Share your craft projects
Make new craft buddies
Ask craft questions
Blog your craft journey
Dave Polaschek
1806 posts
and
44 followers
in about 2 years
in about 2 years
Shop storage #3: Dovetail templates storage box
This is
part 3
in a
6 part
series:
Shop storage
-
Enamel paint box
-
Dovetail templates storage box
-
Box clamps box
...
- Enamel paint box
- Dovetail templates storage box
- Box clamps box
...
I have a bunch of dovetail templates marked out for spacing the DTs on various sizes cases, plus my 1:4 dovetail marker and my tiny square I use when laying out dovetails, and they had been all sitting on top of my boring tools till when it fell down. I collected them all up and made a small box out of some scrap pine resawed to ¼ inch on the table saw, dovetailed together, along with some hackberry (also resawed to ¼ inch on the TS) for the bottom (glued on) and sliding top of the box (grooves cut with the Luban 043).
The notch in the sliding top was cut with a #5/30mm gouge. Finish is tung oil.
May you have the day you deserve!
9 Comments
Nice Dave, I'll have to keep the gouge cut in mind, simple and clean.
Main Street to the Mountains
Yeah, Eric. I saw it on one of Ron Aylor’s boxes ages ago, and thought “hey, that’s simple enough for me!” and then promptly forgot about it for a few years.
May you have the day you deserve!
Dave,
Now I need to buy a gouge. Really like that box.
Now I need to buy a gouge. Really like that box.
Petey
Folks looking to use a gouge to make a notch like the one I did: don’t start with a 30mm wide gouge in ¼ inch thick hardwood. That stop cut is challenging. It’s trivially easy in ¾ pine with a 15mm wide gouge (one sharp rap with a mallet will do), and then the cut to meet it can be done by hand, rather than with a mallet.
Any curvature between about a 4 and a 7 will work.
Any curvature between about a 4 and a 7 will work.
May you have the day you deserve!
Can't get much better that hiding boring tools and jigs into a box where they won't stifle your enthusiasm.
Your organizing is going well! Some positive karma from the wall-slide.
Good tip on the finger notch!
Your organizing is going well! Some positive karma from the wall-slide.
Good tip on the finger notch!
Nice Dave, never thought about keeping spacer markers for dovetails.
I'm definitely having a go at the finger notch.
I'm definitely having a go at the finger notch.
Exactly, Splint!
Mike, it started with the bookcases, since I wanted all cases made from 6 inch boards to match. But I find I go back and reuse those often enough, plus there’s my mini marking square and my 1:4 DT marker that I reuse all the time, and keeping them all together just seems to make sense.
The finger notch is a neat trick, but as I said, it was one that was easy for me to forget, so I’m glad I mentioned it and other people can help remind me about it.
Mike, it started with the bookcases, since I wanted all cases made from 6 inch boards to match. But I find I go back and reuse those often enough, plus there’s my mini marking square and my 1:4 DT marker that I reuse all the time, and keeping them all together just seems to make sense.
The finger notch is a neat trick, but as I said, it was one that was easy for me to forget, so I’m glad I mentioned it and other people can help remind me about it.
May you have the day you deserve!
A couple of nice boxes, this and the Enamel Paint Box. Making these provides plenty of practice with dovetails, etc.
I'm guessing the dovetails in quarter inch material needed to be pretty precise to gain much structural support. There's not a lot of surface to surface contact.
Nice work.
I'm guessing the dovetails in quarter inch material needed to be pretty precise to gain much structural support. There's not a lot of surface to surface contact.
Nice work.
Yeah, Tom. I cut the dovetails super-tight in ¼ inch material, then use a small rasp to loosen them up enough that they fit nicely. I almost always groove in the (usually floating) bottom too, which adds support and helps me get the box square. The lid will either be sliding or glued on and then cut and hinged, or piston fit. Even ¼ inch pine is pretty dang sturdy, though. I wouldn’t have trusted some of these boxes when I was starting out.
May you have the day you deserve!
