Jeff’s Jewelry Box – Viewer Project
This week, we have a couple cool jewelry boxes for you to check out. Let’s take a look at this beautiful mahogany creation from Jeff:
Hi Marc. Thanks for posting some beginner projects here – it’s been encouraging to see a wide variety of skill levels on The Wood Whisperer. The Jewelry Box was my wife’s anniversary present this past June. She granted permission to send you a few pictures – but I think she would have wanted to ‘rearrange’ the jewelry inside before snapping these! In any case, I’m new to woodworking and I learned a lot in the process of ‘creating’ the design and I’ve learned a lot from your videos. Seriously, thanks for what you do.
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.
105 – Oh For Keepsake!
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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:
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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. |
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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! |
Mahogany Sofa Table – Viewer Project
This project was sent to us by Jim. Let’s check it out:
Hi Marc here is some pictures of my holiday projects. I’ve made 2 long couch tables this year they are made out of sepal (African Mahogany) and a solid hard maple top. The top is supported by 2 stretchers that have sliding dovetails into the aprons. The base is all mortise and tenon construction except for the long bottom stretcher which is dovetailed. I had the idea a couple of years ago when I made the end tables in the last picture. Thanks for all your help and inspiration.
Honduras Mahogany Dresser – Viewer Project
This project is submitted by Tom. Let’s see what he has to say about it:
“Dresser is primarily Honduras Mahogany with Beech internals, Philippine Mahogany drawers and Walnut pulls. A mongrel design (I mean hybrid?)
Sources of design: Began with a Will Neptune article, Anatomy of a Chest of Drawers (2003 May/June Fine Woodworking). From the Summer 2008 Woodwork Magazine I loved Christopher Schwarz’ article, A Better Blanket Chest Design. That supplied inspiration for the plinth. I used dovetails rather than finger joints. Mark Edmundson wrote about NK-style drawer construction in A Better Way to Build Drawers (The New Best of Fine Woodworking). I decided to give it a try. I haven’t seen them mentioned in any other articles, on-line or in print. After making these I still haven’t decided if I like them functionally or from a construction standpoint better than others I’ve used. Any thoughts on this from Wood Whisperer fans?
The November/December 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking arrived just as it was time to figure out the door pull treatment. One of the Four Custom Pulls that Please the Eye by Michael Fortune struck me as perfect. Lastly, the top molding. Trying to decide on basic size/proportions, I held a scrap of drawer runner against the case, below the top. Eureka. I modified the “drawer runner” with chamfer and round over and was very pleased.
Two disasters: Just as the plinth was completed it fell and bounced on the rough concrete of my driveway. Ouch! The structure survived nicely. Thank you, Christopher. But a corner had nasty gouges and tears as well as a few other bashings. At that point I knew this would be a “country” piece. Later, as I foolishly stacked drawers on a rolling cart, one of them fell on that same nasty concrete. Direct hit to a drawer front corner. More sanding and acceptance of “the process being more important than the product.”
Problems?: Of course! When selecting the Mahogany, I liked the look of the 8/4 offerings much better than the 4/4. So this seemed like a good time to try resawing. I used a 3/4-inch Wood Slicer. As soon as the blade exited the wood, that lovely wood sprung to open up huge cups (and/or bows) in each half. Of course I proceeded to cut all of my stock with similar results. By the time I milled the material true it was 5/8-ish rather than the 3/4 I had planned on. On the positive side this saves weight if I ever have to ship it by air. Just doing my part to lessen the carbon footprint.”
Construction Details: The plinth is a dovetailed box with two horizontal supports that are glued into rabbets. Case is screwed into those pieces (no glue). The half-blind dovetailed case has a full top and bottom allowing the show top and plinth to be created without considering case integrity. Case has dadoes for horizontal and vertical dividers with exposed dovetails the three front most inches. Horizontal dividers are mortise and tenon frames, Mahogany for front stile and Beech for other pieces. Vertical dividers, same depth as horizontal stiles on top row are separate pieces, glued in place. Beech dividers float in dadoes since the grain runs opposite of other case members. Bottom molding is simple bevel with small lips at top and bottom. Top molding, mentioned earlier, is a bit more detailed but still rather clean. Finished with five coats of 1:1:1, semi-gloss poly:linseed oil: mineral spirits and then waxed.
You can view more of Tom’s work on his website.
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