Box wall thickness?

[myxpykalix]

I have a 3" thick piece of walnut i want to carve out and make a box out of.
What would be the optimal wall/bottom/lid thickness to cut it to in order to keep it from warping and curling up due to cutting out all the insides?

[steve_g]

Jack

I don't like going thinner than .3" and sometimes more on the end grain edges.

SG

[danhamm]

Jack, way back in the old days...2000 to 2006 I used to make fly boxes for a tackle store, out of 1/38 pine 7x9 O.D. used to pocket the plank then cut on the table saw, made holes for barrle hinges and little magnets on the front.. still have some around..also made Briefcases and cowboy laptops..I never had a problem with dry wood, the small boxes I left 5/8 which ended up 1/2 inch after sanding. the briefcases I left 1inch wall and about 7/8 after sanding. also used 12mm barrel hinges on these. Just went and snapped a pic of some leftovers..

The tops I left about 1/4 inch material the less the less warp strength.

[myxpykalix]

Those are nice loking boxes but shallower then i was thinking for mine. I was going to go in excess of 2". Leaving the walls about .5 do you think this thing would curl up?

[danhamm]

Leave more wall support.depending on how large your box is outside dim.

[myxpykalix]

off the top of my head the box will probably be about 6"x10". Right now the material is 3" thick, i was thinking about cutting off about an 1" for the lid making the box 2" deep (less the bottom thickness).
You think .5 thick walls or more is the way to go? It seems like it would be awful beefy. I seem to recall steve knight making deep boxes with something like .25" walls(?)

Or i might use a seperate piece of walnut for the lid as my bandsaw does not cut very straight.

[knight_toolworks]

I have gone down to 1/8" one one side though .2 on average. the trick is to use a inside profile toolpath to the full depth then pocket out the bulk.

[danhamm]

The little box have pictured above has .5 walls and its 5.5 x 8 and its not out of proportion, with hard woods you can go thinner, I dont use much other than maple or birch..
The only way to get your legs is to fly at it and find out..(grin)...

[steve_g]

Steve and Dan have given some good advise... My boxes were Osage Orange, AKA "Iron wood" I could go thinner with them than you will be able with your walnut. As deep as you are proposing to go I would be concerned with the end grain walls, making a project like this involves lots of hand work, and in my case with arthritic hands... occasionally dropping them. Even if you don't drop it, some one down the line will... I don't think that a wall of .75" will be disproportionate for the size box you're talking about. Steve Knight's advice to do a inside profile full depth before hogging out the rest of the interior is important and worth repeating! If a sliver of wood wants to splinter off it can't go farther than the perimeter that way. One more consideration that has bit me before... do you know what hinge you're going to use? If you use a hinge on the outside, be sure the box is thicker that the screws you intend to use, if barrel hinges, leave enough meat around the barrel, and if you are going to use a concealed hinge, the wall will need to be thicker than the hinge gain. Stop hinges are only available to use with a gain on top the wall of the box.

SG

[myxpykalix]

I was thinking about trying barrel hinges as i've never tried them so leaving the walls thicker to accomodate them is a good thought...I'm glad I thought of thatlol