Tea Bag Box - Part 2 Carcass Construction

 This box used extra wood I had laying around from prior projects.  For the cherry box, I spent a fair bit of time making sure everything was square and shot the ends.  I wanted to make the best half blind dovetails I could and my thinking is the more square everything is, the easier it will be.  Roughly, the box is 12" long by 4 inches high by six inches deep.  With 4 inch wide stock, I would normally make three dovetails.  However, since I was thawing through one of them to make the top, I thought it might be better to do with two wider dovetails.  What sealed it was that two dovetails resulted in dovetails that were roughly as wide as a tea bag.  I thought that little design element was a happy coincidence so two dovetails it would be.

To help transfer the tails onto the pins, or should I say, make it easier for me, I ran a 1/16" deep rebate on the sides that would house the pins.  After cutting out the dovetails, I carefully made sure everything was square.  Some minor paring was needed but all in all things were looking good.

I wanted to use half blind dovetails so that way when you looked at the box from the front it was just plain wood.  As you saw it from the side it was then you saw the dovetails.  I thought this would be a nice thing for this particular build.

Transferring the tails onto the pins went well.  Using the rebate really helps give a strong registration.  For cutting half blind dovetails, I don't cut right up to the line.  I leave quite a bit of waste and then chisel to the line as I remove the wasted.  I did each one all the way through before moving onto the next one so I could learn from each.  One of the challenges I have had in the past and still have now is that despite careful measuring and slow was remove (so I don't move the knife line), I still end up with a gap in the back of the dovetail where it meets at 90 degrees.  I used a mini engineering square to see if I couldn't find an obvious error but not really.  I'm still not sure why I get this gap.  It bothers me but I guess I just need to keep making more and I will eventually sort it out.  In 1Q22, I plan to spend at month or two just practicing dovetails.  I know historically, not all dovetails were gap free but I want mine to be so I will spend time to sort out what little things I need to do to make them better.  

Running the grooves was easily done with my small plough plane.  I have used it enough where I am fairly comfortable in how it performs.  Still need to be careful I don't angle the handle.  With those grooves done, it was time to get the maple divider wood prepared.

The rough saw scrap figured maple I had was 3/4" thick.  I wanted it to be 3/8" thick.  After establishing two reference faces, I marked it up for thickness and planed away.  I do look forward to the day when I own a bandsaw and can do it that way.  Till then, I just use the tools I have to get the job done.  I find it really helpful when thicknessing to on an angle on the side plane down to close to the line.  That way, when removing the middle waste, I can more easily see when I am close to proper thickness.  As with most of what I learned, this is something I picked up from Paul Sellers.

With the maple made with thickness, I cut it to length and width.  I am proud to say to say that by hand I can get the wood so that it feels all to be the same width and length when stacked up.  As best I can tell, this means there is less than a 64th in variation.  Not bad for hand tools.  Cutting the dados was straight forward and I got nice tight self supporting fits on 5 of the six housing dados.  The sixth wasn't self supporting in terms of snugness.  

I have a lot of 1/4" cherry faced plywood so I cut that to fit the top and bottom.  After doing a dry run, I did the full glue up.  There were two things I was a little concerned about:  getting the dividers flat to the bottom plywood and interior glue squeeze out.  Since I am sawing off the top, I can't see if there is an error.  The dry assembly was very helpful as it let me work through some assembly challenges  The glue up itself went well.  I used a lot of clamps to get everything snug.  In the next post, I will saw the box open and see if anything moved or not.

Tea Bag Box - Part 1 Design

In the mornings I like to start with a cup of coffee.  Then, a bit later, I like to have a cup of tea.  I thought it might be nice to make a box to hold the tea bags in.  It's also an excuse to build another box and I like making boxes.

For the approx size, ideally I wanted it to be able to hold at least four kinds of tea and I thought it would be nice if there were at least enough capacity to hold 25 of each kind of tea.  Also, that way, it could hold a dozen bags of eight kinds of tea.  To help get the rough dimensions flowing, I looked at some of the paper stock that the tea bags came in a picked one that I liked.  I wasn't locked into this but I liked the approx proportions of it.

With this in mind, the next steps were to get some approximations of tea bags.  I grabbed several that we use in the house and measured them.  This helped to establish the width.  I also measured how deep 25 tea bags would be.  Given this isn't an engineering project I don't need it to be ultra precise.  With that in mind, the desire to use half in thick stock (it's what I had at home), I could go into the final design phase.

I was looking to keep the box simple.  I wanted half blind dovetails so that way from the front of the box you don't see the dovetails.  For the lid and top, I wanted them rebated into the box and I would saw off the top.  I wanted dividers that would be 3/8" thick (slightly thinner than the half inch wood for the box).  The case would be made out of cherry and they dividers made out of some figured maple.

I spent some time drawing this up (not full scale) just to work through the joinery to make sure there wasn't something lurking to cause me grief down the road.  For the hinges I decided I wanted to go with 90 degree stop hinges rather than use a chain.  For the feet, I had some Brusso small brass feet laying around and I thought they may look nice on this box.  With all this sorted out, it was time to make the box.  That will be in the next post.

