The Cigar boxes continue, ... ignoring my inner self saying toss them in! The box frames are made and now raw finished.
Original Intent 5 x Cigar boxes
In the beginning My initial intention was to make four boxes for my sons, what they did with them was up to them but there was no cigars ever considered The intention was to just make them from raw material and then cover them with a picture montage, as if you look closely the timber is riddled with nail holes and they needed to be covered. I could have plugged them with bamboo skewers but if they were covered it was unnecessary and time consuming step. (more on this later) The fifth one came into play as a development prototype so I could build by discovery and perfect the process.
The Hinged lid I had heaps of small brass ornamental hinges and intended to use them on the boxes however I did not have 5 sets of the same type. Butt hinges were then considered but with the frame being so thin I thought the lid would get broken off in no time. The pivoting dowel was then attempted and I drilled the holes using a wooden guide block and a battery drill. This proved to be very inaccurate as when I assembled everything and I opened the lid it broke the sides of the prototype box. This resulted in me thinking of dumping the whole project and giving up, as it was never going to work with the method I was trying to work with.
After a couple of days I returned and attempted to use a pedestal drill but the results although were more accurate still not perfect.
I then remembered I had an old lathe converted to a boring machine using a dual axis engineering vice and fitted with a 3 jaw chuck.
I used it years ago to drill wooden legs to fit dowels. Its ts a Ryobi HL100 the head stock has been removed and a 3 Jaw chuck fitted in its place. As you can see I have a 2 axis engineers vice mounted on wooden slides
After fabricating a wooden jig to hold the lids this worked perfectly, so I continued. Overcoming this setback I then considered three methods to attach the lid. In all honesty the lids should have been fitted before the boxes were assembled This would have allowed the pivot dowels to be hidden by the box sides.
the boxes continued and I attempted to dry fit all the lids to test the concept. It appeared to actually work so I was a little more motivated. after looking at them in the raw I came up with a "brilliant" Idea that I could veneer them all...silly move but I started it. Completely disregarding veneering convention I bumble along. I started with the lids first I was then faced with the dilemma of how to fit them
Method 1 using 2 x springs from retractable Biro type pens make the pivots spring loaded and then fit the lid. (needs to be investigated further) Method 2 have one pivot pin concealed by the veneer and fit the second pin then cover the hole with a veneer punched circle. (possibly may end up being the solution) All requiring the necessity of having a 5th box as a prototype.
Progress was slow and frustrating to say the least.
Love the in-process commentary! I usually change my mind many times in the process so that eventually I make stuff it the reverse order it should have been done.
I finally settled on a similar process for the pin pivot hinges, except I use metal (brass) since the holes can be smaller, leaving more "meat" in the wood.
Just fit the lid flush and square, then jam in paper, credit card, thin cardboard, whatever to fill your gaps. Apply a clamp or two to squish the gap filler tight so the lid won't move. Drill the holes and everything will be aligned.
Thanks for the comments and advice guys, I appreciate the fact somebody else, 1 shows some interest and, 2 can provide constructive build assistance.
Now a question:- The title was supposed to be "5 x Cigar boxes Pt 2" but I was unable to link them back to the original blog "5 x cigar Boxes", and to "5 x Cigar Boxes Pt1, ... any clues as to how this is done?
When you have the initial blog posted (5 x cigar Boxes), next time you "new blog entry" from the menu you see when clicking on your avatar (upper right) there should be a selection area where you can choose "new blog entry" or "choose from an existing one". Pick the latter and select which blog you want to add a new chapter to.
