so Im a copycat, so what.

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I just loved a box I saw at the woodworking show, but I wasnt about to put the time and effort,(hand cut dovetails, select a good board, etc....)into it.
Its a goof project, just for a laugh, and my son already claimed it for his downstairs.

I needed to make it longer, but my cracked boards of ash only let me cut out 12.5 inches long max, and I didnt want to start glueing up sides for this.

A mistake is not using glass, I used plexi I had laying around,, bad idea, it scratches and stains if you breath on it.

I have some blue tape stuck inside the dado'd edge for the plastic, didnt want to get finish on it, but I scratched up the plexi, cleaned it as good as I can, Ill let my sons nimble fingers work on using a blade to scrape out the blue tape. I had enough with this.

dovetailed box, machined cut, during cleanup I knocked it off the table once, chiped one dovetail, but not repairing anything. would have been a bit better if I got another 3-4 inches, but I wasnt using any regular stock boards, this was all made with pieces of wood that was headed for the fire pit.(this was made of ash for box, maple and walnut for hammer, and poplar for the stake)

not my proudest project, but like I said, it broke up the misery of making all those cutting boards, and gave me something to do in the middle of messing up so many pen blanks.

Im starting a bunch of dovetailed keepsake boxes this week, very unfancy, again, trying to use up as many shorts as possible.
 

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Ha! No wonder your son latched onto it...it's great.

And you're not a copycat...you were simply inspired by another artist's work. ;) :D
 
with the dovetail jig out and almost set up, I fine tuned it in today and started cutting some boxes out of shorts.
sometimes using checked end pieces doesnt always work out when you have to tap them.
I find it easier to do alot of the same tasks at once. when I needed a cutting board, I made 5 of them. when I need a box or two, it just pays to cut pieces for a few extra, hold onto them.
These boxes Im going to scroll and put feet right into the sidewalls of the box.(Im going to try at least)


I got the green light on my attic bedroom project this morning, so most of what Im working on now will just be put aside for a while.

Ill finish up a few boxes since I promised some, but Im putting the shop reorg once again on hold.
 

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Well done my friend. I like your style. Nothing u do can ever be said to be short on material. :)
Like the finer detail in the mallet. Had to zoom on my phone to see the warning.


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Those look great Allen. I wish I could find spalted maple like that here. I've been thinking about spalting it myself but it is another thing on my "to do" list.
 
I played and played with the pc dovetail jig until I got it to the point where the joints were tight enough that they needed a good tap to fit in, and there wasnt much sanding needed as in kept the tails and pins not proud.
I left them in the shop, Im guessing the heavy humidity, the wood expanded a bit, I could not get the joints apart. After tapping them with a rubber mallet, I guess the spalting made the boards a bit week, or there were tiny cracks I didnt see, I broke two walls.
I glued them back together, but if they dont look right, Im going to scrap it all.
 
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