Mitered Box With Paracord Handles

Making a mitered plywood box with paracord handles.

https://youtu.be/bFGoPf3JspQ

To store wooden building blocks I made a box from plywood with mitre joints and handles made of paracord. My son gave it a special paint job.

Please also watch the video about this build and subscribe to my channel on YouTube!

I cut a sheet of 6mm or 1/4in plywood to four rectangle pieces with the same size. And I cut a square piece for the bottom, which had about 1/4inch or 6mm smaller sides.

I cut a dado into every side piece and bevelled the long edges with a 45° miter.

Then I marked the a point where I drilled a finger hole on each side with a forstner bit. I chose the size of the bit so that no building block could fall through the hole later.

Before glueing the miters, I sanded the inner surface smooth. Then I put the side pieces down to the workbench and attached them with pieces of painters tape on the outside.

I inserted the bottom into the dados and folded everything up. Some bar clamps hold everything tight.

I cut a piece corresponding to the inner rim of the opening and one piece in the size of the outer rim. I glued both together to get the lid.

The next step was to sand the lid and the outer surfaces.

My son gave it a special paint job. We used finger paint for children.

After the finger paint was dry I protected everything with a few codes of spray laquer and gave it a last sanding with 600 grid wet sandpaper.

I marked the places where I wanted to put the handles and drilled holes.

Then I tied the knot for the lid handle with black para cord and put a small steel ball in the middle for stability reasons. This type of knots is called "The Monkey's Fist".

After tighten the knot, I added a strand of white para cord by melting the ends and press them together.

I threaded the white and black end through one hole in the lid and back through the other. I kept about the width of my hand on the knots side. Then I started to tie "Snake Knots" around the remaining cord. I cut the ends flush and sealed them with a lighter.

For the two handles on the sides I threaded a white and a black card through one hole each and tied a "Reef Knot" inside the box. On the outside I tied several "Snake Knots" like before on the lid. At the end I threaded the black and white cord through the other holes and attached them again with a "Reef Knot".

For protection I added some glides in each corner of the bottom with CA glue.

Unfortunately the sound of letting wooden building block fallen into the box was much too loud, so I had to dampen I with a piece of cloth.

-- Daniel @ Mighty Wood, http://mightywood.net / http://youtube.mightywood.net