A jewelry box for bracelets.

This is another of the box joint jig tests. This one with 1/2 in. finger joints using recycled lumber. Ellen didn't want a fancy jewelry box, so we decided to go with a look of something that's "been around", looks old, and with a simple design.
The box measures roughly 12 x 14 x 4 1/2 in., old plywood top and bottom, the sides are pine, brass hinges and latch. (in the first photo, the lid is slightly open. it's not a bad fit.)
To hold the bracelets, I used four 13 in. long, 2 inch thin-wall PVC pipe which slide into staggered U-shaped cut-outs glued to the inside of the end boards. You can take the bracelet holders out to put the bracelets on them but you don't have to, at least for the top row. I was going to cover the holders with velvet or felt but Ellen likes it just the way it is.

I finished the wood with a mixture of stains to get the look I wanted. I applied different colored stains, rubbed on, to get a semi "sunburst" coloring. I topped it off with a clear finish. I'll take a little bit of the shine off with some steel wool and re-buff to a satin finish. Ellen's happy with it.That's what matters.

A box made with my box joint jig

Working with scrap lumber, I've been trying out this box joint jig I made. I've tried it with different kinds of wood of various thickness, as well as trying three different router bit sizes. There's a custom door manufacturer about a mile down the road from my house. They get all their lumber as salvage and reclaimed timber and they further mill it themselves. Just about every day they put their trimmings and cut-offs in a bin in their parking lot for gleaners like myself to pick through. I get some really nice wood there, and that's what I used for these boxes. No nails were used to build these boxes. (click on a photo to see a larger version of it.)

This first box measures about 4 1/2 by 5 inches and has 1/4 in. finger joints. The light colored wood is 1/4 in. white oak, the dark wood is redwood. The hinge at the rear of the box is incorporated into the redwood trim. Here we see the front view; the horizontal redwood bar is the latch handle to lift the lid. The second photo shows the open view. Just a light coat of clear varnish to finish it off.

My Band Saw Circle Jig

Here is a demo of a band saw circle jig I made. This is not a how-to video. I made this in a couple of hours using scrap lumber and a few screws, a bolt and a T-nut. I saw some band saw circle jigs on YouTube like this and thought, "I could make that". So, without plans or drawings I made this jig and it came out rather well. Works very well indeed. If you want to make your own, look them up on YouTube and pick the one you like. They are not hard to make, and cost next to nothing to build.

Home Made Box Joint Jig

 I made this box joint jig (sometimes called finger joints) for my table saw. It was intended to be used with dado blades on the saw. I built it and as I was putting the dado blades on the saw in order to make the first key plate, I realized that this old saw won't take dado blades. They don't fit on the blade spindle. Bummer! Now what?
Then I remembered I have a router table for my router, and with a slight modification I could make this fit the router table. I only had to make a different sized miter slot guide.
Here's how it works: The jig has an interchangeable key-plate, one for each size finger joint you want to make. I made three: a 1/4 in., 3/8 in. and 1/2 in. plates, held in place with 2 screws. Shown above is the 1/4 in. plate. You put on the key plate that you want to use and make a test cut. After the first cut, the slot you just cut is moved over and place over the "key", and make another cut. Repeat those steps for each cut. If needed, that black front plate can be adjusted with the micro-adjustment screw at the end of that plate. The plate is then tightened in place with wing nuts (on the back side).
What is nice about this jig is that you can cut all the finger joints for your box at the same time by stacking the wood and then putting a clamp on it so nothing moves. This jig is amazingly precise for something I just whipped out in one afternoon.
Below is a photo of the first two boxes I made with this jig. There's a bit of tear-out on a few of the finger joints; a problem I've since remedied using a sacrificial piece of wood on the blade side of the stack of wood when cutting. Both boxes are made of the same wood; oak tops and bottoms and spruce for the sides. The larger box is stained. The small box, not stained, is 2 in. square on the top, a little less on the sides.

Mobile' #55

I've made a couple of large mobile's this month. It started out as one mobile' but it didn't look right so, I made two mobile's instead. The first is #54 not shown here. The second was this one shown above. It is a little over three feet tall and about eight feet long. All the rods are steel, painted black. The base is a maple tree branch. The other wooden elements are assorted wood species: eucalyptus, western maple, silver maple, cedar and plum. All the wood is stained the same color for consistency.
I like to set up the large mobile's in my backyard for a week or so to see how they will behave. If there are any flaws in the design or construction, nature will expose them. This one worked beautifully from the first set-up and lasted the week without any tweaks or repairs. I thought, "OK, time to finish it of with a coat of paint on the steel and I'll do that right now." I turned to walk out the back door and this is what I saw.

That's a twenty foot long maple branch that broke off the tree the mobile' was under. That green stuff is mistletoe, which is really heavy. That's why the branch broke. It completely smashed the mobile'. Luckily, it didn't break the base. I was able to rebuilt this mobile' in a couple of days. It's now on a pedestal in my front yard. It looks great and is beautiful to watch. It is for sale if you're interested.
You can see all my mobile's on my art web site: http://www.tesserak.net/html/mobiles.htm
Here's a video clip of the mobile the day before it was crushed.

Mobile' #52

Here's another small wire mobile', #52. A pivot-on-point type mobile' with a stretched square spiral balanced on a stand. Painted paper tags will catch the slightest air currents, spinning the spiral. See it in action on my YouTube channel.

Another new mobile', #51

Here's another little mobile' sculpture. This one is all mild steel wire about 6"H x 3.5"W. It's a pivot-on-point type mobile. Of course it looks a lot better in motion. See it in action on my YouTube channel:Mobile' #51 video clip.
See all my mobile' sculptures on my art studio web site at: Tesserak Art Studio Web Site