It's A Box

  Sometime back - I think it was when we were all together at Christmas - I asked the kids if they had any ideas for projects that I could work on this winter.    Brian, my youngest suggested that he would like a box.   A box that they could store playing cards in.  That seems like it would be an easy project to work on so this past week I have been trying to make a simple box.  One that is small and yet one that would be big enough to store several decks of cards.  This also would be an opportunity to clean up some small pieces out of the wood scrap pile.

     I had selected some black walnut wood that was laying around and the first thing I did was to run it through the planer to get all the pieces down to 5/16's of an inch thick.   My idea for this plan was to make a box using what is called a box finger joint on all four corners.   This sounds fairly simple.   (I mean I have seen it done on wood working videos several times and it looked quite easy - how hard can it be?)   First you start out by building this jig.    Some people use their router to make these joints, I was planning on using my table saw.   I built this jig out of scrap lumber that I had on hand.   (To order an aluminum box joint jig from Rockler Tools would cost around $109.00.    With my talents, it should be fairly easy to build one out of scraps.  Hmmm.)





       As I stated above, all my scraps were 5/16's of an inch thick.   I set up a dado blade in my table saw that would cut a slot 5/16's of an inch wide and 5/16's of an inch deep.    I also made a pin that was 5/16's of an inch square and mounted that into my jig 5/16's of an inch away from the blade.    (By keeping everything at 5/16's of an inch it should be easy to remember my fractions - or so one would think.)  If all went well, one should be able to put the corners together with a finger on one board fitting into the slot of the matching board.   (This sounds fairly simple...)    I discovered the importance of making sure that all cuts were precise and that your jig does not move or have any play in the process.    If you cut one slot just a little out of line, the remaining slots will not flush together.    (When this happened, I pulled the Rockler magazine out and wondered if it was time to order my fathers day gift from Pam.)

  Well, with continued patience (which by the way, I have an abundance of --- Not) I finally got the jig set to where all was working quite well.    Once I had all the parts cut, I had to make a floor in the box and a sliding lid on the top.  I was on a roll.   (I know you can probably buy a box to hold several decks of cards  in Dollar General for $2.00, but not a box with finger joints that was made by DAG.    That should be of some value - shouldn't it?) 

    To the right is my second box.    It will hold several decks of cards and should be a nice place to keep all your decks together while stored in the closet.   I now have some oak and maple planed down to - what was that dimension again?   I plan to make a few more of these boxes and later on (who knows) one could be your 2012 Christmas gift.   I wanted to put some tung oil on this box because I know it will really bring out the alternating joints in each of the corners, but we are getting company tonight and the vapors from the oils or varnish seems to make everyone a little dizzy.    (So we will have to postpone the finishing or varnishing for today and see if we can get our guests dizzy some other way.)

  

Well, loser, it is getting late in the day and what do you say we have a game of "Kings in the Corner".    Jeeze, you look a little crabby.   Yes, yes, like in the past I'll deal.    Just don't get mad and throw the cards on the floor again.   That box of Kleenex is there just in case your feelings get hurt.     (Oh boy - so tenderhearted.)