John Kairys
Member
- Messages
- 31
- Location
- Southern NJ
Well, I needed a new box for my surgical operating loupes. I recently got a fiber-optic headlight, and the whole contraption just would not fit into the small box that originally came with the loupes. Plus, after more than 16 years, the old box was looking pretty beat up.
My initial plan was to just make a simple wooden box which matched the original, only larger. Well, one thing led to another... I figured that I would dress it up and make it out of mahogany. Then came the hand-cut dovetails. Then I figured that I would make the raised top panel so that it wouldn't look quite so plain. I decided to re-use the old latch hardware and nameplate to serve as a reference to its predecessor. Hopefully, doing so will also keep it from looking too much like a jewelry box and will prevent it from "walking".
Milling the lumber, cutting the dovetails, raising the panel, cutting the top free, and mortising for the hinges were all done by hand. The inside of the lid and the bottom of the interior have a layer of high density foam under the felt to just cradle the loupes and to keep things from moving around. The finish is 4 coats of a wipe on poly. It's not my favorite finish, but the box will be living in the OR storage room and will take a beating. I figure that in a few years, it will develop as much character as its predecessor.
My initial plan was to just make a simple wooden box which matched the original, only larger. Well, one thing led to another... I figured that I would dress it up and make it out of mahogany. Then came the hand-cut dovetails. Then I figured that I would make the raised top panel so that it wouldn't look quite so plain. I decided to re-use the old latch hardware and nameplate to serve as a reference to its predecessor. Hopefully, doing so will also keep it from looking too much like a jewelry box and will prevent it from "walking".
Milling the lumber, cutting the dovetails, raising the panel, cutting the top free, and mortising for the hinges were all done by hand. The inside of the lid and the bottom of the interior have a layer of high density foam under the felt to just cradle the loupes and to keep things from moving around. The finish is 4 coats of a wipe on poly. It's not my favorite finish, but the box will be living in the OR storage room and will take a beating. I figure that in a few years, it will develop as much character as its predecessor.