Box Building Basics Zoom Class Potential Questions

What are Some Resources on Making Boxes? Roy did a program on his PBS series on making a sliding lid box (https://www.pbs.org/video/woodwrights- shop-sliding-lid-boxes/). Doug Stowe (www.dougstowe.com) is a very prolific box maker who has written innumerable books and articles on box making and has a YouTube presence as well. One of his books is The Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making, published by Taunton Press.

What Will I Need to Make These Boxes? Scratch Stock. For developing the grooves in the sides to hold the top and bottom of the mitered corner box. This stock cuts a 3/32” wide , 1/16” deep. Plow . For larger boxes with larger dimensioned grooves, there are a plethora of plow planes that will serve this purpose, Miter Box. A simple shop made miter box will be used to make cuts across width of the box parts. For larger stock, there are both modern and vintage miter boxes that will serve the same purpose. Moving Filletster. This will be used to the underside of the lid on the dovetailed box. Moving filletsters are excellent at cutting clean both long grain and across the grain. This same operation can be performed with a rabbet or shoulder plane with a knifed shoulder line if sufficient care and attention to detail is exercised! Squares. For this project, a small joinery square (3 to 4” blade) is sufficient. In addition, a small can be used to verify the miters. The Starrett 4” sliding head is optimal for this and is a widely copied worldwide due to its superior quality. Striking knife. Generally, a Sloyd knife or a carving knife, with a long cutting edge for easy striking. . A single point gauge with a movable , for laying out baselines in joinery. A better choice if available, is a cutting gauge which has a knife edge rather than a point. These gauges will strike a cutting line both along and across the grain smoothy. . For the box stock smooth and for su3rfacfing the finished box. Generally, a Stanley No. 3, 4 or 4 ½ or the equivalent from other manufacturers (Record, Sargent, Union) is useful. The iron should have a very slight camber (curvature) across the cutting edge. . A low angle, adjustable mouth block plane (Stanley No. 60 is the classic example) with a square edged iron is the very best option. There are many, many block planes made by Stanley and others that fit this bill. , rip. This is used to cut the dovetails of the box in this program. Paul Sellars, a very well- known English woodworker, has stated that it was not the custom in the day to sharpen in the crosscut configuration, but only the rip configuration, and to rely on knifed lines to give a first class saw cut.

What Are Some Good Sources for The Tools I Need? Where to Buy Tools? Antique Tool Organizations. MidWest Tool Collectors Association (www.mwtca.org) and Early American Industries Association (www.eaiainfo.org) are two excellent sources of vintage tools. Both organizations have very fine newsletters and journals and memberships in the organizations are very worthwhile. These have tool meets several times per year, all across the country.

Flea Markets or Antique Stores. These are hit-or-miss but can be the opportunity for some great “finds” if you are willing to spend the time.

Online Dealers. www.jimbodetools.com, www.Hyperkitten.com, www.thebestthings.com, Patrick Leach at www.supertool.com, and Ed Lebetkin at [email protected] are totally excellent and reputable sources. Ebay at www.Ebay.com is also a tremendous resource. You need to be aware that many Ebay sellers do not know what they have, or do not adequately describe their offerings, or are overpriced. You need to do your research carefully before purchasing.

Are There Any Guidelines to Choosing a Box Size? Boxes have 3 dimensions: length, width and height—seen as a top view, and a face view. Absent any specifications related to a specific use of the box, you generally want to balance out the appearance of the top view and of the face view. A classical approach to this is to use the Golden Rectangle approach. The length of a golden rectangle is 1.618 times its height. This proportion was used as far back as Babylonian times (880 BC) and was well known to the Greeks. For our purposes, a proportion of 1.5 is a good approximation of this number. Thus, a box face or top that are both 3 parts long and 2 parts wide makes a box that seems well balanced. 5 parts to 3 parts works even better. Of course, the best proportions are those that suit your purpose, but these are guidelines

