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 Tools 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 groove, 1/16” deep. Plow plane. 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 square 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 rabbet the underside of the lid on the dovetailed box. Moving filletsters are excellent at cutting clean rabbets 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 miter square can be used to veriFy the miters. The Starrett 4” sliding head combination square is optimal For this and is a widely copied tool worldwide due to its superior quality. Striking knife. Generally, a Sloyd kniFe or a carving kniFe, with a long cutting edge For easy striking. Marking Gauge. A single point gauge with a movable Fence, 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. Smoothing Plane. For planing 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. Block Plane. 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. Backsaw, rip. This saw 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 saws 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 wood 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 woods 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 tongue and groove 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 beech, boxwood, or ebony. 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.