Thread: Elliptical NG Rosewood Keepsake Box - WIP

Following with interest. I like the lid.

cheers,

ajw

Interesting to see some new box designs, I also liked your pencil box, which I have bookmarked, I want to vary that one a bit for my own use to an art brush holding box.

Originally Posted by jow104

Interesting to see some new box designs, I also liked your pencil box, which I have bookmarked, I want to vary that one a bit for my own use to an art brush holding box.

Sorry, the pencil box wasn't mine - it was made by powderpost. I liked it too.
My last piece was a glasses case.

... Steve

Interesting design and I love the hinge!!

Thanks, artme. Not sure if I'll use the hinge on this project yet. The lid will be fairly heavy, so I might have to use a good, solid, brass butt hinge and keep the wooden hinge for a more light-weight lid. This hinge was just an exercise, really, to see if I could do it with my equipment.

I'm considering a ring of carving around the top half of the body. I had a go at a rough version last night on a scrap, but still can't make up my mind whether to use it or not.
I've attached a pic below of the rough carving, partly-finished. Any opinions on whether or not to use something along these lines are welcome. I'm too close and can't tell if it looks any good.

I'll need to finish it better than my test. Sanding was pretty hard, too. I need to find better tools for sanding this sort of thing. Are pen sanders good for this type of work, especially getting into the bottom of sharp undercuts?

... Steve

I just bought a couple of things that will help - a riffler file set and a set of carving scrapers. The scrapers look perfect for cleaning up undercuts.

... Steve

I'm interested to see the outcome of the carving, never gone down that road myself, for me it would be a need of comfortable surroundings and settled good weather. Would not want to sit around in damp, draughts or cold climate.

Originally Posted by jow104

I'm interested to see the outcome of the carving, never gone down that road myself, for me it would be a need of comfortable surroundings and settled good weather. Would not want to sit around in damp, draughts or cold climate.

I used to do a bit of carving, whittling style, about 25 years ago, but haven't touched it since. I've been dying to incorporate it into some of my boxes. I want to try a few carved overlays, too. They can be pretty effective. It's the other option I'm considering for this box.

I've got a bit of time to think about it - I'll be another day or so shaping the outside to as close to a perfect ellipse as I can get. All I have to do it with accuracy is a cork block and 40 grit, so it's a slooowwwww process. Been sanding all afternoon. I'm not game to use the hand-held belt sander for this.

If I go ahead with the carving above, I'll try to scale it down a little, to the smallest I can work with.

N.B. I'm in good comfortable surroundings for carving - at the table in my lounge-room in front of the TV.

... Steve

Originally Posted by Hermit

I used to do a bit of carving, whittling style, about 25 years ago, .....
... Steve

I've got a couple of old style photos of my carvings and have been meaning to scan them for ages.
I just did so, and thought you might be interested in a look. They were actually done in 1994, not '87 like I thought. It feels like 25 years.

They're all in Australian Red Cedar and each is carved from a single piece of wood - the frames aren't separate. I only used a pocket knife and sandpaper. A really slow process.

At the time, I lived inland from Coffs Harbour on the edge of the Dorrigo Plateau and the whole area was literally flooded with Red Cedar. Wish I could get my hands on some now.

The first three are an elephant in a saucer, (the saucer copied off a cheap Woolies one I had at the time and the elephant traced from a book.)

The next is a group of Fuschias and the last is (supposed to be) an orchid.
They didn't scan very well, but they could have been worse.

Edit: I forgot to add - they were finished in Nugget shoe polish, with tyre black for the background.

... Steve

Nice to be able with modern technology to look back at previous work so easily.

I now recall going through Nowra around 2004, stopping at the visitor centre, seeing a RAA force plane on a pedistal and think I had some refreshment at a Mac's on the site. Lovely location.

Originally Posted by jow104

Nice to be able with modern technology to look back at previous work so easily.

I now recall going through Nowra around 2004, stopping at the visitor centre, seeing a RAA force plane on a pedistal and think I had some refreshment at a Mac's on the site. Lovely location.

2004 is about when I moved here from Coffs. Not a bad place. Fairly convenient to most things, but far enough from the city for rents to be reasonable. Previously I was 42km inland by road, (if you could call them that - all unsealed until recently).

(It's actually a helicopter on the pedestal.)

... Steve

I finished shaping and cleaning up the outside of the body today.

This piece of timber has beautiful grain. Should look good.

I don't think I've mentioned previously, but the dimensions of the main body are 200mm wide, 160mm deep and 80mm tall. The height will increase to about 115mm and the length to 216mm when the lid top and base are added.

There was a worm tunnel on the bottom, so I filled it with a mix of 5-Minute Araldite and very fine Jarrah dust. Looks OK. (It'll be glued against the base anyway and only the tiny bit on the side will be visible.)
Either way, I don't mind. It looks good as a feature.

Body hollowing comes next. All marked out top and bottom ready to go.....

Edit: Something else I've been meaning to mention. I've seen a couple of complex ways of generating an ellipse, but the simplest, (for me), was to use 'MS Paint'. If the size of the image under 'Attributes' is set in cm to the required dimensions, it's easy to use the circle tool to completely fill the area with an ellipse of exact dimensions. The printer should reproduce this size precisely, for transfer to the job. No fancy graphics software or strings and pins needed.

The last attachment is a rough sketch of what the front view should look like when done. The broken line is the inlay.

... Steve

I am finding the grain very attractive, hope all comes good on this one.

Originally Posted by jow104

I am finding the grain very attractive, hope all comes good on this one.

So do I and so do I. That end-grain is even nicer in real life with decent lighting. A lovely light chocolate colour.

Busily boring 16mm holes around the perimeter of the material to be removed at the moment. Slow and steady. This'll take a while. I'm using a spade bit that's not long enough, so I go most of the way through then run a pilot hole right through and cut through from the other side with the spade bit.

... Steve