Building a ‘traveling’ trophy… Need help
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- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 11 months ago by nwertman.
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I’d like to build a traveling trophy for my family. I’d like the trophy to be two 5 sided cubes (4 sides and a top) that can be stacked on one another. The two cubes will be 5.5” and 3.5” ideally. That is the design at least.
I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to construct a decent 5 sided box using hand tools. In the past I’ve simply mitered the edges and used painter’s tape to glue up. I’m hard pressed for how exactly to tackle this with the accuracy necessary to make it look decent when I include the top.
Does anyone know a fairly easy and fast way to build a good looking 5 sided box?
I could use dovetails, but that would create a lot of end-grain which I don’t think is appropriate for a trophy. I’ve never done half blind dovetails, perhaps now is the time to start?
Any suggestions or ideas you guys may have would be greatly appreciated.
Nate
I’d ultimately like to build something like this if possible:
http://www.ctdxcc.org/contests/trophy/txqp_trophy.jpg
Nathan, Properly done and in the right choice of wood with contrasting colours a two simple dovetailed boxes with the tails facing the front would look good. That being said, if you want to mitre the box using hand tools, the only way I can think of doing this accurately is with a shooting board that mitres the long edge of a board, google donkey ear shooting board.
Thanks Dave. ‘Donkey Ear’ is what I was missing. Unfortunately I’m not sure that I will be able to build that with sufficient accuracy to create a decent miter at this point in my career.
I enjoy dovetail work, could you please elaborate on your ‘contrasting colors’ and tails facing front?
Nate
Nate, here is an example of the contrast. The light colour is pine, the dark wood is birch. You could go with cherry/sapele mahogany, sapele mahogany/white oak, walnut/cherry etc etc
The thing with the donkey ear shooting board is you would need to build a regular shooting board like the one Paul demonstrates in order to build the donkey ear. I have been meaning to build one myself but haven’t been able to find the time!
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I like the thought of doing dovetails. It is good practice and enjoyable work. I’ve tried mitering and until I can build an accurate donkey-ear shooting board I’m sort of stuck.
How would you recommend ‘cap’ing the box? I would like to avoid end grain if I can, but I can’t seem to design a decent looking dovetail with moulding on the outside of it. I guess I should just suck it up and put the end-grain on the sides and get on with the next project.
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