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Thread: Walnut man-box

  1. #1
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    Default Walnut man-box

    I figured it's time to make something for myself, enter the man-box.

    My favorite timber is Walnut so American Black Walnut it is. This used to be a floor board which has some amazing figure in it. I decided to use dovetails for the joinery.

    The lid will be ply with veneer on both sides with some inlay banding which I made using walnut and some white'ish veneer.

    Progress photos attached.

    Hope you enjoy.

    Cheers
    Jacques

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  3. #2
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    Nice piecce of Walnut and the dovetail looks very neat.
    How do you prepare those bandings? I see lots of shavings in the photo.
    Dallas

  4. #3
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    Hi Jacques,

    Lovely piece of walnut (veneer?) there. Dovetails are always beautiful. Looking forward to seeing the finished item!

    Brian

  5. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Treecycle View Post
    Nice piecce of Walnut and the dovetail looks very neat.
    How do you prepare those bandings? I see lots of shavings in the photo.
    The banding start their live as a 50mm wide brick. I didn't know how to slice them up from there without wasting too much so I used the bandsaw to slice a few mm off each side. I then clamp the remaining brick up and smooth up the edges with a plane, hence all the shavings. Rinse and repeat.

    Once all the thin slices are cut I put a pice of double sided tape on a wide pice of MDF and stuck the slices down to it, planes side down, bandsaw side up. I'm fortunate to have a small Jet Drum sander which is very effective to bring the banding down to an equal thickness by sanding out the bandsaw marks.

    It seemed to work fine and I ended up with about 12 bandings from a 50mm piece.

    Here's a photo of the bricks prior to slicing them up and the clamping jig to glue them up.


  6. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by homey View Post
    Hi Jacques,b

    Lovely piece of walnut (veneer?) there. Dovetails are always beautiful. Looking forward to seeing the finished item!

    Brian
    Thank you Brian. Yes thats the lid panel already glued up, walnut veneer on some ply, veneered both sides.

    I got a stash of very pretty walnut veneers the other day so figured I better start using it.

  7. #6
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    Hi Jacques,

    I’m deeply envious of your veneer supplier!!

    Bandings made this way look much crisper than the commercial ones, which is so important on a small object like a box.

    What are you using for the light timber core? Do you make the bandings to an exact width or just adjust the inlay groove to fit? I prefer making to an exact 8mm but as you know, it can be a pain.

    Taping the brick to a piece of 3mm MDF works well to prevent any tear-out on the bottom as it goes through the bandsaw. That or a piece of thin MDF run part-way through the bandsaw then taped in place as a zero clearance surface.

    Bandings with a dark colour on the outside seem to work best for me as any small defects between the banding and the box groove are easier to fix.

    Watching the build with interest!

    Brian

  8. #7
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    Thanks for the info. Obviously it takes a while to make them all but well worth while.
    Sounds like you might have the same drum sander as me , the 10/20 which I brought only a few months ago when Carbatec had them on a good special. So good that I think they mustn't be going to carry them anymore.
    Dallas

  9. #8
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    Some progress shots from yesterday....

    What have I learnt? When using highly figured timber, especially dark timber, dovetails aren't the most striking joint. In hindsight I should have done a mitre with some light coloured keys instead.

    Other than the visual appearance, which I don't particularly like, this was probably the worst dovetails I've ever done. They were so tight and difficult to trim to size, in the end I had to hammer it home which is not ideal. Anyway, nothing that my sander couldn't fix.

    I ended up using the banding with the white'ish core for some contrast, the other ones I made with the walnut core was a bit too bland for my liking.

    I ended up sealing the outside with some Osmo Polyx before continuing with cutting off the lid.

    Hope you enjoy.

    Cheers
    Jacques

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by homey View Post
    Hi Jacques,

    I’m deeply envious of your veneer supplier!!

    Bandings made this way look much crisper than the commercial ones, which is so important on a small object like a box.

    What are you using for the light timber core? Do you make the bandings to an exact width or just adjust the inlay groove to fit? I prefer making to an exact 8mm but as you know, it can be a pain.

