105 – Oh For Keepsake!

October 30, 2009 by thewoodwhisperer · 54 Comments
Filed under: All Videos, Projects 

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Its that time of year again: HOLIDAY PROJECT TIME! So this year, I decided to make a few little keepsake boxes, thanks to some advice from The Great WOODini. I also took inspiration from a box Nicole keeps on her nightstand and developed a new design that is much more practical for the average woodworker to make. The boxes feature a secret locking pin. Once removed, the lid slides off on a sliding dovetail. And as always with these holiday gift projects, you can modify them by trying different sizes, shapes, and wood species to make your own one-of-a-kind box. And since they are so easy to make, its no problem batching out a bunch of them in a single weekend. If you decide to make some, please send me pics of your variations.

Topics Covered:

  • Creating sliding dovetails
  • Using a dowel-centering pin to locate holes
  • Cutting a recess with a pattern bit
  • Sanding end-grain

And here are a few pictures of the final boxes:

keepsake1sm keepsake2sm

keepsake3sm keepsake4sm keepsake5sm keepsake6sm

Circle/Grommet Templates Circle Templates – $32.99
This template set has been incredibly useful for numerous projects including these keepsake boxes and the Contemporary Clock Project from last year.
GRR-Ripper™ Adjustable Push Block GRR-Ripper™ Adjustable Push Block – $59.99
The GRR-Ripper is the fancy push block you see me using in this video. Incredibly useful and gives you ultimate control of the workpiece!


Holiday Projects on the Brain

September 30, 2009 by thewoodwhisperer · 74 Comments
Filed under: Blog 

I’ve been spending the last few days contemplating some small and relatively simple projects for the holidays. One thing I knew I wanted to make this year was some kind of keepsake box. No hardware, no metal, but I want the box to still “lock” in some way. So here’s what I came up with after a day in the shop. This is still a working prototype and I will probably create a couple different versions.

keepsake1 keepsake2 keepsake3 keepsake4

As you can see, there’s a secret peg lock. Once you find it and lift it out, the lid slides off on a sliding dovetail revealing the contents. Believe it or not, I made this in just a few hours in the shop. So this is a very quick project that would be perfect for the holidays. Think I should do a full episode on it?

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