What Sort of Joinery is Needed to Make a Box? The most common kinds of joinery for assembling the faces of a box include the following: 1. Butt joints. The ends of the box sides are simply glued together. This is the weakest joins it is long grain to end grain joint. 2. Rabbeted joints. These are essentially butt joints, but the ends of two opposing sides of the box are rabbeted, often with a moving filletster. This increases the glue surface area of the joint, with endgrain to long grain glue surface in two directions at each corner. These joints are very ancient and are often nailed. 3. Mitered joints. Each end of each of the 4 sides of the box are sawn or planed to 45-degree edges. This gives a wide glue surface at each corner of the box, something between endgrain and long grain contact, so the joint is stronger. Sometimes the joints are strengthened with splines either vertically or horizontally across the joint. 4. Finger Joints. These are also called box joints. The corners of the box parts are cut with interlacing square notches (fingers). This joint provides a tremendous amount of long grain to long grain contact. It is a very common form of joinery for commercial boxes. 5. Dovetail Joints. These joints have a lot of glue surface contact, like the finger joints. The dovetails also offer mechanical strength, due to the interlocking tapered tails and the pins. Dovetails also offer an aesthetic component to the joinery.

What are the First Decisions I Need to Make a Box? The things to think about in making a box include: 1. What is your aesthetic goal or function for the box? 2. How large will the box be? Depending on the size, you may have to factor in movement issues 3. What sort of joinery do you want? This may impact the thickness of the stock for the box, and how the lid and bottom are assembled. 4. What to use. This may impact how easy it will be to plane and finish out the box.

What Are the Types of Plow Planes That Could Be Used? There are innumerable choices relating to plow planes. Each type is used in a slightly different manner. All plow planes have several features in common: they have a fence to regulate how far in from the boards’ edge the groove will be laid, a depth stop to determine how deep the groove will be, and a choice of cutters to determine how wide the groove will be. Some plow planes (called multiplanes) also have cutters to make decorative profiles, beads and joints. Common metal planes include the classic Stanley 45 and 55 (copied by Union, Sargent, Record, and others) which have as many as 100 different cutters; the simpler Stanley 50 which has only plow and beading cutters, and the Stanley 248 (weatherstrip plane) which has 7 cutters from 1/8” up to 3/8” wide and will plow to 3/8” deep. This plane will meet about 90% of the average person’s needs. The wooden screw arm planes were the “Rolls Royce” of the tool chest. They were made of , boxwood, or . They generally had 8 cutters up to 5/8” wide.

How Do You Use a Rabbet Plane? Using a rabbet plane (which has no depth stop, fence, or nicker) relies totally on your ability to control the plane and to follow a line. The usefulness of a rabbet plane lies in the fact that you can plane in either direction as you need to, depending on how the grain lies, which is a major advantage. Generally, you use a marking gauge to scribe the width and depth of the proposed rabbet. Tilting the rabbet away from you and using your fingers underneath the plane as a fence, plane a groove down the length of the stock, shy of your layout lines. Continue to plane in that groove while slowly straightening the rabbet plane to vertical. Plane down to near the final depth of the rabbet. Lay the plane on its side and plane evenly right up to the width layout line. Return the plane to vertical, and plane down to the depth layout line. Focus on making the rabbet groove square along its length and even to both layout lines.

How Do You Use a Moving Filletster? The moving filletster is a wide rabbet plane with a movable fence, with a nicker on its right edge, and with a depth gauge at the front on the right edge. It is thus ideal for cutting carefully dimensioned rabbets. This plane will work rabbets along the long grain of a board, and rabbets cut across the grain (because of the nicker on the plane body). For really visible rabbets, you may set the moving filletster shy of both the width and depth lines and finish out the two faces of the rabbet with a shoulder plane, which will give a more finished cut.

How Can You Make a Mitered Corner? There are two ways to make a mitered corner 1. In this program, Roy uses a shop-made specifically designed for small parts, to directly plane the miters on the box stock. This jig is directly related to the miter jack. 2. You can use a commercial or a user made miter box. The stock is held vertically against the back fence of the miter box. You saw down the length vertically with a backsaw (crosscut teeth) at 45 degrees, then clean up the sawn edge with a block plane or possibly using donkey’s ear, checking with a miter square. 3. For thinner and/or smaller stock, you could plane the miter directly using only a donkey’s ear. 4. You could lay out a miter on the end of the stock. The baseline of the miter is the same as the thickness of the stock. Define this line with a sharp pencil or a striking knife. Plane the corner off using a block plane at a strongly skewed angle to prevent tearout at the opposite end of the stock. Check your progress with a layout square and with a miter square.

