Boxing Day

   Today in the shop has been all about Square Corners, and boxes.  Recently I have made several boxes of various sizes, some of the boxes have been sold and others have been absorbed into everyday life.

  This blog is about the evolutionary process from 2x10 by 16 inch cast off to cute little box.

  I began at 3:30 with a piece of wood and an idea.

a piece of spruce stud from a dumper.

   The first thing that I had to do was flatten the piece of wood so that I could saw it into useful pieces.  Since it is 1.5 inches thick I was able to flatten both sides in the planer.  I used several shallow passes and got results good enough to make it safe to take the board to the table saw for ripping. If the board is too cupped even if I could rip it safely the edges would not be parallel and it would make for extra time at the joiner to get things sorted out.

  Once flat I ripped the board into 2 3/4 strips.  After ripping the boards I re-sawed them on the table saw. I have an older version of the Bosch contractors saw.  (I took the guard off, made the cuts and put the guard back).  When doing this sort of thing I find that the lost material is not a big deal and the narrow boards can easily be re-sawn on the table saw, quicker and straighter than I can do it on the band saw.

  

     That is some of the dressed lumber that came from the 2x10.  This the photo of what is left after I made two boxes.

   These are two boxes that are glued and drying as I am writing.  One box has mitred corners, the one with the green tape and will get an inset lid.  I am using lead weights to hold the inset bottoms on the boxes and elastic hair bands from the $ Store to hold the sides together while the glue dries.  The second box has butt joints on the corners with extended ends, I plan to put some sort of hinged lid on that box.  Both boxes will get wood burned, or carved designs on them once I sand them down.

   The time spent sanding and finishing will be as great as the time spent building, as is always the case.  As you can see I have enough material to make at least two if not three more boxes all for the cost of $00.00 in materials.  

  The next step is to set up stops and jigs and cut out several boxes at once to speed up production.