Project Information
More Pictures Below
Where to start?
New designs and changes in this one, My past several boxes had been lidless and I wanted to make my next project a lidded box but had no plan of attack until one day last week when I stepped into my shop it came to me, a lidded valet box and wanted to use the woods that were TEXAS born and that I sweated over cutting with my chainsaw, The Dark Walnut used for the body of the box, I obtained from an old farm house property that was built pre texas independence so yes the farm house was over 180 years old, the Walnut had been dead for a very long time but was still standing when I took it down, The lid, drawer pulls, hinges and splines are Texas Cedar Elm which is only native to Texas but also stretches up into parts of northern LA, this wood I also cut from a neighboring property to my folks house, it had been dead standing for a couple or few years.
The Build I went with 9/16" thick walls on this box since it was going to support a lid normally I would of only went with 3/8" thick walls without a lid, so the drawer fronts are a bit beefy, if you notice on the back wall a notch cut top center, you might ask what that's for? It's for a phone charging cord, in my past lidded men's valet box's I had been drilling a 1/2" x 1" diameter hole down close to the bottom of the box dead center to allow a charging cord to pass through and I'd had a customer that had issues with that plus they haven't really done well in sales so I came up with a new plan of attack, I stuck a 3/16" up-spiral router bit into my table marked center top edge of the back wall and slowly eased into the bit only not so deep, after testing the cord it didn't quite want to stay in the slot so I took it back to the router and went in just a tad bit deeper and that did the trick, the hinges are also as mentioned Texas Cedar Elm, I used 1/2" box joint cuts for the hinges.
The large lift out tray that sits under the lid is also dark walnut from the same batch, I wanted to keep the tray as large as possible for storing things and since the box walls were to high to get your fingers on side wall for lifting out I came up with a bridge grab, once you lift that tray out under it lies a false bottom door in which the small tray acts as the key to lifting it out, the large drawer has my hidden drawer design in it.
It is finished in a coat of tung oil, I used non waxed shellac on the edge grain of the drawers as a sealer and then came back over it with two coats of my 50/50 mix satin poly wipe and a final rub with paste wax it measures 12" long x 8" high and 8" deep.
Thanks for looking and comments are always enjoyed.
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Where to start?
New designs and changes in this one, My past several boxes had been lidless and I wanted to make my next project a lidded box but had no plan of attack until one day last week when I stepped into my shop it came to me, a lidded valet box and wanted to use the woods that were TEXAS born and that I sweated over cutting with my chainsaw, The Dark Walnut used for the body of the box, I obtained from an old farm house property that was built pre texas independence so yes the farm house was over 180 years old, the Walnut had been dead for a very long time but was still standing when I took it down, The lid, drawer pulls, hinges and splines are Texas Cedar Elm which is only native to Texas but also stretches up into parts of northern LA, this wood I also cut from a neighboring property to my folks house, it had been dead standing for a couple or few years.The Build I went with 9/16" thick walls on this box since it was going to support a lid normally I would of only went with 3/8" thick walls without a lid, so the drawer fronts are a bit beefy, if you notice on the back wall a notch cut top center, you might ask what that's for? It's for a phone charging cord, in my past lidded men's valet box's I had been drilling a 1/2" x 1" diameter hole down close to the bottom of the box dead center to allow a charging cord to pass through and I'd had a customer that had issues with that plus they haven't really done well in sales so I came up with a new plan of attack, I stuck a 3/16" up-spiral router bit into my table marked center top edge of the back wall and slowly eased into the bit only not so deep, after testing the cord it didn't quite want to stay in the slot so I took it back to the router and went in just a tad bit deeper and that did the trick, the hinges are also as mentioned Texas Cedar Elm, I used 1/2" box joint cuts for the hinges.
The large lift out tray that sits under the lid is also dark walnut from the same batch, I wanted to keep the tray as large as possible for storing things and since the box walls were to high to get your fingers on side wall for lifting out I came up with a bridge grab, once you lift that tray out under it lies a false bottom door in which the small tray acts as the key to lifting it out, the large drawer has my hidden drawer design in it.
It is finished in a coat of tung oil, I used non waxed shellac on the edge grain of the drawers as a sealer and then came back over it with two coats of my 50/50 mix satin poly wipe and a final rub with paste wax it measures 12" long x 8" high and 8" deep.
Thanks for looking and comments are always enjoyed.
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