Joiner & Cabinet Maker School Box

With all the assembly done, including the lid, it was time to finish the box. I wasn’t sure whether I would keep it for use, or give it as a gift, so I wanted to apply a finish that someone else could alter without too much trouble. I chose to use dewaxed shellac, as this […]

So time to finish the lid. After screwing in the hinges into the box dados, you take the box and put it up on supports/blocks that are the same height as the box. The rough box lid is cut larger than needed. You then screw in one screw per support, then test the fit. Mark

Finally got some screws in that should work for the school box. Wanted them to look a little older than stainless screw holes. So with the hinges bent over and screwed in, I can finally start on the lid and completing this one!

Well, the holiday and work took up a lot of time, but I’m finally back in the shop again. Time to complete the lock and work on the hinges. For the lock, the mortise was complete and tested out, and the holes for the lock expanded with chisels and files it would operate well. Now

The saga of the lock continues. Time to cut out the mortises. You mark the width of the top of the lockset’s plate on the box. Set your cutting gauge to the width of the plate and use the gauge to connect the distance between the two pencil lines you just struck. The mortise for

Back to the School Box work, done by hand. Time to install the lock, which is kind of exciting/stressful. I have never installed a lock before, so this will definitely be a learning experience

Time to build the movable partition/tray. The wall of the movable partition slides in and out of shallow dados on the inside of the front and back of the carcase. So I started out gluing up two pieces to get the required width. I made the panel large enough for both the tray and the

The next step for the cabinet is to cut in a stopped dado in the box to hold the divider and internal shelf. Typically you would cut this before you did the joinery, but in the book, it was done afterwards. Perhaps because there was a concern in lining up the dovetailed panels correctly when

Continuing on with the school box build, its time to put the lower trim pieces on the box. This serves to hide the bottom and to protect the box from “dings and other tings that might happen. First off, I had to rip the pieces to 1-1/2” wide, then use a block plane to cut

So with the bottom square and level, its time to put the bottom on. Bottom is a little under 10” x 15”, and made up of a single piece of ½” pine. Usually, you would use a series of boards with tongue & grooves to allow for wood movement, but that is not how it