This is done in solid cherry wood. Unfinished as of yet, the final one will get a nice lacquer finish, but now I’m going to have to rush to get it done for Sunday.
Done with a 1/4" 2 flute bit.
Did you carve this yourself? It looks very delicate.
The sides of the lid, and the inner wall of the box are about 3.5mm thick, and 19mm high. The outer wall of the box doubles the width of the bottom 7mm of that to make it somewhat stronger. The top and bottom surfaces are 5-6mm thick, whatever was left over after carving out 19mm on the insides. The interior dimension of the box will be 26mm high, so just over an inch. The one in the picture had the top surface milled a little, and there was an error in the engraving, so there was a slash that went through. I said something rude when that happened.
The Primo did the majority of the heavy lifting. I did some light sanding of the mating surfaces, and enough to bevel the edges a little. The finish pass left them just a little rough, and it needs just a little more (you can see the gap in the top picture where the lid doesn’t quite close tightly. You can also see some scorching from the surfacing bit. I never sanded that down, because of the hole.) I used my actual planer to get a good finish on the second try, and it’s perfect. Lesson: let the CNC do what it’s good at, use other tools for what they’re good at. Just because the CNC can do a thing doesn’t mean that you should. Not when you have something that does it better.
I still have to decide what goes IN the box for Sunday… I’m thinking some mini chocolate hedgehogs…
Do you ever have issues with hogging out large amounts of material in solid wood like that and having it warp?
I know when I use the planer and jointer on solid wood, I have to let it set a day or two after doing the first shaping. Then I can do a final light pass in the planer to clean up any warp that happens before using the final board.
Well, it’s true that wood warps when you cut it, so there is definitely going to be some settle to this over time. The piece is about 7.5" wide and about 7" high, so hopefully this won’t impede the ability of the box to close tight. I wanted to leave it for about 48 hours though before final sand and finish, so that the top and bottom can be nice and flat. I’ll take care of any binding points on the lid at that time,too.
Nice magnetic sand art table
I never knew mini chocolate hedgehogs was a thing I needed, until now!
Mistakes happen to the best of us! Your transparency in sharing the process behind your Mother’s Day gift box is refreshing. It’s inspiring to see the dedication to delivering quality craftsmanship. Looking forward to the finished piece!