What is a Miter Box? Vintage Commercial miter boxes were made by Stanley and by Millers Falls. These have a base with four feet, and a vertical back fence. The miter box has a long, crosscut back saw, usually around 20-24 inches, held in a rotating frame. You can set the saw to a variety of angles to make boxes with 4-12 sides. The stock is clamped vertically against the back fence, the saw adjusted to the correct angle. Stand in line with the saw, your arm, your index finger, and the saw all in a line. Saw with a relaxed even motion, with the heel of the saw slightly elevated so that you are sawing “downhill”. Take long strokes. Near the end of the cut, bring the saw to horizontal.

Where Can I Get a Miter Box? Vintage commercial miter boxes (Stanley and Millers Falls) are as scarce as hen’s teeth. If you find one in good shape you will pay a premium price for it. If you find one, and you intend to use it, you should just slap your money down. The Millers Falls Langdon miter box is considered the premier such tool. The Stanley 235 and the 50 ½ are common types, but there are many models. A simpler miter box, the Stanley 150 is sometimes found buried in the corners of antique stores or flea markets and worth buying. Miter boxes use for the cuts. The larger miter boxes use saws that are 26” long. These saws are often missing from the miter box. Generally, a from another model can be made to fit by tweaking the adjustments.

What is a Miter Jack and How Is This Different Than a Shooting Board? A miter jack is a type of shooting board for cleaning up cross grain mitered corners. The miter jack itself clamps in a shoulder . It has two surfaces, both with a 45-degree faces. One surface is fixed, one is movable. The stock is clamped flat between these two surfaces with a screw adjust. The plane rests on the two 45 degree faces of the jack and works on the mitered edge of the stock. The stock protrudes just a hair, is planed off and advanced as needed to get a good miter.

What is a Donkey’s Ear? A donkey’s ear is a type of shooting board. It is a jig to plane a mitered corner true, straight and flat. The Donkey’s ear would generally be used after cutting the miter on a miter box. The miter is cut in the vertical position on the miter box but is laid flat on the donkey’s ear for trimming. The donkey’s ear has a base that the plane rests on, and another base that hangs off at 45 degrees. The stock rests on the angled base, the plane on the flat base, so that the plane is cutting a clean 45-degree on the stock.

How to Make Simple Miter Box? Miter boxes are simple to make and simple to replace one they wear out. Your goal is to make an accurate 45-degree bevel, with a vertical cut down across the grain. Taking the time to make an accurate miter box will pay back quickly. These boxes have a back fence and a front fence and a base. The fences should be at least 1” taller than the stock you intend to saw. The farther the two fences are apart on the base, the more accurate the miter cut will be. The back fence is where your stock rests against. Make the two fences out of thick stock (1 ½”). Make sure the bottom edges are square to the faces of the stock. Glue and screw the back fence to the base. Layout two opposing miter cuts in the central third of the back fence. Saw vertically down to the base. Glue and screw the front fence to the base, parallel to the back fence. Lay out the position of the miter cuts on this fence using the saw cuts from the back fence and square these down. Using the back fence as a guide, saw down on the front fence. Ideally you would dedicate a saw (either a crosscut back saw with a wide plate) or a fine toothed crosscut to this box.

How Much Do I Need to Worry About Wood Movement When Making a Box? The sides of a box expand and contract across the grain of the wood. Thus, a box will get taller and shorter throughout the seasons. Since all of the sides of the box are oriented in the same grain direction, this is no problem. However, the bottom and the top are usually captured between the sides. In some manner. Therefore, wood expansion/contraction across the grain of these two box parts could make them split the box apart (expansion) or have the bottom fall out of its groove (contraction). When going from completely wet (100% moisture, out of the tree) to oven dried (0% moisture), flatsawn wood contracts about 10% of its width on average. Air dried wood has about a fifth the moisture content, thus will expand or contract about 2% over the seasons. A flatsawn board that is 10 inches wide and air dried, may be expected to expand and contract about 3/16” back and forth over the year. You can use this as a rule of thumb. In practice, narrow pieces of wood, depending on the species, will move so little that in a box less than 6” wide, no problem will likely be encountered. Note that quartersawn moves half of what flatsawn lumber moves.

