Thread: Gentleman's box WIP

Originally Posted by Dengue

Alex, if you had a Domino would you use that with the floating tenons for your M&T joints?

I don't think so, because the joints are probably too small. Anyway, I don't mind doing M&Ts, they're pretty quick and look good, although these won't be through tenons.

Looking into your project Alex and you seem in top form as usual.

Could do with some of that heat of yours up here, 30far. here in Devon and got that lazy feeling.

Got some wood out of the shed yesterday to store in house, the meter says its reading 15.4 moisture content so hopefully it will come down a bit by April.

Hope the rest of the project goes well.

John.

Thanks John, hope it warms up there soon.

Today I cut the mortice & tenon joints for the lid frames. Started with the tenons. I cut all the shoulders on the table saw, and cut dados to make the cleaning up easier. Also, the saw marks give a good indication of whether or not the tenons are flat.
Tenons cut.jpg
You'll see that I've left extra length on the rails. If you cut them to length before they're glued up you're likely to pop the ends out. It's easy to cut them once the lids are assembled.
Next step is to drill a lot of the waste out of the mortices. I've marked out the mortices, and also a centre line, so it's easier to line the drill up. The width of the mortice is about 6.5mm, just wide enough to clean out with a 1/4" morticing chisel.
Drilling mortices 1.jpgDrilling mortices 2.jpg
I like M&Ts to be a snug fit with no play, so that when they're glued up, they naturally sit square. First, make sure that the piece is vertical when it's in the vice. This way, when you pare the sides it's easier to get them perpendicular to the edge.

Start cutting them by chiseling across the mortice at the edges of the end holes. This stops splintering and rounding over of the mortice shoulders. Then chop out the bits between the holes.
Cutting mortices.jpg
Then pare back to the sides of the mortice, being careful to keep the sides vertical. Be careful not to take too much off - it's hard to put back.
When you think it's deep enough and the sides are square, pare back the ends of the mortice to the marked lines. Check the fit, and if necessary pare of whatever's necessary to allow a snug, square fit.
Finally, dry assemble the frames to check their fit.
Lid dry fit.jpgLid frames.jpg

After a couple of days on another small job, I got back to work on this box. First job was to put small pieces on the end grain of the sides, to bring them flush with the front and back. Then I started on the dividers.

I bandsawed a piece of 12mm thick stock into two, and took them down to 5mm on the drum sander. I didn't want to plane or thickness them in case there was some tear-out that made them too thin. I sawed and dressed them to width, then marked out and cut them to length.
Next, I made a template for the shape. I drew the curve freehand, then bandsawed it out
Template roughed out.jpg
and shaped it using a sanding drum on the curves and a chisel on the straight section.
Sanding setup.jpgTemplate smoothed.jpg
The straight section is done by guillotining the waste off the straight section, along the groove made by the marking gauge.

The template pattern is then transferred to the dividers
Traced on dividers.jpg
and the shape roughed out on the bandsaw.
Dividers roughed out.jpg
Finally, the dividers are trimmed using the sanding drum and chisel, and hand sanded to 800.
Dividers finished.jpg

The last job for today was to start on the dados for the dividers. I marked them out, taking the width directly from the dividers rather then measuring, then routed a 2mm dado down the centre.
route dados for dividers.jpg
Tomorrow I'll chisel them out to width.

Discussed with the client the material for the lid panels, and he asked for huon pine - good choice. As the panels will be a feature, I wanted some with nice birdseye - not easy to find, but Diane at Tasmania Special Timbers (Morrisons) in Strahan is going to find some for me.

Cleaned out the dados for the dividers. When I do the final fit up I'll plane off the divider bottoms so that they sit hard on the bottom and are flush with the back & front of the box.
Showing dividers.jpg
The lifting bar arrangement will be slightly different to the original drawing - it will be part of the back lid frame and sit on top of the sides. First it was cut to size and the ends rounded on the disc sander.
Lifting bar ends rounded.jpg
I wanted to put a curved profile on the bar, so I used my 1m rule as a spline to mark it out...
Marking curve on lifting bar.jpg
...then bandsawed it.
Curve bandsawn.jpg
Next step was to shape the ends of the bar using rasps and a file...
Rough shaped end.jpgRough shaped underside.jpgShaping ends.jpg
...then shape the rest of the bar using spokeshave, rasp, card scraper, and finally, sanding.
Shaped & smoothed.jpg
Last job of the day was to shellac the lid frame and the bar.
Lid frames shellacked.jpg

Tomorrow, I have to get a 1/4" box cove router cutter, to do the grooves for the lid locators to run in. The next job will be to cut those grooves and also drill the sides for the hinge bushes.

