Between Project Scrap Boxes

[glenn bradley]

Have not seen one of those screwdrivers in a long time! Very useful with brass screws.

I have some old Xcelite tools left over from being a geek for 40 years but they have gotten awfully proud of their stuff price-wise. I needed a short one (as pictured) and got a VACo K21 for a good price on the bay; about $10 IIRC. Very serviceable for #1 and #2 slotted screws if anyone is interested. Has not failed me yet.

 

[glenn bradley]

The lacquer is dry enough to work with. The pulls are ready.

I lay a piece of tape about in the middle of the front of the lid. I mark a center-line just for overall guidance.

I use a couple of small dowels for the pulls. These help me locate the pull when epoxying and resist lateral force. 12 gauge wire has worked well for me for many years.

I place the pull at the visual center. I orient it to where I think it looks good and trace a line around it on the tape.

I also mark the back of the pull so I know where the no-drill area is.

I recommend some sort of depth stop when drilling these irregular thickness shapes. A commercial product is fine but a piece of scrap with a hole drilled through it will work too. I did not use the large drill / dowel combination shown. They are just to show how you can make a quick and dirty depth stop.

I drill the pull and place the "dowels". The sharp end of the cut wires act as dowel centers to mark the tape on the lid face. This gives me mating holes.

And it looks like so . . .



Here's another one.

I will finish setting up the balance of the pulls, apply the epoxy and clamp them in place. While the epoxy initially sets I can start ripping stock for the trays.

 

[glenn bradley]

I know this is getting a little tedious now but I feel like I need to finish up the thread . I lay everything out in the hopes of getting all the pulls on with one batch of epoxy. The white chunks of high density foam (packing from something once upon a time) is to distribute the spring clamp pressure across the asymmetrical pull face.


Like so.

I joint and thickness more scrap to use for the trays.

Rip the stock to the various widths required.

One of the pulls rubbed a bit. This mini scraper comes in really handy for this sort of thing.

I sometimes forget how many shop made doo-jobbers I use in my work. The depth gauge gets use on almost every project. The router sled is fairly task specific but does let you route things like these mirrored v-grooves and things like sliding dovetails without a lot of bother.





These will make more sense once you see the tray assembled.

I cut the tray parts at the tablesaw. I tend to just walk each box through all the steps. This does a couple of things for me. I don't get things mixed up and I can compensate for any slight variations in the boxes. I like this better than making everything a little loose so they all fit wherever; that's just me.

Fit them with a shooting board.

The tray supports get glued in as appliques. I have used e-6000 adhesive for this for many years with good success. It holds tenaciously and remains a bit flexible so things like wood movement on larger projects are not an issue.

I ran out of my usual binding tape which has a bit of spring to it. Painter's tape will have to do.

Since the tape is the clamp in this application I just set the tray in place (and reverse it to test) to let the glue set.

Once the tray frames are cured I will add bottoms, some shellac and give everything a coat of paste wax.

 

[glenn bradley]

I use the frames as a template for the tray bottoms.

They get cut at the tablesaw.

A MatchFit sled makes this quick and easy even if things are a tiny bit out of square.

I tape off the area that will receive glue and apply the finish.

A scrap of ply slightly smaller than the bottom acts as a clamping caul.



And we're finally done.

The trays match whatever material is used for the tops and pulls. Once the paste wax gasses off I will put them in the bin of "last minute" gifts that I keep in the bottom of the hall closet.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Another Bradley project on the books. Thanks (as always) for taking the time to document the process.

 

[Robert Horky]

Well done, they look great.

 

[David Johnson]

Very nice looking boxes.

Appreciate your efforts to create such an outstanding tutorial. Well done.
David

 

[glenn bradley]

Thanks gang. Time to start looking at material for the headboard/nightstand project ;-)

 

[Ted Calver]

I'll echo others in saying thanks for the great tutorials. They are really an inspirtion to make some saw dust.

 

[glenn bradley]

Closing note that I forgot to include. If you buff a lot of small or odd shaped items I have two words for you . . .

String Buffer.

 

[Robert Horky]

You truly are a wealth of knowledge. We all learn so much. Thanks and will be watching headboard/nightstand.