Box - Keepsake Box.pdf - plans - wojtekg4

Laminated Keepsake Box

hough you might think that a box is a box is a box

and not very exciting, this particular little box is

rather special. Not only does it use wood that might other-

wise be thrown away, but better yet, the layering tech-

nique allows you to very easily modify the length, width

and height to suit your own needs. You could call it a

"log cabin" box. This refers to the way the sections are

layered one on top of another with the ends staggered,

just the way the old timers built their log cabins.

If you are going to stay with our design, you need

twenty-four 1/2" X 1/2"-square sections in all, twelve

long and twelve short. All I did was search through my

pile of offcuts, select two colors that went together to

make a pleasant counterchange, and then pushed the

wood through my portable surface planer. Having planed

the wood to a crisp 1/2" X 1/2"-square section, cut the

wood to length so that it is perfectly square-ended and

slightly oversize. As the long pieces need to end up at 5

1/2"— meaning when they are built into the finished

6"-long box—it's best to cut them at about 5 5/8", so you

can plane and sand them back to a good fit and finish.

When you have made the twenty-four lengths, pile

them up in a dry-run arrangement, in the order they are

going to be in the finished box, and pencil mark the top

and bottom layers of the stack. Draw in registration marks

MAKING THE BOX

When you have studied the working drawings and seen

how the lid and the base boards are set into slots—with

the lid being able to slide in and out—then make deci-

sions as to the size of your box, and size and plane the

wood accordingly.

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so there is no doubting the layered order.

Being very careful that you don't make a mistake, take

the eight lengths that go to make the top and the bottom

layers and use either a router or a grooving plane to cut

the channels. Aim to have the grooves at about 3/16 " wide,

1/4" deep, and centered in the 1/ 2" thickness of the wood.

With the channels crisply worked, take the wood that

you have chosen for the base and the lid and use a router

or a plane to cut the rabbeted edges. While you are at it,

use a router or a "round" moulding plane, or even a gouge,

to cut the beautiful scooped convex curve that runs down

from the top face of the lid through to the rabbet.

Starting at the base and working up, glue the four base

lengths together so that the base board is nicely contained,

and then layer up in log cabin fashion until the box is

complete. Don't forget to leave one of the top-end pieces

unglued. This done, test to make sure that the lid is a

good fit and leave the box until the glue is set. Glue the

short length on the end of the lid board.

Finally, plane and sand the box down to a flush-sided

smooth finish, make sure that the lid is a nice easy fi t in

the grooves, and then wax and burnish to a high sheen.

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SPECIAL TIP: USING OLD PLANES

Though there are any number of ways of

cutting tongues, grooves and rabbets, I

t h i n k that the old metal grooving plane

takes a bit of beating, meaning one of the

old metal Stanley or Record planes. 1 use a

Record 043 and 044, both made sometime

before 1950. It's true they are no longer

made, but 1 picked mine up at a flea market

for no more than the cost of a new router

bit. The Record 044 has eight blades that

range in size from 1/8 " to 9/16".

FENCE

USING OLD PLANES

The classic Record 044 grooving plane is a beauty, easy to tune and

pretty foolproof to use.

STEP-BY-STEP STAGES

1 With the base dry fitted in place—meaning no

glue—layer the square sections up log-cabin style so that

the ends stick out beyond the corners. Pay particular

attention to the alignment of the grooves.

2 When you are happy with the overall shape and

alignment of the box, use a ruler and square to

check for squareness.

3 Before you leave the

glue to set, make sure

that the lid is an easy but

snug fit and that it runs

right through to the end

of the box, so that the end

runs into the groove.

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PORTABLE SURFACE PLANER VS.

HAND PLANES

If you are a beginner to woodworking, then sooner or

later you will have to make decisions about your overall

approach to the subject, or your "working philosophy."

One of the main questions that you have to ask yourself

is, do you want the emphasis to be on the bench power

tools—meaning routers, press drills, planers and all the

rest—or do you want to focus on using hand tools? Most

woodworkers 1 know fit in one of four groups:

■ Will not use power tools at any price.

■ Will grudgingly use the occasional power tool, but

much prefers hand tools.

■ Enjoys using power tools for most of the work, and

tidies up with the hand tools.

■ Very much enjoys using power tools and is reluctant to

use hand tools.

6 If all is correct, the base slab should be well con-

unncd, but should fit loosely, so that the box side can

move without splitting the base.

I reckon that Gill and 1 fit into group two. We much

prefer working with hand tools but will sometimes use a

power tool to speed things up.

Okay, so you must surely have gathered by now, that

we're not very keen on power tools. It's not so much that

we can't afford to power up, but rather that we both dis-

like all the dust, debris and noise that power tools gener-

ate. To our way of thinking, there is nothing quite so

unpleasant as being covered with fine dust and blasted

with noise.

All that said, 1 was so tuckered out one day last sum-

mer—when I was heavily involved in the strenuous and

sweat-making procedure of hand planing a massive

rough-sawn oak plank—that I decided, against my better

judgment, to invest in a portable planer thicknesser. To

cut a long story short—or you could say to plane a fat

story thinner (ha!)—when I first saw this machine, I was

firmly convinced that it was the beginning of the end of

my way of working. My thinking was that it would some-

how or other weaken my belief that slow-and-quiet is

beautiful. However, there is no denying that it has

changed the way 1 work. For example, where I once strug-

gled and strained with a jointer plane, and then a smooth-

ing plane, 1 now pass the wood a few times through the

surface planer. In fact, I have to admit that it's a beautifully

efficient machine that gets a lot of use. Of course, it is

noisy, and 1 do have to house it in its own shed, and I

did have to get myself a dust sucker and a full-face respira-

tor mask, but against that, I can now spend much more

time playing around with my various grooving, moulding

and combination hand planes.

Most experts would agree that the best way is to start

with hand tool techniques and then power up when you

fully understand your needs.

The portable surface planer is a great bench machine. All you do is

feed the wood in one side, between the cutter blades and the bed, and

it comes out the other side nearly finished!

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