How Can I Make a Beveled Edge on the Lid of the Box? In this program, Roy will a smoothing plane upside down in a shoulder vise, about ½” below the surface. He leans the small box part against the edge of the shoulder vise and draws the stock across the plane blade. Continue this, changing the angle of the stock, until a sufficient bevel is attained.

More commonly, for larger and/or thicker stock, the general process is to pencil in the depth of the proposed bevel on the edge of the stock, and the width of the bevel on the face of the stock. Use a block plane or a smoothing plane (depending on how large the piece is). Plane the end grain edges first, with the plane heavily skewed to prevent spelching. Plane the long grain edges next, with the plane held straight on. Plane to both pencil lines at the same time. The goal is to get a bevel that is smooth, with a single facet, with the same edge on all of the face edges, and the same thickness on all of the stock edges.

How Can I Lay Out Dovetails for a Box? The very easiest way to layout dovetails is simply by eye. Make the spacing and the angles of the tails (if you are a tails-first person!) as fits your aesthetic. This half of the joint becomes a template for the other half, (the pins) so you cannot go wrong! A variation on this approach is to use the width of the you intend to use to define the spacing. For a more layout-oriented approach, consider laying the dovetails out with a pair of dividers to make the spacing of all of the tails very symmetrical. The last approach might be to use a pre-made paper or plastic template, especially if you have a lot of boxes to layout. One important consideration to take into account is how other aspects of the build (grooves, rabbets, etc.) will impact the appearance of the joinery in the finished box.

What Are Some Good Joints to Eliminate Those Ugly Holes at the Corners of Boxes? When boxes are made with through dovetails, and grooves are used in the sides to situate the top and/or the bottom, those grooves will always show up as squarish holes in two ends of the box. Very disconcerting! The “bible” on wood joinery and the very best source issues like this is Charles Haywood’s book Wood Joints. The book was written in the 1950s, reprinted many times, and is available in used paperback in many book source outlets. Absolutely worth every penny! Here are four easy options: 1. Do Nothing. Leave the joint as it is, but carefully shape small endgrain plugs of the same wood and block the holes. With careful fitting, the gap will disappear! 2. Half Blind Dovetail. This is the joinery used to make drawers, wherein you do not want to see the joinery on the drawer fronts, only on the sides. It hides grooves well but does not display the full 360-degree beauty of through dovetails. 3. Half Lap Dovetails. The outside tail is spaced so that the groove runs right through it. The groove is hidden by altering the thickness of the tail and the height of the mating pin. These joints look like a regular through dovetail on one side, but a little bit “off” on the other side. 4. Mitered Corner Dovetails. These dovetails involve modifying the shape of the outside tail and the mating pin both. These are dimensioned to include the groove or rabbet. The mitered portion accommodates the groove or rabbet and gives a very finished mitered corner to the face of the carcase. This is an excellent joint to accommodate the rabbet for a back board in hanging carcases.

What are Some Different Ways to Make a Bottom? There are many ways to fit in the bottom, depending on the size, and the design of the box. 1. Pressure Fitted. Simply dimension the bottom to the inside dimensions of the box, but a tad wider on the width. Square up the two ends and one long edge of the bottom. Make a slight bevel on the other long edge. Plane this edge and fit by trial and error, until the bottom fits in like a cork. Glue this bottom in. This works on boxes where you do not have to worry about seasonal expansion and contraction. 2. Grooved. Plow a groove on the inside bottom edges of all sides of the box stock. Made the bottom a bit smaller in both dimensions (length and width). When the box sides are being assembled, slide the bottom in so that it floats free (not glued). This is a good solution where you need to be concerned about wood movement. 3. Rabbeted. This is a variation of the grooved method, but instead you cut a rabbet on the inside bottom edges of the stock. The advantage is that you can add the bottom after assembly, there is more glue surface area, and you do not need a very tight fit. The disadvantage is that for larger boxes, you will need to worry about wood movement.

