Because a wooden reindeer just wasn't enough

Several weeks ago Bunny bought several planks of nice wood for some projects, among them this plank of white oak:

[8″ wide, 1¼″ thick (having been planed down), several feet long] [1]

She cut off about an 8″ section off one end because of a hairline crack in the wood, and it was this chunk of wood that, as odd as it may seem, “spoke” to me. I thought I could make a neat little box with that chunk of wood. So after work, I spent about three hours in the garage playing around with the power tools. [Have fun, just be careful not to cut your fingers off! —Bunny] [I won't cut my fingers off. —Sean]

First job, slicing off thin pieces of wood to form the top, botton and sides. The wood was too tall for the bandsaw, so I had to resort to using the table saw for slicing the wood. I used a scrap piece of wood to measure the kerf [2] of the blade (eighth of an inch—wow!), and taking the width of the wood into account (1¼″) I figured I could get about four slices, each about 3/8″ wide. Usually when using the table saw for this type of cut, you raise the blade as high as it can go, make one pass, flip the piece over and cut a second pass, thus cutting a slice off. But I couldn't raise the blade high enough—two passes wouldn't be enough. I ended up having to make four passes, cut, flip 180° along the cut for cut two, turn 90° for cut three, then another 180° flip for the final cut. That left about an inch square in the middle, which required the use of a ryōba [3], a very thin and very deadly double-sided saw from Japan.

[Two slices done, working on the third slice (the piece standing on edge). You can make out the portion the table saw didn't cut on the flat piece to the left. Also on that piece you can see the hairline crack that Bunny was concerned about. At this point, I wasn't worried about it.] [4] [5]

While cutting the first slab, I made a mistake when flipping the board over (180° perpendicular to the cut), which meant I wasn't getting the four slices I had intended. I ended up with three 3/8″ pieces, and one seriously mangled fourth piece that ended up in the scrap pile. Sigh.

My original intent was to cut two of the slabs in half for the sides, making the box about 4″ tall, but because of the mistake I was forced to make the box thinner. No big deal, as this is a learning experience. I took one of the three pieces, made some measurements, took the kerf into account, and cut the four sides.

Now … how to join them?

The cut boards are 3/8″ thick, that's pretty thin actually, and I was concerned that my original idea, a miter joint [6], just wasn't going to work. I then thought that maybe finger joints [7] would work, and I started to experiment with some scrap pieces of wood. [You'll shoot your eye out! —Bunny] [I'm working with a table saw, not a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and thing which tells time. —Sean] [Well then … you'll cut your fingers off! —Bunny] That wasn't going to work.

It looked like simple butt joints [8] were the way to go.

This was when I realized my next mistake. I had cut across the hairline crack in the wood when making the sides; by now two of the sides had snapped along the crack, leaving me with two short sides. I was bound and determined to just use the slab of wood I started with, so another change in plans—making not a square box but a rectangular box. I could take into account Bunny's concerns over the crack in the top and bottom of the box by just cutting it off; it meant I would lose two inches in one dimension.

I then decided, what the heck, let's make it a 6″×6″ box.

It's not like I'm following any set plans here.

Next step—sanding. The belt sander would make short work of this, but there was an issue—

[This is not good.] [9]

The board was so thin, the belt sander was forcing the wood down into this gap between the work surface and the sanding belt. The solution: a sacrificial board to “mind the gap” as it were.

[Okay, time for some serious sanding.] [10]

Which was then followed up by some “hand” sanding:

[Yeah, right. Like I wouldn't use a power tool here.] [11]

One last step for the day— gluing up the sides of the box. Bunny has a ratcheting strap clamp [12]. It's a strap with four plastic “corners” (think a hocky puck with a quarter slice cut out). You place the corners of the box in the four “corner” pieces, then tighten the strap down with the ratchet. Unfortunately, my box was just too small for this to work. The ratchet requires a miminum amount of space, and 6″ wasn't enough since the ratchet sits inline with the strap (although, now that I've found a picture of it in use, I think I wasn't using it correctly; I've just checked, and yes, I could have used it. Maybe. It was a very tight fit).

Okay, I needed to ensure the sides were square. There's the table saw fence. I could use that to square off one side. I could then use the miter gauge to ensure a right angle to the fence. Add in some clamps and …

[I had to think outside the box to box this up.] [13] [14]

Hey, it gets the job done.

I'm leaving the glue to dry overnight and tomorrow I'll glue on the top and the bottom, cut the lid, add some finish to the outside and felt the inside and then I'm done.

[1] /boston/2015/03/06/whiteoak.jpg

[2] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kerf

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_saw

[4] /boston/2015/03/06/thumb-slicing.jpg

[5] /boston/2015/03/06/slicing.jpg

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miter_joint

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_joint

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_joint

[9] /boston/2015/03/06/belt-sander-1.jpg

[10] /boston/2015/03/06/belt-sander-2.jpg

[11] /boston/2015/03/06/hand-sander.jpg

[12] http://www.harborfreight.com/1-inch-x-15-ft-ratcheting-band-clamp-66220.html

[13] /boston/2015/03/06/thumb-glueup.jpg

[14] /boston/2015/03/06/glueup.jpg

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