today I'm building a bamboo box accented with cherry and walnuts
I have a set of plans complete with templates for the legs and handles on my
website if you're interested in building one. I have a fair amount of scrap wood
laying around the shop so I'm going to batch out several of these boxes
Once I had all the materials gathered up I decided to use the 8/4 wide cherry I had
for the legs. So I just ripped them down too rough with on the bandsaw
then I cleaned up the material at the jointer and headed over to my table saw
to square off the ends and set up some stop blocks on my miter gauge to cut
them to length. I made sure I kept track of what side I had jointed to be
sure everything stayed square throughout the process
The legs are going to be joined to the sides with dominoes. On the long side
will be joined with two one on the top and one on the bottom. So I screw down a
jig to the table and put some stops down one on the left for the lower mortise
and one on the right for the upper mortise. For the short side of the box I
flip the leg over end over end and as luck would have it referencing off the
bottom of the legs put the mortise fairly centered on the side
for the curve in the leg I took the time to make a plywood template. This way I
can see the shape of the curve in its actual size to be sure I liked it.
The curves on the legs and handles are what defines the design of this box so it's
important to get the detail just right
Once I had the legs all marked out I headed over the bandsaw to cut them out
making sure I left the line
Even though this is a simple cut I took time to tape the cutoff back on instead
of just trying to hold the piece together it's just a little insurance to
be sure I wouldn't screw one up
once I had them all cut out it was off to the spindle sander to refine the
curve and sand them smooth
The bamboo I'm using is a stranded bamboo flooring leftover from a previous
job so I'm just upcycling it into some boxes
To get the bamboo flooring preped to be cut to size I ripped the tongue off
along the sides and ends
I set some stops up on the miter jig so I can alternate cutting the long and
short sides of the box. By doing this it allowed me to keep the board's in order
so the grain of the strands of the bamboo would wrap around the box.
It's just one of those subtle details that brings up the quality of a piece
How stranded bamboo is mad, is they compressed the strands of bamboo
together with a hard resin. This resin was really difficult to cut mortises in
with the domino. The piece would jump side to side while trying to cut it.
I built a jig to trap the bamboo in place and added stops to the left and
right to help locate the mortises. This worked a lot better than trying to hold
the board in place. Next I needed to cut the dado to hold the bottom. I stacked
the side pieces in order so I could keep track of the flow of the grain and not
get them mixed up
Since the bottom was going to hit the inside corner of the leg I set up my
keyed miter jig to cut a notch in the corner of each leg to accept the bottom.
A little better measuring could have solved this problem but I made it work.
The dado for the bottom went through the mortise for the Domino. So the bottom
wouldn't hit the Domino I just used the chisel to chop the Domino's in half so
the bottom would pass by it when assembled. Standard wood glue didn't stick
to the resin of flooring very well so I used some epoxy to glue the legs to
the sides. To get all the dominoes lined up with the legs, and all the sides put
together. I started my assembly process by creating little sub assemblies and
then I assembled those sub assemblies together.
Since the legs are an awkward shape to clamp I use some large rubber bands to
apply a little pressure while the glue dried. I also took care to apply blue
tape along the edges to protect the form from glue squeeze out. The flooring came
from the manufacturer pre finish so I didn't want to risk scratching that
finished just to get rid of the epoxy squeezed out.
While the glue is drying on the boxes I moved on to making the lids. I set up my
shop made panel raising jig, tilted the blade to an eye-pleasing angle, and cut
the edge profile out. I always cut the end grain first as it is more likely to
tear out and whit subsequent cut along the grain will remove any of that tear out.
I then set the plate back to 90 degrees and cut a rabbit on the bottom
of the lid so it would set a little inside the box and wouldn't slide off.
The tops and legs are finished with lacquer. I used an old stool with a
swivel top to make it easier to apply the finish.
Last thing to do is make the handles
I cut the general shape out on the bandsaw leaving the line. Then I made
a jig with some toggle clamps to hold the small parts safely while routing the
final shape with a pattern bit
For the curves on the underside of the handle I cut the bulk of the material
off at the bandsaw. Then I double stick tape some stops down on the spindle
sander and picked a spindle that was close to the radius I wanted and used it
to make the final shape
To attach the handle to the lid I just used a simple dowel, a little CA glue,
eyeballed what looks straight and installed the handle. Once the glue was
set it was strong enough for this little lid
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