I'm continuing my work on the wedding card box for my nephew and future niece. It will 16x11 and about 9 inches tall (including the lid which I'm doing as a "cut away" from the box to keep the grain continuous). It will be open for the card deposit aspect but then afterward will be a memory storage box for them. Given it is pretty deep, I am thinking I should do a tray to separate the vertical space. Creating a "lip" to hold the tray that will still look nice when used without the tray at the wedding is my current design question. Initially, I thought I would make one level of the spines deeper so they would extend into the box, but then I thought the larger spline wouldn't look as nice from the exterior. Now I'm thinking of just cutting a dado in the long walls to place a wood strip that will serve as a lip (I didn't think I would need to have this all the way around). Does that sound workable (I haven't done any boxes with trays thus far) or would there be a better or more visually appealing option?
Yesterday I got to work on a spline jig (again - YouTube to the rescue for ideas). Hope to finish that up today.
A simple way to create a lip is to use insert panels. Maybe just on two opposite sides, or all four. Just a short panel that matches the width of the sides, but shorter, glued in place. The top edge of the panel acts as a lip for the tray to sit on, maybe 3/8” thickness so you don’t give up too much space inside. You could use cedar or something that smells nice as a bonus. I always think it’s kind of a nice surprise to decorate them too.
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
I’ve used panels like Ryan suggested but your idea of splines piqued my interest. Why not all deep splines and the just trim the top ones on the interior. 🤔
Pottz - could you link to the box you have the insert?
RyanGi - I hadn't thought of that. I'm doing walnut to contrast with the maple, so maybe I could do some resawing to get thin walnut panels, or have left-over maple so it would blend in more during it's use at the wedding.
Pottz - I think I'm going along OK with my spline jig. It will have some of the features of yours. I pulled from various YouTube videos and worked with what I had on hand in my shop. I think it will be nice to have for the future, beyond this project. I debated on making one that rides on the fence, but this version seems a bit better for boxes, plus will also work nicely with frames.
Dan B - trimming the others also crossed my mind. Just not sure if it will look too "heavy" if they are all longer. I don't think it would take much to hold a simple tray so that might be an unwarranted worry . I've only used splines on a few projects so definitely not experienced with incorporating into designs (hopefully that will change once I finish up the jig!).
I like the idea of splines that penetrate the interior for tray support. Only thing is the gluing can make a mess and it's hard to get the stuff cleaned off in the box interior.
I generally go with the interior liners on opposing sides, quick and easy and looks good. Other times I have used corner posts with the inside edge nipped off. Also real easy to do.
Yeah, I thought about ways to make glue removal easier. Wax or tape before cutting the slot would make removal from the box easy. Not quite sure about what to do for the actual spline.
When cutting spline slots for miters, (usually on frames), I'll put tape over the corner so the cut will make for a perfect mask job. The glue on the spline doesn't matter since it is removed and the tape keeps the glue out of the box wood.
I'll just trim off close the excess spline on the band saw or with a small hand saw, then touch on the belt sander to get real close. Pull the tape and final sand.
I don't think larger splines throughout would work as trimming the interior for the splines above and below the "tray level" could be difficult to actually access for the lower ones.