    Taping the brick to a piece of 3mm MDF works well to prevent any tear-out on the bottom as it goes through the bandsaw. That or a piece of thin MDF run part-way through the bandsaw then taped in place as a zero clearance surface.

    Bandings with a dark colour on the outside seem to work best for me as any small defects between the banding and the box groove are easier to fix.

    Watching the build with interest!

    Brian
    Hi Brian, I don't aim for a specific width. I just make the groove to fit the banding I use. As for the timber, I tend to use what I have. In this instance the white core is Claret Ash, the brown Walnut veneer, I have no idea what the lighter veneer is [emoji16].

    Here are some photos of my "core" stack. You can clearly see the Claret Ash.

    I've also added a picture of a few different bandings. Left to right, Andrew Crawford, China, China, homemade and homemade. The small square stringing is from China as well. You can see the width difference, Andrew Crawford's inlay which is 8mm wide for reference.

  11. #10
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    Having never used banding, I've often wondered what the process was to insert them, so thanks for all the photos.

    Lance

  12. #11
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    I'm with Lance there on the banding. Do you find the Dremel the ideal tool for doing the trenching and is the trench done with a cutter of the correct width or in multiple passes?

  13. #12
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    Jacques,

    Thanks for the very helpful pics. I haven’t noticed anyone selling Claret Ash in Melbourne - I must investigate. Where possible I like figured English Sycamore but this is very hard to come by other than from luthiers’ supplies at great cost.


    TC,

    A couple of thoughts to add to Jacques’ excellent description.

    You can inlay bandings a number of ways. One is using a Dremel-like rotary tool with a router base. This is useful if your banding is not exactly the size of your cutter, e.g. 7.75mm. In the case you can make two passes to get an exact fit. Dremel make a router base, as does Lee Valley as does StewMac (the luthiers’supplies store). I use inlay on most of my boxes so I’ve invested in a Proxxon rotary tool in a router base and fence from Home - Microfence - these have micrometer precision to ensure a perfect fit every time. I fitted a clear acrylic base which gives me a more stable sliding surface plus a correctly-sized hole for inlay router collars.

    04201600-694B-408E-B5B4-76696E3FDA0A.jpeg

    Another way to cut the channels is on the router table. This is a bit hair-raising at first as you’re working blind with the box upside down but if you set stop blocks either end it’s not that hard. I use this method most of the time because my banding is almost always 8.0mm, but sometime I need a second pass with the Proxxon if the banding is too wide. I don’t attempt to move the router table fence for these second cuts as it is easier to dial it in on the Microfence. I also don’t sand the edges of the banding to fit as it would often remove one of the outer lines.

    A third way is to cut the channels by hand. I know a couple of excellent boxmakers who do this. The edges of the channel are marked using a purfling cutter, the deepened with a scalpel and straightedge, then the waste is removed with a chisel or a small hand router plane. Sometimes this is the only practical way to do it, for example when working with curves.

    Brian

  14. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Treecycle View Post
    I'm with Lance there on the banding. Do you find the Dremel the ideal tool for doing the trenching and is the trench done with a cutter of the correct width or in multiple passes?
    As Brian said [emoji16]. I prefer my dremel tool which has the flimsy dremel plunge attachment on it and it seems to work fine. I do multiple passes to get to the exact fit. I just ordered the Veritas plunge router kit for my dremel which will make a huge improvement in rigidity.

  15. #14
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    Great sharing Brian, I like the way we learn off each other. There ain't enough of that going around in my opinion.

    Another point to note. I use a 3mm cutter in my dremel. I have a few of them which I use in my CNC so I tend to use the downcut spiral bit in my dremel. The are cheap and easy to get which is a plus. It cuts a lovely clean groove and since it's a downcut bit it leaves a clean edge on the top of the groove.

    In your opinion what's the benefits of the Proxxon over a Dremel?

    That base from microfence is lovely. I looked at them a whole ago but couldn't justify the price. They make some very neat accessories as well.

    Cheers
    Jacques

  16. #15
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    What Jacques said. I've found this thread fascinating.
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