Box for Plow Plane Irons

Until now, I've stored the irons for my wooden plow plane in a roll that gets put in a drawer.  The roll wasn't some multiple-compartment, fancy leather gizmo; it was nothing more than an old kitchen towel.  The irons deserved better, so I made a box for them.

For whatever reason, I often get stuck on design.  I looked online and found a few images of plow plane iron boxes.  They typically were vertical boxes with a lid that hinged to the side and each iron stands on end in its own slot.  While I liked that, I was having a tough time in my head with grain direction of the parts as well as methods of construction.  In the end I decided on a flat-ish box with a horizontal compartment for each iron.  The box has a sliding lid.  It's got 9 compartments; 8 for the set of irons I bought for the plane and an extra for the iron that came with the plane.

Two 10" long sides and a 6" long front and back

Dovetailed and dry fit

1/8" grooves were made top and bottom, starting 1/8" from the edges

Then (8) 1/8" dadoes were cut into the front and back

Cutting dadoes this small can be a real challenge, but it went much quicker after gaining some experience.  I used my homemade mini router plane to get the bottoms to depth.

The bottom of the box fits into the grooves in the sides, front and back.  It's just shy of 1/4" thick, so I rabbeted the edges to fit the grooves.

Getting ready to rabbet using the moving fillister

Here's the box's bottom rabbeted

Here's dry-fitting the bottom

1/8" hardboard dividers in the dry-fitted box

In this picture, you can see that I've cut down the box's front piece to allow the sliding lid to get in its grooves.  It started out the same width as the back for easier marking and cutting during the dovetailing and grooving stages.

Sliding lid

Two more details: the dividers were shaped to allow easier grabbing of the irons, and a thumb catch was carved into the lid to make the box easier to open.

The shaped dividers, with irons in place

Thumb catch on the lid

The glue-up was OK, though I initially messed up - even after a few dry-fits.  The order of putting the components together was key to get it glued up properly.  I gave the box a few coats of shellac on all outside surfaces, with none on the inside.

Here's one last detail.  The front edge of the box's top has a piece of wood glued to its end grain.  This hides the entry grooves and makes the front of the box look nicer.  I realize it a cross grained glue-up, but I've done this before on a similar box which has held up for about five years now.

Glamour shot

And with the lid partially open

Good little project.  The plow plane irons deserved a home of their own.  Now I just have to figure out where the box will live in my cramped shop.

Another Tea Box

Lately I've been working on some old tools that I've found at garage or estate sales.  I found myself in need of building something - anything!  So I though I'd make another tea box, similar to one I made a couple years ago.

This one is made from red alder, which can be a really beautiful wood.  Some boards that I've seen have white streaks, and I'm not a fan of that, but the wood for this project was very nice.  The back and left side even have some figure to them.

The sides have a 3/16" deep rabbet that will hide grooves at top and bottom

First corner dovetailed and fitted

All four corners dovetailed

After leveling the top and bottom rims, 3/16" x 3/16" grooves are run

The top and bottom are identical.  All four edges get a 3/8" deep x 3/16" wide groove.  I was unable to do the end grain edges with the plough plane, so I used a saw and chisels.  Something was not quite right with the plough.  I suspect the iron and wedge were not properly fitted - the iron was not forced against the steel skate and that resulted in poor performance.  I need to look into this some more later.  After the grooves were cut, the inside face was cut down about 3/16" on all edges.

Fitting the bottom into the grooves in the main box

The short divider is housed in 1/8" deep dadoes.
The long divider is half-lapped with the short one and its length
is fitted to the assembled box interior length.

I didn't show it, but the box sides are curved using an approximate 10 3/4" radius.  This makes the top and bottom edges of each piece about 3/16" to 1/4" thinner than the middle.

Here's a test fit without the lid

I pre-finished the inside surfaces of the box with 4-5 coats of
shellac followed by 0000 steel wool buffing and then wax

The box is glued up without the long divider installed

After the glue dried and the joints cleaned up,
the lid is cut from the bottom

I used old plastic cards as spacers to fill the kerfs when clamping in the vise

Then clean up the saw cuts on bottom and top, and correct any twist

Adding hinges

I mortised in a small piece of wood for a handle

Outside was finished like the inside: 4-5 coats of shellac, then wax

The completed box

I added green felt to the bottom

The box is intended to hold tea bag packets - four compartments for four types of tea.  This one took a while - I went kind of slow on it.  But it felt good to make something again.

Small Chest of Drawers

OK, so way back in July, I started on this project.  Then knee problems made it more complicated to get in the shop.  Over the second half of last year, I gradually got most of it finished.  And finally 6 months later it's complete.

The wood is reclaimed red alder.  The main carcass is about 5" x 8".  The sides, top and bottom were 3/8" thick, the dividers 1/4".  Drawer parts were 1/4" or slightly less thick.  Here's the build in pictures and captions, with a little prose thrown in as needed.

The four sides arranged

First corner tails cut ...

... and assembled with the tailboard

Dadoes for drawer dividers laid out.  You can see on this board
some screw holes - the price of using reclaimed wood.  All screw holes
were on the inside, back or bottom, so will remain unseen.

Grooves to house the back are done

Carcass dry-assembled

Using the mini router plane to level the dadoes

The main carcass dry-fitted with dividers

The drawer sides were made from poplar, with a 1/8" ply bottom.  Each drawer had a single dovetail at each corner, and the bottom was glued on to the underside.  Later, a red alder front was glued to the drawer box and a handle was added.

A drawer box coming together

Two drawers with bottoms being glued on (one in the end vise, one
in the back corner of the bench using weights as a clamp), another drawer's
parts being sized and made ready for dovetailing

Drawer dovetailed

Three fitted

Experiments with handles.  I'm going to write a separate post
about making these.

Now for the feet: making a template

On a 1/2" x 1/2" blank, cutting close to the line ...

... and finishing with flat chisel, incannel gouge and file

After mitering the ends, gluing two together to create a foot

Gluing on a foot.  Note the air-release holes in the back.
Without those, when you close one drawer, others get pushed open.

Four feet in place

The piece is finished with shellac, followed by a coat of wax.  The following pics don't show it well, but it got a nice luster and reflects light nicely.

The finished product

Another view

This is going to my 2 1/2 YO granddaughter.  She might not appreciate it just yet, but hopefully later she'll have some jewelry or other treasures to put in it.