How To Make a Wooden Box

All woodworking projects are easier when you are commencing with wonderful wood. Even if you are just generating a basic box, it is helpful to have straight wood without having cracks. I bought this one x six at Lowes and went by means of the stack for about ten minutes ahead of I came away with this nice speciman. It really is really straight and excellent for my wooden box.

I am convinced that one particular of most significant problems beginning woodworkers encounter in their early projects is faliure to properly square their blades and guides when they minimize their wood. This can lead to corners that will not line up correctly and out-of-square tasks. Even a straightforward wooden box goes together considerably easier when all of your cuts are square. You can see right here that I am checking my table saw blade to make positive that it is at a best 90 degree angle from the table. The exact same need to be accomplished with guides and fences.

The length of the bottom and the height of the sides is up to you. I didn’t commit a lot more than a couple of minutes choosing the dimension of my box. Nevertheless, for this project if you want to use the exact same board to offer the lid for the box, then the depth of the box (front to back) needs to be short ample to permit to have the front and back connected and even now be modest adequate to be covered by the width of the board. So we want to get the width of our board ( a little less than six inches) and then subtract the thickness of the board twice, when for the front and when for the back. What we have left more than is how deep our ends and bottom can be.

Right here, I have just drilled some pilot holes by means of the ends so it will be easier to nail my ends to the bottom. Not only does it support stop splitting the wood in which the nails go by means of (considering that they are so close to the edge of the wood), the pilot holes assist hold the nails exactly where I want them whilst I’m hammering. What I am utilizing to drill the holes is not a drill bit, but a nail the very same as the ones I will be utilizing to assemble the box, but with the head snipped off of it, so it will chuck up appropriately in my drill.

This is the place that pre-drilling of the ends comes in useful. I line it up, and in a couple of taps I have then ends on.

Now that our ends are on it is time to measure for the sides. It is effortless to see exactly where our measurements will be taken. The sides will be the height of the ends and the length of the bottom plus the ends.

Here you can see I’ve put the back on and only the front stays. I pre-drilled the edges of the sides just like I did the ends on the bottom and I place a small bead of glue on the edge of the ends and bottom where they meet the sides. I line almost everything up and carefully tap in the nails.

Now it’s time to measure for the best. The top is going to entirely cover the ends and the sides.

Here I have lower the top for the box and I am glueing it to the top and holding it in location with some 24″ bar clamps. These bar clamps from harbor freight are relatively affordable and easy to use.

You might be contemplating “Okay, now you’ve totally closed up the box. How will I place anything in it”? Glad you asked. The prime 1 inch of the side and ends of the box is now going to be component of the lid.

Here I’ve set the manual fence to reduce about two inches off the top of the box. I’ll lower one particular side, rotate the box and cut an finish and so on right up until I separate the top of the box from the bottom.

Here is the box and lid back on the workbench following I finish at the table noticed

Attaching the lid is rather straightfoward. I notch the lid and box on one side so that every single leaf of the hinge will set flush with the wood. Be aware that if you use the solid brass screws that come with true brass hinges, you will require to predrill for the screws. Brass screws are very soft and will twist off very easily ahead of you get them seated.

For your very first box, you may discover that surface mounting hinges on the back is simpler for you.

 This is my box following a tiny sanding and some stain. I followed that up with some satin polyurethane. Overall I am fairly pleased with it. I have a great wooden box that took me less than a day and 10 dollars to make.