What Are Some Different Ways to Make a Top? There are many ways to fit in the bottom, depending on the size, and the design of the box. 1. Glued On. The four sides of the box are assembled with the bottom in place and glued up. The top is glued to the carcase and trimmed around the edges. When the box is dry, the top is sawn off to whatever height you desire. This is a common way that commercial boxes are made, as it assures one that the top matches the bottom exactly. 2. Sliding Lid. The top inside edges of an end piece, and the two long sides are grooved. After gluing up, the top is dimensioned to fit in between the grooves. The back and two side edges are beveled until the top slides in. With deep enough grooves, this will account for wood expansion and contraction of the lid. 3. Inset Lid. The sides and bottom of the box are assembled. After gluing up, the lid can be made in two ways: a. Rabbeted. The four underside edges of the lid stock are rabbeted with a sufficiently wide and deep rabbet that the lid will set into the inside dimension of the box. The upper face of the lid can be flush or overhang the box. b. Two Piece. The top of the lid can be made to whatever size that fits the design. A second piece of stock dimensioned to fit inside the box, is glued to the underside of the ace piece. This is functionally the same as the above but does not require a moving filletster.

What Different Woods Are Good for Making a Box? Any wood can be used for a box. Some (, , etc.) may be too soft or too splintery for use. If your box dimension raises concerns about wood expansion and contraction, consider using quartersawn lumber for the tops and bottoms. This wood only moves half as much as flatsawn stock. Layout marks on darker woods (e.g., walnut and ) can be difficult to see. Depending on the type of joinery at the corners of the box, you may want stock with straight, parallel grain so that you can easily plane in either direction into the corners. Highly figured woods (crotch figure, quilted, etc.) are prone to tearout, so you may want to scrape or sand the surfaces to finish out the box.

How Do I Surface the Box to Make it Smooth? The method that you use to surface will depend so much on the joinery of the box, the quality of the wood stock that you use, and the grain orientation of that stock. The most straightforward approach is to use a block plane or a smoothing plane. Block planes generally have a square edge and can leave tracks on the wood if the iron is not well balanced in the plane. Smoothing planes generally have a slight camber (curve) which reduces the incidence of tracks. Always plane from the outside of the box into the middle if possible. This reduces the chance of breaking out the corners. Skew the plane if you have figured or falling grain (i.e., against the grain). If the grain rises consistently in one direction across the side, plane in that direction almost to the other side (90% of the way), then raise up the plane (like an airplane taking off). From the opposite corner (the against-the-grain direction), skew the plane heavily, plane that other 10% by quickly raising the plane up as soon as you begin the stroke. This will lessen the chance of tearout in that direction. For figured grain (where the grain changes direction in unplanned ways), or where there are localized defects (tearout, knots, etc.) consider using a scraper to clean up those areas. Lastly, if your surfaces are recalcitrant to planes or scrapers, consider sanding the sides. The best approach is to fix the of various grits as needed, to a flat surface (MDF for example, using contact spray cement) and work the surface smooth.

What is a Good Finish for a Box? The best finish brings out the texture and depth of the wood, without having its presence overwhelming the appearance. Oil finishes (MinWax Antique Oil Finish, for example) give a lower luster (satin) to the surface and will accentuate the grain appearance. On the other hand, these finishes sometimes require a day or more to adequately dry (they have added metallic driers which may be toxic) and the “build” can require numerous coats. Shellac is an all-natural finish (excretions of the lac bug) in alcohol (ethanol or isopropanol). This finish dries quickly and gives a quick build. On the other hand, the quality pf the finish is more reflective. Commercial shellac (Bullseye, for example) has additives that may be toxic, plus that finish is sold in a 2-pound cut, which is pretty heavy. Better to dilute that 1:4 with alcohol and apply a few more coats to get the same effect. The finish will apply smoother with less brush marks. Polyurethane is a very high build finish (1-2 coats only needed) and gives a gloss appearance which tends to highlight defects in the surface if there are any. These finishes contain VOCs and other potentially toxic solvent components.