Boxes for Snapshots - Another Set

glenn bradley

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Last year I made a couple boxes for Mom to put her snapshots in. She filled them up pretty quick so this gives me a perfect couple (more) items to give her for her upcoming birthday. I brought one home to make sure I had the dimensions right. It is now all dusty from setting in the shop. I have some of the same cherry around but, the original set has aged and darkened. I'll just have to let these catch up in their own sweet time. On small items like this a plane makes a good jointer, the BU smoother was handy so I grabbed it for the task. I cut the fingers with the sled on the tablesaw as is my practice.

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Here they are roughly fitted.

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The upper finger is 1/8" taller than the lower finger.

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The box will be glued up as a cube with the top and bottom in place. I will then use an 1/8" kerf blade on the tablesaw to separate the top and bottom along the line represented by the bamboo stick.

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This results in the center upper and lower finger being of equal height. The finger pattern is a mirror image from the centerline out when finished.
 
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Thanks Glenn for showing the way :thumb: when you separate the top from the bottom, is the kerf waste accounted for in one of the fingers, or split between the two?
The 1/8" oversized finger takes the cut. I don't use a through cut, I leave a paper thin amount of material to keep the parts under control. I then complete the cut with a handsaw. I tried a different method of slotting for the top and bottom this time around. I have gotten an unacceptable amount of tearout with smaller slot bits in the past but, this one from Lee Valley did a real nice job. The boxes are dry fit and clamped for stability. Then you set the bit height and run the box around it.

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The diameter of the bit is small enough to get well into the corners.

Here's a couple figured blanks for the tops and a couple plainer blanks for the bottoms. You can see with one box roughly assembled how the edge joinery on the top/bottom allows them to float once the whole thing is assembled.

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These went on hold (along with a lot of other things) while work got crazy for a bit. I finish the insides before assembly.

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I add two sides to one end and slip the pre-finished top and bottom in.

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The outside gets finished after the top and bottom get separated. Possibly of interest; I double-stick-tape spacers to my squaring cauls to allow clearance for the little fingers.

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Pillowed pegs for the boxes and a view of one of the original and one of the new; same material, same finish, about a year or so apart. Cherry does show the passing of time :thumb:

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I keep forgetting to mention; the ebony pegs are cut from some material Carol gave me on her first visit to my shop back in 2010. This is the same batch of material I used on the box swap pull. Thanks Carol!
 
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