These were Christmas 2000 presents for my Sister and Mom. Initially I was only going to make the Cherry box for my Mom, but while at the wood supplier picking up some rough sawn lumber, my wife noticed the Purpleheart and mentioned that it would be great to make my sister something out of it, that being her favorite color.
I bought the rough sawn lumber at a supplier about an hour away with the intention of going to the Navy base I work at and use the hobby shop planer there. After getting there one evening just after closing time, I decided once and for all I just had to have my own planer! And actually, it would have been a real chore to make trips back to the hobby shop as often as I ended up using the planer. That became my early Christmas present from my wife.
I decided to make the boxes seperately instead of both at the same time. That way, I figured, if I made an error on one, I would learn by the time the second one got started. There were some things I did differently, so if you look carefully there are suttle differences.
Most of the box is made from 3/8" stock, with the top only being 1/2" thick. So, I decided to buy 5/4 rough sawn lumber. In this way, I wouldn't have a lot of waste, as I would have running 4/4 stock through the planer, basically shredding half of it into sawdust. This worked out very well, as I used about 6 feet from of 5/4x7" board for each one. This would also be the first big test for my 14" bandsaw that I had just got operational, in resawing these boards.
To make the board more manageable to pass through the bandsaw, I rought cut each one to the size I would need. I planed down one side and jointed one side with the tablesaw, and then took that to the bandsaw to resaw in half. Afterwards, I took both pieces back to the planer to get to final thickness, then ripped and crosscut to final size.
The sides are attached to the bottom with 1/4" dovetails, which are eventually hidden from view in the plans by the base molding. After setting up my homemade dovetail machine and routing the two sides and bottom on the Purpleheart pieces, I discovered I had made a mistake, misplacing the pins and tails on the boards. It still went together, but now the dovetails would be visible and the case had just shrunk by about 1/2 inch! It actually turned out to be a good mistake, as the look of the exposed dovetails is actually pretty nice.
The sides then received a series of stopped dadoes from the router table to fit in each divider. The top is held on by a few dowels. The drawers were then cut with 1/4" dovetails on all four corners. I learned one thing while cutting dovetails in Purpleheart with the router...that wood is hard! I had to be sure to clamp the pieces in the jig very tightly and move slowly with the router. Overall, the 5 drawers required 20 sets of dovetails, which took a couple hours, even being machine cut!
A piece of 1/4" luan was slipped into grooves dadoed in all 4 sides for the bottom. On the Purpleheart box, I glued and assembled the drawers and then tried to figure out how to cut the raised panels on the drawer fronts as the directions said. It just wouldn't work now that I had already assembled them. So, I improvised and used a round-over bit on the fronts. On the Cherry box, which was built second, I built a raised panel jig to slide along my rip fence and made the front raised panels before assembling. Both turned out very nice, and both look good.
The base moldings and top contour were cut on the bandsaw, then given a beading detail with a router. The bottom was assembled like a picture frame, then the case rested on top. Without finish, the Purpleheart jewelry box is pretty dull. After getting some advice from others on the WoodNet forum, I went with 3 coats of a clear lacquer finish on the Purpleheart. Let me tell you, did that Purple color jump out. Extraordinary. With all the hassle of cutting this extremely hard wood and very fine dust particles, this finished piece made it all worth it. The Cherry box received 4 coats of Tung Oil.
They were some great projects to build, not to mention the fun on Christmas morning. ;)
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