Photo box

Tbh, I’m not really sure how I feel about the overall look (tall and clunky) but I wanted to make a box for someone to keep some of his favorite 5×7 photos in so that people can browse them, etc. It was also a bit of a teaching project for me as I brought a few elements in from some other projects I imagine many of us have done (dovetail boxes, clock). I more or less came up with it conceptually in my head and drew a rough sketch but did not do anything really beyond that (other than knowing what I needed the internal box measurements to be in order to accommodate a certain photo size.

Here is the box’s story but not necessary to read…:)
I had a 4/4 (~9/16″) strip of mahogany that I bought a while back and decided to use it as my material of choice. First step was to mill it flat and square. It was mostly there, I just needed to square up the ends with the shooting board and I was set.

Resawing: This was the most labor intensive part of the entire build but for this kind of project, I think a daintier/thinner look is in order. But resawing by hand is time consuming, energy consuming and leaves plenty of saw marks that need to be planed and planning thin but somewhat wide stock can also be challenging because it is too wide for any sort of thicknessing jig, not to mention positioning it advantageously in a vise. But I seemed to find a way to do so and the wood was generally cooperative.

With that part complete I cut the different sized parts and proceeded to lay out my dovetails. I think they came out generally good on this project, considering how I have been progressing. However, one of my pin-sections did crack along the grain down the middle during fitting and I broke it in half mid-project. However I was also able to glue it back together and keep the dovetails in tact which was kind of cool too. I’m happy that I built a piece with several dovetails per side as opposed to some simpler projects that just have 1-2 (means my accuracy is improving and I can hopefully take on more challenging projects).

[attachment file=309356]

I struggled to come up with a way to make the box more ornate, or to make the top less boring. In the end, I went with a raised panel, like what was done on the clock project. This meant using the plough plane to cut the grooves hat would receive the edges of the lid. Originally I thought I could preserve the dovetails by only ploughing to the internal edge and then chopping out the waste but it didn’t take long to realize this is a silly and very challenging thing to pull off (and probably a far inferior solution at that). I ultimately ploughed the grooves end-to-end and plugged the dovetails after the initial glue-up. I have to say, I am quite happy with how the plugs worked out–they are mostly indiscernible and fit well within the joints (and there are 8 total holes that had to be plugged so it was a major factor in the end result).

I also did some decorative beading around the top edge (again, like the clock), just to add a little more to the overall look. That was done with the screw-in-a-block-of-wood trick.

Once everything was glued together I had a completely enclosed box, sealed on all sides. I simply squared a line around the outside and sawed the box in half–in the middle of a dovetail which is kind of cool since it lines up when the box is closed. I wanted the box to open in such a way that the photos inside would be largely viewable (i.e. if the box opens at the very top, the face-side of the photos is hidden from view when the lid is off and thus people might not be as curious to see the contents without the visual cue). I thought about having an angled opening but determined that sawing that line could be very challenging, especially since it would mean non-square edges and extra difficult planning to ensure straightness…so I ended up deciding on a hinged opening near the mid-level of the box. This way it would still have enough heft in the base not to tip over backwards when open yet still provides an ample view of what is inside. Finished with 2 coats of shellac and a wax coat. Anyway, sorry for my long-windedness…

I think my biggest frustration is that, despite recessing the hinges (and doing a good job of it I thought), the hinges themselves have more “gap” between them when closed such that the box doesn’t appear to close flush along the hinge-line. To remedy this I could recess the hinges even deeper but then they would sit below the wood. Maybe I need to find a better hinge source?

[attachment file=309357]

[attachment file=309358]

• This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by David B.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by David B.