Devil lies in the details. Clearly, you have a lot of Devil in you!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Good to see the project coming to fruition and looking good.

John

All that remains to be done before re-assembling the box is to make the insert for one of the trays, to hold rings.
This is made by first, gluing foam rubber strips to a base of harder craft foam using contact adhesive.
Ring insert 1.jpg

This is then covered in velvet, again using gel contact adhesive. Because contact adhesive sticks like poo to a blanket, you need to be very careful with it. First, I stuck strips of velvet to the sides, and cut out the sections between the foam strips using a scalpel.
Then I covered the rest of the insert. I did a small section at a time, spreading it on the bottom between the strips using a flattened meat skewer, and a spatula for everywhere else. Once the glue has dried, I progressively stuck the velvet to the foam, making sure that it was stuck to the bottom before it contacted the next foam strip. I used a thin strip of wood to press the velvet to the bottom of the foam. Finally, I trimmed the overhang of the sides.
Ring insert 2.jpg

I'll give the box a couple more coats of oil, before assembling it and despatching it to the client.