Model

Here is the box project that I did. It took forever! Hahah, first, I got a long piece of lumber (which was quite bowed in the center), cut it to the length of the sum of the 4 sides plus a little extra and put it on the jointer to get the top face square. Then I took that piece and put it on the planar to get the top and one side square. Now that I had at least 2 connecting sides square I could take it to the table saw and know that the next side would be square.

I lowered the table saw a set amount so that I make an inset cuts down the length of the board into which I would later slide the top and bottom pieces. In order to make the box look consistent, I cut the lengths in the following order front, side, back, side. That way, the grain of the wood would be continuous all the way around. The 45 degree miter cuts came next, followed by the spline cuts. I cut the splines (the small pieces of wood in the corners) and then the top and bottom. I put the box together without glue to make sure it all fit. The first time I glued it up, my corners didn't match up perfectly and my splines were a little short, so I ended up taking that apart and repeating all of the pervious processes. Consequently, my box is about half the size it was haha.

When I glued it up, I glued 3 sides together and made sure to slide in the top and bottom before putting on the 4th side. When the glue dried, I sanded the whole box and then took it to the table saw to cut off the top so I could have a lid. I sanded the cuts I had just made and then made the insets for the hinges. Once the whole thing was connected, I sanded it again to make sure it was square.

In the process of cutting off the top, the person before me had the angle of the blade at 5 degrees instead of 0. So I had to recut that and I ended up making pictures frames from those cuts haha.

Once my box was fully constructed, I put oil on it and then lightly sanded it. I'm quite proud of it. With all the mistakes and redos, it took me close to 20 hours to complete. If I did it again, it would take a lot less time.