Project of the Day : Engraved Oak 3 Stick Travel Case

S

shilala

Elder Jungle Leader
I'm going to run this down quick because I'm really pressed for time.
I made this box to test a couple principles, get some practice on my router table, and to try out a freehand router technique/filling process that I thought up for engraving/personalizing stuff I make.
I needed to get some practice in so I didn't screw up too badly when I took these techniques to the desktop humis I'm building right now. (I say "took" because I've already made 90% or the pieces for those desktop humis and I definately needed the prior practice. It was tough.)

So anyways...
Here's the box as it existed in pieces.

johnbox1.jpg


When I make this stuff, I generally design it in my head, look at my material, then decide what I can get out of the wood I have available.
Then I figure out how big I want the interior to be and work from that.
In this case I grabbed a few large rg torps and added headspace for beads and body space for Spanish Cedar.
You can see the Spanish Cedar laminated on the two large pieces in the pic above.

More coming up...
 
Here's a close shot of the Spanish Cedar that will end up on the inside faces of the box.
You can see it's laminated to the oak, the pieces are already rabbeted, and it's ready to get slapped together.

johnbox2.jpg
 
I should have mentioned another thing I was trying out.
I got a Dado blade awhile back and wanted to see how it worked. So I decided to Dado out a groove in the top and bottom pieces to make them slide together nice and snug. Kinda like a lid on a can.
It worked well enough, but my Dado blade is borked. It cuts an uneven bottom in the workpiece, so I have to take it back and have it replaced.
I'll do that next trip to Lowe's.

Here's the box interior and dadoed ledge.

johnbox3.jpg
 
Because I have to get back to staining, I'm gonna cut to the chase quick.
Here's the top and bottom before I hinged them.
On the left foreground you can see the new pencilbox I made out of scrap from this project. The reason I made it was because:
1.) I needed a pencil holder on my bench and thought a soupcan was a bit classless. :r
2.) I wanted to work a piece with a half-round edge and try another stain/poly process where I roughed the wood, stained, sanded and poly'd.

johnbox4.jpg
 
This is the finished box laying on my sneaker.
Dada's are wai badass. Not as sweet as andone's, but sweet nevertheless.
I've never admitted it publicly, but I love sneakers. I'm the Imelda Marcos of sneakers.
Oh yeah, picture...
johnbox5.jpg
 
Awesome project. I have an idea for the same project, but how about a slide off top for a nice air tight seal? Not a cap, but a slide out top. Imagine a window frame with only three sides so you can slide the pane in and out. Make sense? Since you like to dabble, just an idea.
 
Last shot is of the engraving.
To do this, I made my text with Photoshop, sized it to fit the box, printed it, cut it out with an exacto knife, set it on the box and traced it, cut it out with a pointed router, cleaned the resultant trench with a dremel, filled the trench with wood filler, sanded it out, dug a bunch out and refilled, stained, dug a bunch out and refilled again, stained, sanded and poly'd.
Nothing to it. :r
By doing it I learned that I can add stain to my filler to change colors.
I can also use sawdust fines of any color to change the hue, grain, and general look.
I can use any font, and do anything I can imagine.
I've planned to do the top of my desktop this way using ebony sawdust to refill my engraving.
The dark flecks you can see in the filler is actually metal oxide from the metal ruler I used to "putty knife" in the filler.
I liked the look. The pic doesn't do it justice.

johnbox8.jpg
 
cbsmokin said:
Awesome project. I have an idea for the same project, but how about a slide off top for a nice air tight seal? Not a cap, but a slide out top. Imagine a window frame with only three sides so you can slide the pane in and out. Make sense? Since you like to dabble, just an idea.
Click to expand...

I initially thought of doing that.
Problem is, there's no way to seal it. The lead edge would have to leak air and lose RH.
Everything I make is humidity controlled and 100% sealed.
The pics don't show it cause I didn't get a shot, but there's a 1 ounce soft HCM beadstick velcroed up in the flip top lid.
The lid fits snugly in the bottom via fluted grooves, kinda like a fingerboard.
There's zero airgap, not even a 100th of an inch.
With a slide in lid like a cigarbox, the lead edge where you grab it to slide it off would be a wide open slot. Even faced off perfect, the grain of the wood would still allow air leakage.
I'm with you 100% because that'd be cool as hell, but I can't figure for the life of me how to seal that lead edge.
Foam on the inside would rise up and tear off when you slide the lid back in, so that wouldn't work, either.
A gasket would bind.
If you can think of something, let me know!!! :)
 
shilala said:
I initially thought of doing that.
Problem is, there's no way to seal it. The lead edge would have to leak air and lose RH.
Everything I make is humidity controlled and 100% sealed.
The pics don't show it cause I didn't get a shot, but there's a 1 ounce soft HCM beadstick velcroed up in the flip top lid.
The lid fits snugly in the bottom via fluted grooves, kinda like a fingerboard.
There's zero airgap, not even a 100th of an inch.
With a slide in lid like a cigarbox, the lead edge where you grab it to slide it off would be a wide open slot. Even faced off perfect, the grain of the wood would still allow air leakage.
I'm with you 100% because that'd be cool as hell, but I can't figure for the life of me how to seal that lead edge.
Foam on the inside would rise up and tear off when you slide the lid back in, so that wouldn't work, either.
A gasket would bind.
If you can think of something, let me know!!! :)
Click to expand...

I couldn't even make the box, there is no way I could perfect an alternative lid.
 
Totally awesome! I made a few similar ones out of Spanish Cedar for use as dry-boxes. I think yours would do well both ways. :tu
 
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