Movie Box – the sequel

The box does not hold movies, the originals, as mentioned in the last post, were commissioned for the 2007 movie Nights in Rodanthe where they held keepsakes and love letters.  This box was commissioned by a very thoughtful guy for his wife for Christmas.  They were watching the film together and at the end she commented that she didn’t know about the movie (sorry movie people) but she really liked the boxes! Well, he tracked me down, as people sometimes do, and here we are. After rough milling the stock I went to hand planing the sides to finished dimension:

Next comes the shooting board to square up the ends, trims the pieces to the same lengths and polish the end-grain, which will make my dove-tailing easier going. After many years of putting it off, I finally made a purpose-built shooting board plane a little while ago and I’m glad I did.  The shape is comfortable for side oriented planing and the sole of the plane is squared to the down side:
So it’s on to laying out the dovetails.  Done free-hand we can approach the craft with a little more freedom and intuition and leave the squares and rulers and layout aids aside for awhile. In this instance I begin with the pin halves of the joint and then use them as the templates for the mating tails. I sketched out my layout on the stock and then made my cuts.:

Because of the curved, irregular and somewhat delicate outer surface of the end pieces,  I removed most of the waste by routing free-hand and then followed up with a guide block to do the final trimming, rather than chopping out all the waste with a chisel and mallet:

After getting the pins all squared up and the way I want them I trace around the pins to transfer the marks to the mating sides. Then I add the parallel square lines and mark the waste side of the lines:

Saw to the line. If there’s wood on the waste side of the line I’ll have to pare that away, if I take any of the line that’s a gap.

After removing the waste, these little chamfering details help the joint self-register and go together much easier during glue-up. 

Here’s the first corner dry-fit:

Onto the rest of the corners and then box is completely dry fit:

I band-sawed the curve of the lid then planed it to smooth and fare the curve:

I fit the lid to the box before the box is glued, as often it is better to adjust the box sides if there is a problem with the how the box and lid mate.  I used the shooting board to get a tight fit at the ends at this point:

All is now shaped and final smoothed, the bottom was fit and rabbets cut in the sides to capture it. I am finishing the cherry with garnet shellac wiped on.  Just a wash coat will go on the interior surfaces prior to glue-up.

The box has been glued up.  I favor old fashioned white (PVA) glue for dovetails as it is slippery, helping the joints go together easier, and has a longer open time than most yellow glues. The joints are tapped together with the aid of a padded block and a wedge :

I cleaned up the joints with a hand plane and finished the exterior of the box.  After final sizing the lid I glue on battens which are located with pins (bamboo skewers).  The battens stabilize the lid and act as locators properly aligning the lid to the box:

Next I routed mortices in the lid and the handle blank.  I used a rhododendron branch that I found as driftwood in the river near by, shaping it with small spokeshaves:

After smoothing the handle and finishing with shellac, I attached it to the box with a slip tenon and the box was complete:

Now, two more boxes to make for another client who ordered one for herself and one for a friend. Once those are done I’ll get back to that guitar and more posts.

Until next time.

df