# Kleenex box cover



## bentbrent123 (Oct 23, 2011)

Hi all

I'm new here and wanted to post a project that I enjoyed making very much. It's a Kleenex box cover, with inlay decorations. The long sides and top are made from red oak, the short sides and top inner section are made from walnut and the inlay is purple heart. I made 4 of them 2 years ago. I gave 3 away for Christmas presents and kept one for myself. I used different combinations of wood and different inlay designs for each to keep them unique. I finished them all with gloss polyurethane. MANY, MANY coats of polyurethane. I used a Bosch plunge router and a Milescraft design/inlay kit to make the inlays. The cutout holes for the inlays came out perfectly, but the inlay pieces didn't fit perfectly into cutouts, there were some gaps, so I made most of them by hand using a table model belt sander for the flat parts and an oscillating spindle sander for the curves, with a little hand sanding for good measure. I used a Craftsman dovetail jig to make the box joints. One technique that I have found works excellent for minor gaps, is to make a custom putty taking sanding dust from whichever species of wood I am working with, and mixing it with some wood glue to make a paste. That way I am able to exactly match the wood color. My spindle sander works great for making that sanding dust.


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## Daikusan (Apr 12, 2013)

Nice boxes they look professional. Thanks for posting.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

A really excellent job Brent and I'm sure that you will be inundated with remarks if you complete your profile so that members know what experience you have, also the tools at your disposal.


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

Hello Brent, nice job on the boxes and inlays.
We want to welcome you to the router forums.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

That's some real nice work there . Love the box joints ! 
Thanks for sharing Brent

Btw that inlay is pretty darn neat to


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey, Brent; welcome!
Your comment re the sander dust reminded me of the trick the hardwood floor refinishing guys use to fill defects. Like you, they salvage the fine dust from the floor-sander bag and they mix it with sanding sealer(?) I believe. Definitely not glue as it won't take the floor stain. I recall it drying in minutes, ready for further sanding.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Nice! Welcome!


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## berry (Oct 17, 2005)

It looks great.


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## TrevortdogR (Feb 11, 2013)

Those look really good, Great job!


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## Multiwood (Feb 24, 2013)

Beautiful work!!


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## Steve Payne (Jun 25, 2013)

Very good, love it


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## rcp612 (Oct 22, 2008)

Very pretty box.


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## Cabe88 (Oct 3, 2010)

Dr. B said:


> Hi all
> 
> I'm new here and wanted to post a project that I enjoyed making very much. It's a Kleenex box cover, with inlay decorations. The long sides and top are made from red oak, the short sides and top inner section are made from walnut and the inlay is purple heart. I made 4 of them 2 years ago. I gave 3 away for Christmas presents and kept one for myself. I used different combinations of wood and different inlay designs for each to keep them unique. I finished them all with gloss polyurethane. MANY, MANY coats of polyurethane. I used a Bosch plunge router and a Milescraft design/inlay kit to make the inlays. The cutout holes for the inlays came out perfectly, but the inlay pieces didn't fit perfectly into cutouts, there were some gaps, so I made most of them by hand using a table model belt sander for the flat parts and an oscillating spindle sander for the curves, with a little hand sanding for good measure. I used a Craftsman dovetail jig to make the box joints. One technique that I have found works excellent for minor gaps, is to make a custom putty taking sanding dust from whichever species of wood I am working with, and mixing it with some wood glue to make a paste. That way I am able to exactly match the wood color. My spindle sander works great for making that sanding dust.


Could I get a copy of your Craftsman Dovetail jig manual? I'm getting tired of bottom here.


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## bentbrent123 (Oct 23, 2011)

Sure, here it is. I added a page @ #22 with an improvement to their method. Also, I permanently mounted the jig to a plywood board that's about 6" longer on each side. That gives me the ability to clamp the jig down to keep it stable.


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## papasombre (Sep 22, 2011)

Hi, Dr. B.
A question: Why did you wait 2 years to post this? Nice project.


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## iGator (Jun 16, 2014)

Great looking boxes. I want to learn more about making inlays. Looks like a fun project.


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## bentbrent123 (Oct 23, 2011)

Hi Alexis. I guess the main reason that I waited is because I just joined Router Forums.


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## bentbrent123 (Oct 23, 2011)

*Making inlays*



iGator said:


> Great looking boxes. I want to learn more about making inlays. Looks like a fun project.


Hi iGator thanks for the compliment. Making inlays is a lot of fun, and it's a great way to make a project stand out. And it isn't hard at all. You just need to get an inlay kit. The kit consists of a 1/8" spiral flute straight bit, a bushing with a removable collar and a centering pin for the bushing.
You will also need to get some templates for your patterns. You can find both the inlay kit and templates on Google. I suppose that it would be possible to make your own template, if you want a pattern that isn't available, but I'm not THAT talented. 

You need a spiral flute bit to get clean edges. You use the centering pin to set up the bushing perfectly centered in the router plate. You then use the bushing WITH the collar on it to cut the inlay cutout. After that, you remove the collar and cut the piece that you will insert. I generally have about a 1/16" depth of cut, or slightly less for the cutout, but deeper than that for the piece I will insert. Once I rout the insert piece, I usually cut it away using my table saw, sometimes though, if the wood that I am using for it is fairly thin, I will use my table top belt sander.
Obviously because there is a lot of wood wasted when you cut out the insert piece, I will rout several inserts on the same piece of wood before I cut them out. I always make sure that the insert piece is slightly thicker than the cutout, to save on sanding. Have fun.


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## J Lacey (Jul 2, 2014)

Inlay work is really nice, great job


Jeff L.


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