Website: www.philcrane.com

Location: Sacramento, CA

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: The finish is a standard wipe on poly – 4 coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal

Wood Species: Mahogany

Project Description:
I was looking for something to create for my niece on her 18th birthday and I came across a picture of a jewelry box which looked unique so I took the design and added my own touches. Having just completed a class on Shell Inlay I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to practice my new found skills!
The joinery is all mortise and tenon except for the drawer fronts which have dadoes cut in them to accept the sides. The drawers are all lined with flocking.
The drawer fronts are inlayed with Japanese flowers cut from Mother of Pearl, Green Abalone, Pink Mussel and Black Lip and the top of the box is inlayed with a large Japanese Crane. I didn’t keep track of how many hours it took to make this box but it covered a number of months with the usual mad rush to get it finished on time!

You can download the SketchUp File here.

From: Jack G

Location: San Dimas, CA

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: 3 coats Spray Laquer (semi gloss)

Wood Species: Cherry / Walnut w/ Wenge and Birdseye Maple Inlay

Project Description:
This is a jewelry box for my daughter, Melissa (nickname: Turtle), hence the turtle inlay in the top. She just turned 6 and is starting to accumulate some jewelry. Simple buscuit joinery with my first attempt at router based inlay after watching Marc’s video. Designed the turtle inlay to include the “M” for Melissa.

Would have liked to use Wenge instead of Walnut for the legs and handle but my hardwood supplier was out. I think she will be happy with it and hopefully will get years of use.

When I introduced myself on the site, I said I was working on a jewelry box for my daughter. Well, after about 20 hours and a lot of mistakes because I made it up as I went, here it is. I looked at a lot of pictures on the web and formulated my own plan with ideas from a lot of them and of course my daughter’s input. Thanks again for the great site!

The piece is made of solid red oak except for the drawer bottoms and lid inlay which are 1/4″ oak ply. The construction is actually very simple. The main case is made with a dado on the sides so that the end grain is only showing from the back. The front false drawer sits in a stopped dado and has a 1/2″ roundover to match the drawer fronts. The drawers are constructed using a homemade drawer lock joint for a lack of better terminology, and have 1/4″ dadoes cut in the sides to ride on oak runners glued to the inside of the case. The dividers are just cut-offs that I planed down to 1/8″ to match the kerf of one of my blades which was used to cut interlocking slots. The top was made about 2″ deep so that I had plenty of room for padding and velvet fabric plus a mirror that was epoxied on. I would like to give credit for that idea, but I can’t remember where I saw it. I then made a base from some scrap pieces of oak flooring, mitered the corners, cut rabbet for the case to sit in and rounded the corners. Stained and poly all parts and glued it up. Added some knobs and handles and put a done stamp on it. The finished piece measures around 20″w x 12″d x 10″h. I didn’t have any plans to go by, I just made it up as I went. Again, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the great things you do for tthe woodworking community. I have learned so much from your site and it is inspiring.

Here are some specifics about the project:

The Honduras Mahogany I received for free from a woodshop that had accidentally planed the rough lumber too thin for their use! Tragic. The grain pattern shifts around in the light – which I thought was interesting and Denise was able to select the pieces herself – which was also cool. (The box was a surprise, but the lumber wasn’t.)

I don’t own a planer – so I left it 3/4 – which might be strange for such a small box – but works for a new guy! It was my first drawer box and it took a little while to get sized just right. I opted to not try anything fancier than a dado…but it’s tight enough for this small stuff.

I made up the dimensions and the basic design, partly from your maple/bubinga box (awesome by the way) and partly from the sizes of the pieces I was trying to use up. Your design video also helped. The earring holder I saw in a magazine on someone else’s box and tried it out with just some blade kerfs. The rest of it was made-up-as-you-go.

By the way – there is a sliding dovetail joint in there above the dbox. My first one. I’ll probably use that a lot more because it’s pretty strong and easy to make. Plus it looks like I know what I’m doing. Personally, I can see a number of places to self-improve– the finish, the open grain issue on Mahogany, etc. I think I’ll need to buy your finishing video for the next one! In any case. I hope you enjoy it.

This is the first of a new short form video series called “Whisper Minis”. The idea is to cover a single topic in a very concise manner. I plan on covering all kinds of tips, tricks, techniques, and we’ll even throw in some product-related stuff now and then. This is just a good way for me to capture and distribute all those little things that don’t really have a place as a full Wood Whisperer episode. I hope you enjoy them.

This mini covers the process of sawing off a box top. This particular box is part of the Sawmill Creek Forum’s Keepsake Box Collaboration. Germain told me about it, and Jim and Dewey invited me to join in on the fun. The idea is that this keepsake box will travel the country to different woodworkers’ shops, and each person will work on one part of the project. And the final box will be auctioned off for charity.

Now I must admit, cutting the top off of someone else’s box makes me a little nervous. So you’ll see I took some precautions. But it was well worth it as the results were great. Now I need to send the box off to the next person in line. You can keep up with the latest on the Sawmill Creek Forum.

Here’s the latest picture from the forum.

The problem I am stuck on is with regards to the top of the box. I have designed the box to have the top made out of two bits of cherry butted up against each other which will then sit in a rabbit around the top of the side pieces. From what I have seen online recently it looks like this could result in the top expanding and “popping” the dovetails out, or cracking the top piece. I’m pretty much at a loss as to how I could get around this and was wondering if you had any pointers.

And here was my response:
Hey Martin. I too was very surprised when I first learned that we have to account for wood movement. I remember thinking at the time, “Oh great! Something else to worry about!” lol. The interesting thing is there are always exceptions to the rules and there are nearly always workarounds. Depending on the size of this box, you may never really have a problem. Obviously the smaller it is, the less it will move. And with small jewelry boxes, you can usually break a lot of the movement rules. Now if this is a reasonably good size, you certainly might have issues, but then again, you might not. How much of a gambler are you? If you want to get a little more scientific about it, check out The Shrinkulator.

Now the safe thing to do would be to redesign the top a little. And by re-designing, you might turn this dilemma into a design opportunity. The most obvious option would be to make the top more like a frame and panel. So the two cherry pieces would be set into a groove that goes all the way around the inside perimeter of the lid. The panel would essentially float, and thus be allowed to move. But of course, this changes the look.

Now if you absolutely do not want a frame and panel look, then your only other “safe” option is plywood. You can fully surround a piece of ply in that situation and have no adverse effects. And based on this design, the ply edges would be completely concealed and no one would have any idea that it was a piece of plywood. In fact, that would be the way I would do it if I wanted to adhere to that specific design. Good luck!