Here’s what I’ve been up to lately…

[steve_g]

I was commissioned to make a men’s jewelry box. It’s made from Texas Mesquite and has box joints all around. Trays are Birdseye Maple and have hand cut Mesquite veneer accents. The lid top has a handmade inlay strip made of Cherry, Walnut and Birch, while the inside of the lid has a v-carved Oak leaf and acorn pattern. It’s finished with a water base sealer and a rattle can satin lacquer.
SG

[Chuck Keysor]

Steve, that is a beautiful, heirloom quality box! Thanks for sharing this! Chuck

[Ajcoholic]

Very nice, very classy.

[Bob Eustace]

Lovely piece of work Steve. Have you ever had a go at making concealed wooden hinges as done by Rob Cosman? A heck of a lot of messing around but it intrigues people! Really hones up your hand skills. He gets $300 for most of his boxes using exotics. Love your idea of the v carve inside the lid. How many hours went into this Steve?

[scottp55]

VERY Nice Steve! Lot of nice details. Ballnose or bowlbit on the compartments? How was finish before sanding? What was toolpath strategy you used(That's a lot of material).
Pretty tricky guide on drawer--Sliding dovetail or slot and runner(Full length runner?).
I see you got your leaves in there
The accents really make it. Beautiful workmanship!

[steve_g]

Lots of questions! I’ll try to answer as best as I can…

“How many hours” That’s a good question! It was ordered a year ago… my only constraints were that it needed to incorporate the handmade inlays he’d seen elsewhere and have a “hidden” compartment. I spent way too much time trying to devise a cute and tricky mechanism for the “secret” compartment only to have my test part stop working when the weather changed! I finally settled for a simple “non-obvious” drawer. When I finally got down to business, I spent a few hours a day for a week + about 6 hours for my v-carve.
“ concealed hinges…” I’ve never had any success with any kind of wooden hinge… Does Rob Cosman make a stopped hinge?
“ v-carve inside lid” I was trying to give a masculine look to the Box. I felt that the Oaks and acorn pattern I’ve used elsewhere would do that… Scott recognized my pattern, Good eye Scott! The lid is 3/8 thick, my inlay goes in 1/8 so I didn’t want my V-carve to go very deep. I used a 30° bit and limited the depth to 1/8”, to get a clean carve at that shallow depth, I used a 1% step over. That v-carve took about 6 hours, but I think it was worth it!
“Bull or bowl bit”… 1” ball end bit… last pass with a 5% step over, Birdseye tends to burn easily and I felt that a ball end might have less propensity to burn the bottom. Even then, I had several burns in corners.

Finish before sanding… The finish after routing the trays left a look akin to a phonograph record (that’s an early sound reproducing method used by anyone older than 50) The perimeter was clean and only had the grooves on the flat area, it cleaned up quickly with my modified sanding pad for my Milwaukee multi-tool.
Toolpath strategy… I used a offset toolpath for the tray pockets. When you raster cut, the cut alternates between a climb and a conventional cut as it goes back and forth. This difference in cut direction can leave marks that never reasonably sand out. If you did use a raster cut you’d better do the perimeter cut first so that it stops the splinters that fly during the conventional pass.
Drawer glide My drawer guide is a simple dado in the drawer and a dado in the box side filled with a tongue that mates with the drawer dado. This is a simple foolproof method and if something happens to be tight you put a piece of self-adhesive sandpaper in the groove and work the drawer back and forth.
Hope I answered your questions! If not just ask, I’m always willing to share…
SG

[POPS 64]

Steve , very nice work . That's a great box the box joints are my favorite . Everyone I make box's for know that's what there getting unless they specify something different. Really like the inlays to . Nice choice of wood . Jeff

[scottp55]

Steve, Is the runner for the front draw L-shaped then, and hidden in the box joint? Not seeing any radius on the face cut out-Chiselwork?
Got a pic of "Hidden" drawer closed?
Didn't think you liked carving with flat depth, but see why you had to. How long did you agonize over That?

[steve_g]

Scott…
The decision to V-carve with a limited depth was difficult for me… I’ve never liked the way it rendered and so have never done it! I could have used a 120° bit and made it work. I’ve also never v-carved with a 30° bit before, I had some that I bought to mess with Gerts dovetail method, rendered it and liked it!
The front of my box has a protrusion that covers the end grain of the tongue that is glued into a dado in the side of the box, see photo. Does that answer your question?
I’m calling the “hidden” drawer the “not obvious” drawer. If you’re looking for a hidden compartment, it jumps out at you, but otherwise it blends right in.
SG

[steve_g]

One more photo.
The drawer front was glued to the drawer “box” just like I’d do a kitchen drawer…
SG