Some box-joint what-not boxes

I was recently invited to display some of my crafts at a new BBQ restaurant near my home… they want to feature “local craftsmen”.

About the same time, I had the first batch of some pecan I harvested, delivered from the kiln… I was given the trees by an elderly rancher’s widow who wanted to be sure that the wood was used for lumber and not firewood! Three men and three days of hard work later, we delivered the boles of two trees to a mill that had equipment large enough to handle them. The mill had recently discovered how lucrative it was to saw reclaimed telephone poles into lumber.

Long story short, I think the widow lady lost track of how long ago the trees had blown down and the mill took over a year to mill them. The first 400 bd ft I got last week was basically spalted, some beautifully, some useless! I have several thousand bd ft more drying in a barn… I’ll have to decide if it’s ultimately firewood or not!
SG

Here are the first projects made from that wood. They are all 4”X6”X8” box-jointed “what-not” boxes. Where the bleach spalted grain is very uninteresting, I V-carved patterns over the entire top surface.
Ships are always popular… what do you think of the bark texture I v-carved in the lid? The Texas state seal is always popular locally. When my wife suggested that I needed something more feminine, I made the tire tread… butterflies coming!
SG

Those are very nice and interesting Steve. Good work.

Nice work Steve........ hard to do better than the Texas seal on a pecan box.

As to the note on traffic on the forum,,,,, The only other related forum I post on is Vectric/Aspire. And there is a regular core group of people that will comment on almost any posted project, no matter how good or how bad, with words of congratulations and encouragement. Maybe if we did more of that, it would help keep things from sinking below a critical volume of activity......... Chuck

Nice work Steve. I always enjoy seeing your projects and I really like the look of pecan and spalted pecan is even better.

Very nice. I like the less is more on the tail section of the dragonfly.

Always like seeing your stuff Steve!
Of the spalted boxes...I like the Natural one because of the figure...but that's just me:)
Bark one is my second choice. Must be tactilely pleasing.
Waves or other gentle organic sweeps with 1/2" ballnose or bowl/tray bit maybe? (I'd like it if it made me want to pick it up and touch it)
Great Work!!

Yep....we need more project posting and responses.
I posted a 3D Owl in a branch and got a few comments here(Thanks)...but same project on Vectric forum, got 3 pages of compliments and questions, AND a Case Study:)
That's where I stopped posting projects here less I think:(

Not so many Newbie questions on different techniques and cutting strategies either I think?

Hey Steve, I love that dragonfly. Was wondering if that was a v-inlay or was it filled with colored epoxy?
George

George…

I’d been experimenting with crushed stone frit inlay including turquoise… but found it easier to use glass powder frit. https://shop.bullseyeglass.com/acces...it-powder.html

The technique is the same as outlined here… http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...18-men-s-valet

It’s simply a v-carving filled with frit and then vitrified with thin super glue… I found that the glass powder frit was easier to sand level than other minerals, likely due to the fine powder nature of the glass frit…

SG

Steve

Is it possible to stabilize the spalted pecan with an epoxy resin infusion? ( Vacuum bag the part and seep epoxy into the vacuum bag to infuse the wood???) I never tried it, but have been doing some work with epoxies lately and like what I am getting in other materials... Just a thought of how to save any wood that is particularly beautiful....(?)

MGM

I don’t know… there are companies who infuse spongy/spalted wood with something… maybe very thin super glue?
I’ve got plenty of specimens to play with!

SG

"Cactus Juice resin" is pretty popular for stabilizing wonky lumber...

Steve,

Those are great looking boxes. Did you manually create the box joints or where they done on the cnc?

Joe

Joe…

In trying to compose a “complete” answer, it was turning into a treatise! Rather than give a fast answer to a worthy topic, I’ll keep it simple now and write a philosophy of box joints later!

They are done on the CNC. I use the smallest practical bit, 1/8” or even 1/16”, to minimize the Dog Bone Fillets.

SG

Steve
Was there a post that explained how to use CA with fruit?

Ken…

I’m going to assume you meant frit and not fruit! There have been several links and general discussions… I’ll see if I can organize a more comprehensive discussion in one place. It’ll take me a few days though!

SG

here's a start... https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...Tg5dTBVRTVmWWM

Thanks Steve...The article is a great start