How does one determine where to cut a box lid away from the box bottom?. I hope my question make sense. The box is 6" x 10" and roughly 5" high. Here's a pic in the glue up phase. Thanks.
There is no correct position, I'll generally just pick somewhere based on the look. As long as it's low enough to miss your panel and do whatever kind of lid attachment you want it's fine.
For me, it mostly depends on how the lid is going to be attached, the size of the box and if there is any specific bit of grain I want to keep/split.
Little boxes I generally seem to go for about a third, but less than that on bigger boxes.
For most any box, what MikeB says. If the box will have a purpose, you'll need to decide how deep the interior needs to be (trays, etc.) and the lid need to be deep enough to clear any handles or lifts on the trays. Beyond that, there are no hard rules, just what ever has the best proportions for appearance and the boxes style.
I agree with the prior. If doing a splines, I have tried to have one in the lid so I need to allow the space to add those. Whether you will use hinges versus a lift off lid also can be a factor (best to have this fully figured out in the design...don't ask me how I know this!!)
My biggest headache has always been leaving enough lid thickness for hinge screws. I try to keep it tight to minimize the thickness, but always seem to cross the line and end up using cut screws.
