Faceted Box

[Burkhardt]

Hm. Just noticed we don't have a 2016 folder here....

Anyway, I believe it is quite apparent hat I have a knack for math in general and specifically geometric designs. Accordingly my last project was a faceted box (commonly known as a rhombic tricontahedron).
It is made from 30 diamond shaped faces with 144 degree miter angles. 20 of them make the "bowl" or bottom part and 10 make the lid.

A) Cutting the faces on my new and improved vacuum pod system with a 1/4" ball nose end mill bit.


B) Cut out elements (Walnut and figured Birch)


C) Glued together and "turning" the inside with a 1/2" ballnose end mill. Machining 6" deep with a 6" long bit was a challenge on my small machine with 8" z-travel. I had to cut the top 2 inch with a stubby bit and switch to the long bit for the bottom of the bowl.


D) Both parts oil finished and wax polished, outside.

[Burkhardt]

Some more pics...

E) Both parts inside view


F) Lid close-up


G) Box closed


Now i just need to fill it with cookies.

[James M]

Neat box! Very well done! Thanks for sharing all the pics.

[knight_toolworks]

way cool. I have done miter fold boxes but always out of baltic birch plywood or mdf. yours is 10 times better.

[dmidkiff]

I bet you never get accused of thinking inside the box. You do some interesting and cool things. Thanks for posting.

[scottp55]

Wow G. ! )
Nothing like a brain teaser on first cuppa.
Optical illusion on first pic of top had me wondering. And really like the interior cut effect!
Wonderful finish!!
What the heck did the clamping look like?
(bet you were scrambling during glue's open time
NICE job.
scott

[Brian Harnett]

Really cool, like Scott said there is some eye confusion looking at the pictures.

[Burkhardt]

Thanks guys!

.....What the heck did the clamping look like?
(bet you were scrambling during glue's open time.....

Scott, don't ask me. That was the difficult part of the project.
Actually there was no clamping. I have not figured out yet how to do that in an effective way. I applied a light dusting of CA accelerator spray on one side of each joint, a good bead of CA glue on the other side, then aligned the outer edges by hand and folded the faces together. The open time with the accelerator is only 2 seconds or so.
As you can imagine, there is no room for error and any tiny misalignment will propagate when adding more and more platelets to the assembly. The good part is that I had the whole thing assembled in half an hour.

At the end I had to sand out the resulting imperfections. Easy enough on the outside with a ROS. For the mis-match gaps between the bowl and the lid edges (up to 1/10") I finally had a good reason to buy a Makita band power file Pressing off with old fashioned carbon copy paper, sanding away the touch marks (patiently over and over) got it together well.

[myxpykalix]

I like that you always come up with something WAY out of the ususal stuff. VERY COOL!

[knight_toolworks]

a couple ways to glue it that may be easier either use the ca coat each end and let harden then put it together and use a bead of glue that will soak in. or use epoxy and blue tape the blue tape works like a hinge.