Jewelry Box
A wood jewelry box I made for Alexa's mom for Christmas. I had come across a book on band saw boxes (wood boxes made primarily with a band saw) and wanted to give one a shot. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to a band saw with a high enough feed rate to make the project make sense. Instead, I opted to cut individual slices on the laser cutter, align and glue the box and then sand the char off afterward. The final product ended up being quite nice and I have received many requests from my family for similar boxes. Now that I own a band saw that is appropriate for this type of project, I think I'm obligated to deliver.
Required Resources: 3 hours, $10
Size: 6" x 9" x 3"
Materials: Walnut, Zebrawood, Tennessee Red Cedar, Purple Heart, TiteBond II
Finish: Natural Colored Stain, 3 coat Semi Gloss Polyurethane Aerosol
Tools: Laser Cutter, Orbital Sander
New Techniques:
Lasering Through Hardwood: I had through cut on hardwood with the laser a number of times before, but the thickness of these piece (~7/8") and the density of some of the woods (Purple Heart, especially) was really pushing the limits. As one might expect, there was a substantial amount of char on the perimeter of each piece and the walnut was close to catching on fire. Needless to say, a lot of material removal was required, which was a tall order considering my primary material removal tool was an orbital sander. While, the final product was well received, in the future, I'll stick to the band saw to make these boxes.
Lessons Learned:
Once You Poly, You Can't Go Back: A small detail but something that really irked me was that I left some yellow glue on the front face of the drawer and then sprayed polyurethane over it. It's glaringly obvious to me now, so I don't know how I missed it when I was sanding. Anyways, I've long wanted to take the sander back to it and clean up that one area. But since it is was finished with poly, I'd have to remove the finish from the entire piece, re-sand the whole thing and then re-coat. Probably not worth the extra 2 hours, especially since no one other than I seems bothered by it (or even notices it in the first place). I guess this is something that will just have to weigh heavy on my heart for the rest of time... C'est la vie.
