While making the simple bevelled wall board for my Ships Clocks a few days ago, it occurred to me that the very same design might make a good (albeit chunky) box lid. 

My stock (scaffold board Pine - of which I have a lot of it!) wood is around 1 1/2" thick, the simple design allows me to use what I have without having to waste most of the wood making it thinner. It also saves me a lot of sweat with a hand plane!

It also occurred to me that I have never made a simple Rabbet jointed box...

I completely forgot to take any pictures during the build as things progressed pretty quickly. A rough description of the steps I took are below:
Box Carcass

• Cut four pieces (2 long , 2 short) of cheap (pre-planed) Pine to length on the bench hook.
• Shoot them to exact lengths with square ends on the shooting board.
• Mark and cut the shoulder line of each rabbet on the short sides of the two long boards (the front and back of the box) again using the bench hook - 2 rabbets per long board.
• To form the actual rabbets, I first tried using my small shoulder plane with a wooden baton clamped in place to keep me straight, but this proved to be quite slow. For the three remaining rabbets, I simple used my dovetail saw to cut down the end grain (much like sawing a tenon), finally cleaning the joint up with the shoulder plane. In retrospect, I should have (been brave) tried to remove the waste with a chisel which would probably been even faster than sawing.
• Use a plough plane to cut 1/4" grooves in the bottom of the boards for the base to fit into.
• Cut a thin plywood board to size for the box bottom.
• Glue the carcass together.
• Plane the edges and joints flush and generally tidy it up.

The Lid

• Approximately cut to length a piece of rough scaffold board.
• Assess the board for grain direction and use winding sticks to check the wind and straightness of the board. Pencil in notes on the board as to what work is likely to be required and where.
• Plane one face flat using my no#6 and mark it as a reference.
• Hand plane the adjacent long edge straight and at 90 degrees to the first face and mark it.
• Use a marking gauge to mark all around the edges of the board to get it to uniform thickness again using the no#6 to remove wood fast.
•  Use a marking gauge to mark the second long edge parallel to the first.
• Precision cut the board to the required length and ensure it is square.
• Mark bevel lines all around the board using a marking gauge. Used my no#4 plane to create the bevels, being careful to finish the short end grain sides first.
• Fit small brass hinges and apply some wax finish...

While the box does look rather like a coffin for a small dog or a cat, it was very enjoyable to make with most of the project being completed in a single day. Rabbet jointed boxes come together pretty fast! Not as nice looking or as strong as a dovetailed box, but I did learn from it and at this stage thats the most important aspect for me.

 

 

More simple projects to follow ...

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I had the intention of writing up every class I attended at WIA. Though that didnt quite happen, I did manage half of a class description for the first class I took. This is a quick review I wrote while in the class.

Charles Brock describes how to make the cut on the table saw.

Charles began by addressing the issue of Maloof inspired. Hes right when he says hes continuing a tradition and creating his own (beautiful) interpretations.
The focus of this class is how Charles joins the legs to the seats. He uses a rabbeted notch joint. Its a similar point to Maloof, with Charless own choice of making the splay.

The class was lively and Charles is a warm and friendly Southern Gentlemen. The class served as a good primer to this useful chair joint. If you know the joint already, the class is a bit repetitive.
And no, he doesnt sell the hat.

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I took my 6 year old to Lowes a couple of weeks ago to buy him his own toolbox.  While we were checking out the lady behind the counter asked if we had signed him up for the Build and Grow class.  This was the first that I had heard about it so I got some information from her and looked it up when we got home.  It is a free program that they have every couple of weeks during the summer.  I signed him up on the website with no problems.  We went to the class 2 weeks later and he got a Lowes Build and Grow workshop apron, a pair of goggles, and the wood dragon kit.  They also supplied small hammers that you had to give back.  We were there for about 30 minutes and my son got to make the dragon and he received a iron-on patch and a certificate when he was done.  We brought his toolbox so he got to use his own hammer while building the kit and he thought that was great!  We have another one coming up this weekend and I am going to sign him up for any future ones I can find.  If you have any kids between the ages of 5 and 10 I highly reccomend looking into it.

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An Update on the Shop

Well, my friends, Ive been a little light on the blogging lately. Besides the normal rush of activity associated with my Twins birthdays and Christmas, Ive spent every free minute in the shop, trying to make progress on phase 1 of my shop renovations. Phase 1 consists of re-wiring, insulating and sheathing the North, East & South walls.
Working on the shop so much lately (and probably the new year too) has made me reflect on how far the shop has come in the 3-1/2 years since we  bought the house. Heres a video I just found. I shot it that first summer in the house, 2008.  Its not the best quality, but it does capture the clutter and disarray of the that first setup.

Now, here is a shop tour from November of 2011. Watch it carefully and I promise that though it may at first look just as cluttered as 2008, it is much more organized. Once phase 1 of the renovations are complete, I expect the the shop to be very organized.

Thanks for checking out the shop and stopping by the Blog. This is actually my 100th post, and the experience has been so much nicer than I could have imagined. Thanks.
Now, please, go occupy your shop.
And . . . yes. I know I cant spell. Even a degree in English couldnt cure me of that.

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