Thread: Red Cedar box

A quick weekend commission for a client with a tight deadline. It's a box to present a retirement gift. I have been sitting on this fancy piece of Aussie red cedar for years and it called to me for this project. It's reclaimed from an old writing slope. The lid is younger, reclaimed ten years ago from a neighbour's yard out of the grasp of a lopper.

I used my table saw sled which typically is used for making compound angle boxes to cut the sides. Just plain mitres.
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I cut the rebate for the lid, the (sort of) castellation to help get the lid off and the groove for the base on the router table, marked the base and glued it up. But just before I glued it up I messaged the client to say I'd made a start, would be on track to deliver in a few days. Then I get a message back 'oh by the way, there is a saucer with the cup, do you hate me right now?' Yes! Turned out my internal dimension was the same as the diameter of the saucer, so I ran the sides through my drum sander to knock off 2mm thickness from the inside. This will give me 4mm clearance, phew!

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I cut the lid out, rebated the edge and rounded the lip to match the roundover inside the rebate with a rebate plane(gives a little finger pull to help lift the lid). I chamfered the top edge with a handplane. I gave the lid a little expansion room across the grain but left it friction fit on the long grain. This is in the white ready for finish

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This morning I used blonde dewaxed shellac to finish it. I may sweeten a few things up since I have a couple of days leeway

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thanks for looking