Tool Chest for My Daughter - Part 2 Painting and Hardware Insall

 In the prior post, I went over the construction.  When it came time for the color, I had asked my daughter what color she wanted it.  I was thinking, well, like an adult.  Monochromatic with maybe the under coat different than a top coat.  My daughter informed me that she wanted it to be painted like a tiger.  I asked for clarification.  She said more or less the same thing.  What I interpreted this to be was that it would have orange, white, and black, like, you know, a tiger.  I would not be painting eyes and a tail but use the colors and have stripes.  I talked to her and she seemed fine with this.

Off to Woodcraft we went to get the paint and hardware (hinge for top, wheels for bottom, handles) and to Ace hardware for a stop chain.  I wanted to try using General Finishes "milk paint."  I know it's not proper milk paint but rather an acrylic paint.  I have used real milk paint in the past and wanted to see how the General Finishes acrylic paint performed and this was a good project to try it one.  We found lamp black, white, and persimmon (close to orange).  

For painting, I wanted to use natural geometric breaks in the case for the striping rather than painting proper stripes.  My wife would have preferred real stripes but I though that might be a bit too much.  I told her when she is older and if she really wants to, she can repaint it however she wants.  Agreement reached.  The inside and boxes were shellac.  To do the different paint colors, it was slow going as needed at least one full day per color due to the use of tape to try and get clean lines.  I was patient but this painting process dragged on for what felt like forever.  For the shellac I used spray shellac on the inside and over the paint on the outside.  After several days of drying, I waxed the carcass.

With the finish done, it was time to install the hardware.  This was straight forward with no issues to report.  To use the screws I had on hand for the feet, I put some washers I had on had so the screws did jut into the bottom of the chest.  The hinge is just a simple 12" piano hinge and I didn't bother to recess it.  The handles had long enough screws so that they go all the way through the case.  Should make for strong connections.

All in all, I was happy with the way it turned out.  So is my daughter.  Our favorite bit is what my wife suggested me do, we both put paint on hour hands do make a handprint of each of us on the inside.  I like to think when my daughter is old this will put a smile on her face.  I've included a photo with the tools she owns.  Still need to get some more tools but she is in pretty good shape.  If she really gets into woodworking, some of the tools here can transition to carpentry tools as she upgrades such as a better square, chisels, etc.  When my daughter becomes a teenage, I will be done with the hand tools and start to build out auto and home repair tools.  My dad did this for me when I was a teenager and to this day, 90% of the tools I use around the home are ones he gave to me growing up.  I will do the same.  That way, when she eventually moves out she will be equipped with solid set of tools.  Don't worry, she still gets plenty of toys.  I just think as an adult the woodworking and home/auto tools will be more appreciated.

Tool Chest for My Daughter - Part 1 Carcass Construction

 Over the years, little by little, I've been purchasing woodworking tools for my now 10 year old daughter.  At times, she likes to woodwork.  I don't know if this is a hobby she will want later in life.  However, I want to give her solid working tools that she could use her whole life.  The modest collection has grown to the point where we needed some sort of tool chest to put them in.  I thought it would be fun to build it with her.  She wasn't interested in doing this.  Such is life, no pressure.  As such, I decided if she didn't want to participate, I would keep the construction very simple.  

I had quite a bit of scrap Baltic birch in 3/4", 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" widths.  I don't use it much (backs and drawers) so it has been accumulating over time.  I thought this would be the perfect project to use it up. It would be strong, stable, and since I planned on painting the tool chest, plywood would be fine.

The dimensions were mostly determined by the piece of 3/4" stock I had.  Roughly speaking, it will be half size in terms of height and width relative to what a full tool chest is.  Of course, half length, width, and height translates to one eighth the volume of a full sized tool chest.  Funny how math works that way.  Again, given her tool collection and likely planned expansion this should be adequate for likely needs.  If not, that is good as that means she must be getting into woodworking and we can then make a proper chest.

For the construction itself, it is simple butt joints with glue and screws.  I purposely wanted to this to be a simple construction.  My last tool chest took 160 hours to make.  This one with paint took about 40 hours.  I have to admit, it was nice to have something simple to build.  The dust frame butt joints went on in the opposite butt joint orientation.  The bottom was screwed on.  I think this will be more than strong enough.  The top was constructed out of plywood and given a faux frame and panel look.  The dimensions of the top are 1/8th and inch longer and wider than the carcass.  That way, the lip of the top has some wiggle room on install and it should be easy to open and close.  I elected not to put a lock on the chest.  I just don't think it's necessary.  

The two drawers were made from scrap poplar and some scrap cherry veneered plywood bottom.  Rather than use traditional dovetails, I used butt joints, glue, and nails.  It should be fine.  If I were to do the drawers over, I would made them different sizes.  They are roughly the same size.  I'm finding it would have been nice to have one drawer longer and one shorter given the tools I really wanted to put in the drawers.  For the bottom, I didn't put any partitions in it.  Not sure what all of her tools will be.  For now things are just loosely stored there.  When we get closer to her final tool collection maybe then we can customize the bottom.  Or maybe not.

I used multiple applications and sandings of wood filler to hid the screws and fix and imperfections/boo-boos.  Now, with the construction done, it was time to finish it.  As I mentioned, I wanted to paint the outside.  I asked her what color she wanted.  She said she wanted it painted like a tiger.  A tiger?  Yes, she confirmed.  Well, ok it's her tool chest after all.  On the next post I will go over how I finished it to look like a tiger.