We've had a couple of days rain here, and humidity around 100%. When I started this morning, I noticed that the bottom was pushing the dovetails apart, Luckily, I hadn't glued up, and was able to take a little off the bottom. Thought I'd left enough, but obviously not.

At least you can rest assured knowing there is unlikely to ever be higher humidity than it is copping now!!!

Great watching the master at work

After re-sanding all the shellacked pieces to 800 again, the carcass is ready to be glued up. As the huon pine for the lid panels won't be here 'til next week, I decided to go ahead and put the first coat of oil on before gluing up. This will prevent any squeeze out sticking when I glue up.
First, I masked off the places where I don't want the oil to get, then put on a flood coat of Kunos oil cut 50% with bio thinners.
Masked & oiled.jpg
Bottom oiled.jpg
I'll leave it for 15-20 minutes, when it's getting a bit tacky, and buff off any that's left. I'll leave it 'til tomorrow to glue up. Before gluing up I'll go over it thoroughly looking for any small dings or scratches that need to be sanded or steamed out. They show up better after oiling.

Great work and a very well presented and descriptive WIP, Alex.
Watching closely. Already picked up a tip or two from this one.

A good day to glue up today, a bit cooler than last week. This means the epoxy won't go off as quickly.
First step is to clean all the dovetails with acetone on a cotton but. Many eucalypts have resin that hinders good gluing, and I think this is one of them.
I'm using Techniglue epoxy, tinted with terra rosa and ochre powder tints. Sequence is important in a complicated glue up. First, I did both ends of a side (tails) and rested it on spacers to keep it off the bench. Then on the front and back, I glued the end that will fit the side I've glued, and the dados that will take the dividers. As I completed each, I fitted it into the side. I then glued the sides at each end of the dividers and carefully fitted them to the front and back. I cleaned any glue that had squeezed into the slots for the bottom out using a chopstick shaved to a screwdriver shape, the slid the bottom in, making sure that I had it right way up (I have put a bottom panel in upside down and didn't notice until I'd finished clamping up - fun!). Finally, I glued the second side on.
Glue up 1.jpg
Glue detail.jpg
Then I cleaned up some excess glue from the outside, wrapped the carcass in glad-wrap and sat it on the bench, so that I could put the band clamps on.
Glue up 2.jpg
Once the band clamps are on, I check the diagonals top and bottom to be sure everything is square. You can check them using a rule or diagonal gauges. If the diagonals are not equal, you can square them up by applying force in the direction of the long diagonal.
Glue up 4.jpg
After about 4 hours the box can be unclamped, as the glue is ready for you to remove the excess. At this stage, it is like herd rubber, and comes away quite easily. If you leave it until the glue has completely hardened, it becomes brittle and breaks off in small pieces. Because I oiled the box before assembly, the excess won't stick and comes off easily.
Glue up 5.jpg
The next step was to trim the pins using a low angle block plane. You need to be very careful doing this as the ends should be flush with the sides, but you don't want to accidentally take anything off the sides themselves.
Next, another check for any scratches (where do they come from?). If there are any, they are steamed and the sides re-sanded. Lastly, a clean up followed by a coat of oil.
Glue up 6.jpg
The huon pine for the lid panels was sent on Friday, so I hope it arrives tomorrow so I can move on to the lids.

Many thanks for sharing this, Alex, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt there. Appreciate you spelling out the glue-up process. So far for me, each of my 2 box glue-ups have been panic sessions

can you tell us why you used epoxy rather than something like Titebond for a joint that is inherently very strong anyway?

Will be very interested in what hinges you use, and how you fit them.

Talking of temperature /humidity variations, Townsville was 23degC /95% humidity early this morning, and by 10am was 35 deg /18%. How do you build boxes under these conditions?

can you tell us why you used epoxy rather than something like Titebond for a joint that is inherently very strong anyway?

I used epoxy because it gives more working time. Also, it can be tinted so that the glue line is less visible. However, be careful using it in very humid conditions - google 'amine blush'.

I was looking at your site (from the sig) and the prices are really quite modest.

Are these typical or are you looking at discounting to gain clients?

Curious, as when I price out my timber and supplies I dont get much left over! (maybe Im being ripped off on materials!)