# Belated anniversary jewelry box



## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

Even though I have quite a few pics I seemed to have lost many of the early ones showing the templates in place and ready for routing and the parts to the 2 trays prior to assembly. I have more than shown and will post them tomorrow

The box is Walnut with Maple and Purple Heart inlay. Even though the stripes can't be readily seen in the pics the quarter sawn cut Maple posts highlight the tiger stripes when the light catches them though the box isn't likely to spend any time in the sun. The inside walls of the box are lined with blue felt and floor of the box remains oiled walnut.

The trays are cut from Mahogany and sprayed with MinWax clear satin Poly. I never used a spray can to cover anything before so I had to try it, I like the super thin coats but the excess over spray wastes the contents of the can faster than I like.

At the moment the exterior portion of the box has been treated with Tung oil and I'm letting cook for the summer before laying down "X" number of layers of a Minwax oil base clear Gloss. I tested the gloss on the under side of the box and it's like glass when applied with a China bristle. 

1st I tried a foam brush but it left too many bubbles so I tried applying with a soft cloth which was better but left bubble welts, (lack of more precise description) Then I coughed up for a real brush and am real happy with the finish. I used 0000 wool between coats and used a tack cloth then mineral spirits to clear up the dust. I also got better results with settling up stairs in the heat rather than in the shop where it is around 60 and the air is dry from the dehumidifier.

I kind of wish I were smart enough to know this one was a bit beyond my pay grade when I got the idea for it. It morphed a bit as it grew. Originally I had not intended to use the corner posts but because of the thin 5/16 thick sides and not wanting to use brads I didn't like the idea of the mitered corners possibly separating somewhere down the road.

Once the rough posts had been cut and placed on the sides I got the idea for the treasure chest. This went well with wifey, she's a big POTC fan. The box's cover sits on and is supported by the 4 posts. I made a "V" groove jig to run the posts through an 1/8" straight bit for the PH inserts.

The designs on the box and their positions were selected by wifey out of pages worth of drawings and ideas I scratched out. I can lay claim to the Leo symbol on top. I also claim the shape of the box cover this is where I kind of strayed out of my element, I'm not used to working with things as small as PH strips and the Maple band I think I still have a piece of it left over for a pic of it.

More tomorrow.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Boy, Ronald.

You have certainly upped the ante.

that is beautiful.

James


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

D*mn, Ron.. You upped the ante, and *how*!


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## ISHAMON49 (May 23, 2008)

Outstanding!
ish


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

I'm speechless. WOW!


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## btapps (Jun 23, 2010)

Geeze Ron
You're buggared now. What could you possibly follow that up with.
I'll be watching and waiting to see.


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## Gene Howe (Jul 10, 2007)

One beautiful piece of work!
You did good, Ron.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Wow!


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

I thought I had a section of the maple band left but it was only a partial cut, only the upper cove cut was made. The problem I had with the band was that the dimension of the band stock was so small and the cuts so tight that even modifying the procedure caused damage to the thin top section of the band when the miters were being made with a 96 tooth Tenru and then a new plywood blade. I have a drawn section of the band in the pics below.

Regarding the inlay

I waited for the new MCLS template guide, 2, 1/8” Down Spiral bits and a 5/32” DS to get busy on the walnut and maple. These are all the templates I used in the project, the ones not used OY! So many more.

It’s been some considerable time since I did any inlay work, (seems like yrs), as simple as the designs are it took many wasted templates before I was satisfied with each. The original side design for the box was a much larger heart overlaying a Celtic knot, but the knot didn’t translate well at all. It looked great on the decal I designed but was too big for the side and looked too clunky. The heart was the worst; everything I found on the net was/is lopsided. What looked good on paper didn’t translate well onto the template. 

My scroll saw skills have gone south. After all the sanding, smoothing and insults to my skills, tools and foolish ideas the heart blue chunks when I tested it on some scrap pine. My eye didn’t see the flat parts on the heart image and my fingers missed the scroll saw bumps on the template cut. 

I went through a lot of 1/4” plywood, after some practice the heart and knot were acceptable, until I cut one set and laid them on one of the boxes side panels. I realized as nice as the individual items looked let alone in combination the design was far too big for the 5”X 3 3/4” panel. Eventually I muckled a heart for size and roundness that the template guide bushing would offset and still look like a heart. 

I had to abandon the knot because of its convoluted nature and my lack of skill I couldn’t work the Maple into it. I tried strips, I tried nuking it alone and in water to soften it, it did one or all of 3 things, snapped while bending, swelled too much for the trough or wouldn’t conform to the arcs without leaving gaps. 

I kinda gave up and decided to go with a heart and maple band with a PH strip. But wifey liked the PH circle and maple diamond so much from the front panel she preferred the diamond on the side along with the PH strip, continuity she said. So I duped and modified the center portion of the diamond pattern from the front and back panels and combined it with the smaller heart and PH strip. 

I don’t seem to have any luck with the new MLCS template guide; I can’t explain it, outside of that using a pattern with the bushing to cut out the female side of the inlay then without it for the male section of the inlay produces a near 1/32 of a gap all the way around between the male and female sections. A sloppy fit that I tried to fix with rubbed in saw dust on a pine test gluing and wasn’t happy. At 1st I thought it may be from switching from the PC lam for the female side to the PC 690 for the male side. I stayed with the 690 and the gap remained, so I was forced to go with my old guide for all inlay work. 

Early on I also discovered the new MLCS guide and my old guide were different and couldn’t be used together. The 2 guide’s bushing tubes and bushing ODs were different. I need to find a good matched pair of guides to use with 2 routers.

