Boxes for pens

[MY63]

As promised in my new member post this is my first box thread here.
This is a new project my daughter is in her final months at high school before going on to college.
She has had the same form tutor and head of year since she started high school almost 5 years ago.
These boxes are for those teachers and will have two Parker Duoflods made in the year they were born inside along with two sample bottles of ink.
The boxes will be oak and plywood veneered on the outside and lined in suede on the inside.

The boxes start like this


IMG_3557_1 by my0771, on Flickr

four pieces of oak mitred I will sand the insides prior to assembly

Thanks

Michael

[jbb]

Cool! I've got to watch this unfold. Thanks for posting.

[MY63]

The next stage involves my favourite toy my bench sander. Having cut the mitres by hand I gave them a quick blast on the sander to true up the edges.


IMG_3580 by my0771, on Flickr

I laid out the four pieces on my board as you can see it is covered in fine sandpaper to stop things moving around.


IMG_3582 by my0771, on Flickr

My next step is to lay out each piece in order and use tape to connect them unfortunatley I appear to have purchased non stick masking tape it all fell apart OK move on to the next step

IMG_3582 by my0771, on Flickr

Add glue add clamp and check for square corners then as I am making two repeat

IMG_3583 by my0771, on Flickr

More tomorrow thanks for looking
Michael

[MY63]

After a few hours in the clamps


IMG_3585 by my0771, on Flickr

It is ready for its top and bottom.

[fiberdrunk]

Thanks for sharing photos of the process... it'll be fun to watch this unfold.

[caribbean_skye]

Oh how kewl. Thanks for sharing. Will have to "follow" this thread.

[MY63]

OK sometime things just dont go your way.
The sections of box I made yeaterday are no good I adjusted the size of the box length to accomodate the width of the ink bottles however I did not adjust the depth of the box for the height of the bottles.
More wood on order.
Another small box I was making the lid has warped.
And finally just to add insult to injury the charity writing slope I am restoring got knocked over and now has a lovely pair of dents in its lid.


IMG_3587_1 by my0771, on Flickr

Hopefully I can iron out the dents no really a hot iron can pull dents from wood.

Thanks for looking

Michael

[mhguda]

Murphy's law for woodworking?
Hope everything works out for you...

[MY63]

Thanks mhguda
It was the box with you name on it that warped I have already started a replacement I will add pictures here as it progresses if that is ok.
Michael

[mhguda]

Hi Michael,
I would love pictures to see the progress. Helps with the anticipation, too...

[MY63]

Just in case you were wondering I applied some water and some heat to lift the dent out of the lid unfortunatley that did cause a small crack to extend but I will fix that later.


IMG_3597 by my0771, on Flickr

Anyway its another day today and I have picked up another length of oak and with my daughters help we are going to start the teachers boxes again this time with the right measurements. (if it ever stops raining).

Thanks for looking
Michael

[mhguda]

It looks beautiful even with the crack. I'm sure you will make it all come out right in the end.

[MY63]

I had to push on with the Teachers boxes tonight as they need to be ready for Friday.


IMG_3626 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3625 by my0771, on Flickr

This is the veneer my daughter has chosed for her form tutor who is a lady Teacher it is oak burr veneer as you can see it has red flecks in it it also has a few holes.
So I used a set of gasket punches to cut out the areas with holes in I then used the same cutter to remove a piece from an area without holes and used these pieces to make the repairs.


IMG_3612 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3614 by my0771, on Flickr

This picture shows the repair pieces in place ready for sanding

IMG_3616 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3618 by my0771, on Flickr

I have added a double bottom to these teachers boxes as I wanted the pen area to be shallow but needed a little depth for the ink bottles i forgot to take a picture before I sealed the box so I will have to wait until I spit the top and base to show you what I mean.
Thanks for watching
Michael

[MY63]

This is the light box for the Lady Teacher


IMG_3636 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3630 by my0771, on Flickr

I have started sanding this box as the veneer was very brittle so I champhered the edges and added 2mm square holly to the edges and sanded it flat I have started sanding starting at 600 grit and will go through the range to micro mesh 32000 grit more on that later.

This is the darker box for the Male Teacher
It is brazillian walnut I may edge this as with the other box above I will take pictures of that process then.


IMG_3629 by my0771, on Flickr

I have not finished this box it has small holes to fill and requires a lot of sanding.
Thanks for looking
Michael

[mhguda]

I think in the right-hand lower corner (of the first box) I see something in the veneer that looks almost like a drawing of a girl pointing sideways and up, or holding a pen? Is that by design?
The boxes look beautiful already. Looking is fun.

[MY63]

Hi mhguda
I had not noticed that would you like that veneer on your box which looks like this at the moment


IMG_3640 by my0771, on Flickr

Regards

Michael

[MY63]

I think in the right-hand lower corner (of the first box) I see something in the veneer that looks almost like a drawing of a girl pointing sideways and up, or holding a pen? Is that by design?
The boxes look beautiful already. Looking is fun.

IMG_3637 by my0771, on Flickr

Just in case anyone cannot see what you mean.

Michael

[mhguda]

Great going, Michael. So I did see something that's actually there... This close it looks less like a girl holding a pen and more like something pointing a finger...
Yes this is the light veneer, right? You'd asked me light or dark. But anything you choose, I'm sure, with you being such a perfectionist, it will be great.

[MY63]

I just remembered in time that i had said I would post in a little more detail.
So we have the box and it has been veneered edge to edge I gave the whole box a rub over with 120 grit sandpaper then I flattened off the edges around the top to leave an edge around 45 degrees.


IMG_3647 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3646 by my0771, on Flickr

Now my mistake here was to stick the wood to the edge before cutting the mitre I wont do that again. When doing this you need to think of the wood as a diamond shape.
If you mitre the diamond shape when you stick it to the box it will be in the right place.


IMG_3644 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3648 by my0771, on Flickr

The shape of the wood does not really matter I am going to sand this wood down so it will give a 90 degree corner it would be very difficult to shape the wood before fitting it so once the glue has gone off I will start sanding.

Thanks for looking
Michael

[MY63]

As I mentioned in an earlier post I had fitted two bottoms to these boxes


IMG_3654 by my0771, on Flickr

I wanted to create more room inside for the ink bottles without altering the space for pens

IMG_3655 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3659 by my0771, on Flickr


IMG_3662 by my0771, on Flickr

This picture shows the divider and the cardboard ready to be wrapped in suede prior to installation.
Thanks for watching
Michael