Three-Tier Auger Bit Box

A couple months ago I came into possession of an old Russell Jennings auger bit box.  Somewhere along its life, someone had altered the box by removing from the first two tiers the grooved shelves that held the auger bits safe from rattling around.

The old box

The top tier with grooved shelf removed and ugly compartments installed

Middle tier with grooved shelf removed

Bottom tier with grooved shelf still intact

This got me thinking about how to repair the box.  A few years ago I made a different (but similar) type of box for a set of auger bits, so I was confident I could recreate the grooved shelves.  But in the end I decided to make a whole new Russell Jennings style of box from scratch.

My version of the three-tiered box

I don't know what wood the original boxes were made from, but mine is oak with poplar bit trays.  The Russell Jennings boxes are made with 1/8" box joints at the four corners and no doubt they were made as a single box and then sawn apart to create the three tiers.  Due to the narrow recycled oak I was using, I decided to make mine as three separate boxes, each joined at the corners with 1/4" box joint fingers.

Before making the boxes, I played around with making the grooved trays.  It took some trial and error to get the layout right so that all the bits would fit in their respective trays, and so that the box would have the right dimensions.  If I remember correctly, the box needed to be 4 1/8" front to back, with 3/8" thick sides, which left 3 3/8" width in which to fit a bunch of auger bits.

Middle tier laid out - these need not be perfect half circles

Here's the middle tray partially grooved

I think I made each layout curve about 1/16" greater in diameter than the bit that would fit in it.  The grooves were cut starting with a plow plane.  Then, depending on the size of the groove, I followed with either round planes or scrapers in a scratch stock .  For the largest grooves in the bottom tray, I also used a gouge to chop away some waste.

Top tier almost done, plow plane and scratch stock in background

Middle tier was done with plow plane and a small round plane

Here's a preview of the three tiers

Grooves were plowed in each tier's ends to receive the trays, which were rabbeted to fit into those grooves.

Grooves in one of the tier's ends

Forming a rabbet: saw close, then clean with chisels and rabbet plane

The bottom tier was special with this rabbet ...

... and a rabbet on the underside so the tray's bottom would be
in line with the box's bottom

One more detail: the square tapered shank of auger bits is wider than the business end for the 1/4", 5/16" and 3/8" bits, so they don't sit right in the box unless the end where the shanks of those bits rest is relieved.

An old Russell Jennings box showing the relieved area

Marking out

After careful paring with chisels

Now they play nice together

The hardware is nothing special.  I used cheap butt hinges and front clasps from Lee Valley.  Most of the small brass screws I had were 1/2" long, so I had to cut them down to 3/8" so they wouldn't go through to the inside of the box.  Screw holes were pre-drilled and the screws were waxed to ease them into the hard oak.  The hinges were not mortised into the box but were surface-mounted, similar to the way some old Russell Jennings boxes were made.

Hinges on the back

The front clasps were nailed on and I predrilled holes for the nails.

Installing the clasps

Clasps on the front

I gave the outsides of the box 3 coats of shellac and a coat of wax.  The box is about 3/16" taller than the old boxes.  I could have easily gotten the correct height in my box because my top tier tray was deeper than it needed to be.  But overall, I'm happy with it.

Something unexpected: I got a free can of shellac on "freecycle" and it was cloudy.  I've been mixing my own shellac for years and it's always clear.  But I tested this shellac on a scrap and it hardened properly.  Anybody have this issue with some cloudy shellac?

Cloudy shellac

If I was a real maniac, I'd try to duplicate the label that R-J put on the inside of the lid of their auger bit boxes (see pic #2 above).  I'll leave that for the real gung ho out there.  All for now.  I'll leave this with a couple of glamour shots.

The finished box

And with bits on display