November 11, 2011

Boxes, a lesson learned

It was holiday gift time again, and I wanted to make spline mitered boxes.  Simple form, shouldn't be too hard to make.  I went to my lumber supplier and picked up some shorts of curly and birdseye maple.  I had some cherry left over and plenty of thin scraps for the splines.

The original idea was for a roughly 6"x4" lidded box with recessed hinges.  All the stock was milled to 3/4" and away I went, cutting the sides to length and then the miters using a slightly modified crosscut sled.  It wasn't until I had them all cut and dry fit the boxes together before cutting the keyways for the splines that I realized the error of my haste.

All the time I spent drawing things up, devising what species to mix to make the splines stand out, I never considered how small the inside of the box would be considering the stock thickness.  You see, a 6"x4" box with sides this thick left inside dimensions of roughly 4 1/2"x2 1/2"  Severely smaller than I had envisioned, but I pressed on anyway.  In the end, they're not even big enough to hold recipe cards.

I delivered them to the family holiday party filled with cinnamon mints and they were well received.

Tiny boxes in a row

Lids up!

So, what's the lesson learned?  Think it through, all the way.  I was really upset with myself when I realized what I had done.  I spend a little more time before each cut now and try to have a complete idea of what I'm making in mind.  Working without a plan of any sort, this type of thing can happen.

2 comments:

Derek Olson (Oldwolf) said... Best Blogger Tips

I think most of us have learned that lesson in the exact same fashion. The candy was an excellent idea and those boxes will find uses that you never would have thought of.

They look great btw which is important too.

Dyami said... Best Blogger Tips

A valuable lesson learned. Think of what can go wrong, but don't get too attached to a plan. I find half the fun of the build is the mid process figuring out.

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