The 3D hearts, circles and Leo symbol provided a unique problem for carving, not safe for me to do it in hand, so I shallow cut extra female sides in some 1X pine that I could clamp in the vice and chiseled the circles, hearts and symbol safely. 

This in turn provided another dilemma the PH is pretty hard, resists sanding in hand and I ended up sanding as much or more of my fingers and nails than the PH. So I made sanding dowels, and glued the hearts and circles to them then clamped them in the vice. I cut long sand paper strips as wide as the item to be sanded and buffed the crap out of them as if I was doing an old style street side shoe polishing. Once everything was smooth I did a slow sanding with the grain to remove any cross scratches working my way up to 400 grit paper.

The Leo symbol was a much more difficult to carve and sand being as narrow and delicate as it is I snapped in 2 it twice. I was lucky the re-glue produced a near invisible glue line.

Trays

The trays look and were the simplest things to do in the project. I learned my lesson on the 1st box regarding adjustable partitions, a great idea that doesn’t work well. On this one I fabricated a 1/8” wide chisel out of a screw driver so I could cut blind dados for the partition ends to slide into and be glued.

Felting

I got a surprising amount of experience failing in the cutting of, application of and gluing of felt on the 1st box. I learned many ways to do it wrong and or bass ackwards. Hot glue is a waste of time and glue; perimeter hot gluing shows its drawbacks quickly. This time the learning curve was less draconian with 3M super 77 spray, I use it for sticking decals to templates for scroll sawing. The only prob I have with it is over spray forcing extra work and materials to tape off areas. Adhesion is superior although unforgiving, one needs to over size the materials for later finessing and felt stretches.


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

This is the last of the pics 

The 1st pic is the 45Deg jig I used to cut the dados in the C posts,2nd the C posts glued up the 4th the thing to hold the sides and top in place for routing

Box cover

The cover was the most difficult item to build on the project, the Maple band, inlay, PH corner and perimeter strips and Leo symbol. The angles of the mansard sides of the cover weren’t as difficult as I had expected, I used my framing square as a square and lipped confinement area which held 2 sides up and in place with a couple of wedged blocks. Once 2 of the sides worked the other 2 were easy. I’m really, really glad I have the Incra 3000 se miter gauge without it many of the angles on the small pieces would not have been possible. However even with the 3000 I still ended up taping some 120 grit paper to the TS side table for some finessing by hand sanding.

The larger part of the problem constructing the cover was in the flat top section as tedious and exacting as I was dimensioning and working the sides of the box cover there were inconsistencies which showed up while fitting the flat top. I made a jig to hold the mansard sides and flat top and their templates for routing the inlay before assembling the cover. 

I wrecked 2 tops total forcing me to construct the 3rd from 2 pieces which a truly regret. I ran out of a wide enough section of Walnut. The 1st top was discarded because the gap between the male and female portions of the Leo symbol couldn’t be corrected the 2nd wreck came in the final glue up. I used a slightly wider piece of 1/4” ply as a base for the spring clamps I used, was happy with it and walked away. When I came back later in the day the whole top had collapsed flat but not till the glue had set at all the joints. ?,?,? This tore sections from all edges of the flat top and sides. The 2nd top was ruined, the corner hips were ruined but the top of the sides were intact albeit full of glue and Walnut shards. 

This horror is what prompted the idea of the PH corner and perimeter strips as a possible way to salvage the cover. I cleaned up each edge of each side one at a time removing glue and shards only, then began ripping strips of PH. A couple of the corner hip strips are slightly wider than the Maple band strips but for the most part inconspicuous. The strips were set about an1/8” above the plane for the mitered when sanded. The bottoms of the PH hip strips had to be back cut to allow for fitting into the Maple band. I’m glad I bought that Craftsman rotary tool 10 + yrs ago.

This time I set the mansard sides in the Maple band (which already had the PH strips at the corners) to confine the base from sliding away and left the Walnut top off. I placed a piece of 1/4” ply on the top and clamped. Later I glued the PH perimeter strips in around the top a 1/8” high and made a temp top out of the 1/4” with a 30 something degree angle to fit snug to the PH strips and clamped. 

Later I glued 2 sections of Walnut together and sanded to thickness then cut to fit the angle of the PH strips, routed the Leo symbol in and then glued the top to the cover. Once cooked I taped 2 120 grit sheets to the TS side table and began sanding the PH strips down. Once down I upped the grit to 400 with sanding blocks going with the grain and finished with “0000” steel wool. Once happy I glued the cover to the Maple band and then the inlay work.


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## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

it might have been above your pay grade at one time, but it isn't today..trying new ideas is how we all grow as woodworkers. Mighty fine upgrading of your skills. Thanks for sharing this lovely box


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## gregW (Mar 14, 2007)

Nice job Ronald..thanks for sharing!


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

It may be belated but well worth the wait! Very good job!!!......... Like someone already posted....... How are you going to top that?!!!!!


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

Not sure yet but it will be unconventional I think, I've had and still is a blurry idea on a wall clock cutout with a band saw and maybe router utilizing a 3D segment of a buckyball ... maybe. It looks odd and cool enough in my head translating it into wood on the other hand.

A some yrs ago I saw Scott Philips, (American Woodworker) make some 3D cutouts with a band saw I think a deer from a block of wood and a castle out of a small log. 

In a later episode he cut a heart shaped jewelry box out of of a solid block of some beautiful orangey and black exotic wood.

He made it look so easy.


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## Dr.Zook (Sep 10, 2004)

Beautiful looking piece of work Ronald. Very artistic.


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