CharleyL

Two methods that I use - 1. As you make a through cut all the way around. the lid isn't held the same distance away from the rest of the box , and the blade can make an uneven cut. Install spacers and tape o hold them in place to keep the saw kerf held open the correct space. 2. Set the saw blade to not quite cut through the box sides, After all four sides have been sawed, then finish the cut with a sharp knife. In either case, if the box and lid end up with edges that aren't perfect, glue some 150 grit sandpaper to a piece of smooth surfaced and flat plywood. Temporarily attach this plywood to your bench with the sandpaper facing up, and place the un-even box edge face down on the sandpaper. Use mostly a figure 8 motion to sand the edge of the box and lid to sand the edges flat, keeping even downward pressure as you do this. Inspect the edge frequently, and rotate the box occasionally as you sand it. You should end up with a perfectly smooth and flat box edge. If you apply too much force to any one area, you will not have a perfect fit between the box and lid. Keep the downward pressure as even as possible and rotate the box frequently to minimize this. I keep the piece piece of plywood with the sandpaper on it stuffed between my work benches when not in use, so I can pull it out and use it again the next time that I make a box. Almost every box needs the edges of the box and lid sanded at least a little to get them flat and smooth no matter how you cut the lid free. Correct orientation of the box to the lid is important too. I always put a piece of blue tape on the front of the box and the lid so I know how they were oriented before being cut apart. The grain will all match this way too. Charley

Scott, I'm not sure that you can do this due to your shop arrangement, but a significant improvement in air conditioner or heat pump efficiency can be had if you can spray a fine mist of water on the outside (hot) coils of the unit. The evaporative effect of the water mist on the coils will lower it's temperature making the work much better on the very hot days. I do this with my shop and home heat pumps when the outside temperatures get close to 100 F here, by setting the nozzle on my garden hose for a very fine spray and then aiming it at the condenser coils of the heat pumps. It's like the outside air temperature suddenly drops from 100+ to about 85 as far as the heat pumps are concerned. My shop and outside faucets are all fed from well water, so the cost for the water is only the electricity needed to pump it, With the heat pumps outside I'm not concerned with where the excess water goes after it runs off the heat pump coils either,. It's worth a try if you can manage the water run off. If you are on city water and pay for it, you might still benefit from this, but keep the water spray to just barely enough so there is very little run off and most of it evaporates. I think your work area will feel like you added another air conditioner to it. Charley

When I want to plane stock that thin I've bee using a piece of flat 3/4 cabinet birch ply about 2' long and attaching the thin stock to it with double sided tape. Even fairly short and thin seems to go through my DeWalt 735 without a problem, but if the piece is shorter than the front to back dimension of my planer, I always use longer similar thickness strips to the thickness of the short piece, attached to the 3/4 plywood on each side of my short piece, to lift the planer's feed rollers and steady the cutter head before the short piece reaches them. This is a habit that I got into before getting the DeWalt 735, because it keeps the planer head level and working both before and after the short piece goes through the cutter, minimizing the chances for any snipe and lifting of the short piece by the cutter blades. It's much safer to use a drum sander when working with woods this thin, especially when they are short. I have a drum sander from Stockroom Supply that I frequently use for small pieces of wood, if I only need to remove a little. Charley

I do a lot of compound (3D) cutting of thick wood, and I need my saw blade to be as absolutely square to the table as possible for this. I also run very high blade tension on to keep the blade kerf as straight as possible. To check if the blade is square to the table in the side to side direction, I cut into a tall and square cut block of wood deep enough to leave an obvious line and 1/8 - 1/4" away from one side of the block of wood. Then back out and turn the block around so I can see the kerf. It will be visibly obvious if the table is square in the side to side direction to the blade because the kerf will be at an angle. If it is, the kerf will not be equal distant from the side of the wood block both at the top and the bottom and even very slight differences will show up very well. I found this to be even better than using a small square or even a blade protractor to get the blade and table square in the side to side direction to each other. To check if the blade is truly square to the table in the front to back direction, cut all the way through the square block of wood and watch carefully as the blade begins to exit the wood. It should break out of the cut at both the top and bottom of the wood at the same time. If it begins to break through at the bottom first, the bottom blade grip is slightly too far forward. If it breaks through first at the top of the block first, the bottom blade grip is slightly too far back. I refer to adjusting the bottom blade grip assembly because it is easier to adjust this grip on my DeWalt 788 saw. For other saws, you will need to figure out how to make this adjustment. On my DeWalt 788, it required a modification. By slotting of the lower blade mechanism mounting holes in the end of the lower yellow blade arm. You have to unbolt and remove the lower silver blade mechanism enough to be able to modify these mounting holes in the yellow blade arm. Another way is to raise or lower the rear table mounting point. I've seen where raising the rear table mount was done by driving a wooden wedge between the plastic table mounting bracket and the lower yellow blade arm, which raised the table a tiny bit. Of several DeWalt saws that I have checked, including mine, the lower blade mechanism has been too far forward, requiring the use of a small round file or Dremel tool and cylindrical bit to slot the bolt holes in end of the lower yellow blade arm. It didn't take much. Mine needed less than 1/16" of additional slotting to get the blade positioned correctly. Once the slotting has been completed and the saw re-assembled, it will be easy to just loosen these mounting screws and move the lower blade grip forward and back, then tighten the screws again without the need to dis-assemble the saw. Charley

Post-It Notes. I keep some brightly colored 2" square Post - It Note pads around my shop, and leave myself little reminders like "Square The Table" or "tighten the Blade" , etc. on the tool and in plain sight before I quit working and leave the shop, even if it's "just for lunch".. Sometimes it's days before I can get back into the shop and if I don't leave myself a bright note in plain sight I'll surely forget to do it. Clean or wipe off the spot first. These notes don't stick to sawdust. I also have a place (shiny piece of metal - they stick better to this) on the wall near the door where I leave these Post - It Notes to remind me to order supplies, etc. Then, when I go shopping or to the internet to place orders I take the notes for the items that I need with me, so I don't forget anything. Be careful here, because having too many of these notes on the wall can make you not see the important ones. It's been a good system for me otherwise. Charley

I use 5 1/2" tall pill bottles that I get from Walgreen to store my blades, one bottle for each size and type. They give these bottles to me unused and free whenever I ask for them . (At my age I'm a good customer who buys a lot of medicine from them). These bottles are large enough to store about 4 gross of blades and still allow me to get a finger down in them to pull just one blade out at a time. I leave the wrapped blade bundles together, with only one bundle opened at a time, so the loose blades are stored in the same bottle with the bundles. This makes it easy for me to see when I'm running low on them so I order more well before running out. A used blade is always discarded, and never returned to the bottle. They are cheap enough to be disposable and it's too hard to figure out what each one is once it has been removed from the bottle, used, and then left on the bench. I also hate getting the wrong or dull blade in my saw because it can degrade the quality of my work, I've decided that it's best to just trash them. The shipping label from the blade package is placed in the bottle facing out, so I can be certain of ordering the exact same blades when I need to order them again. This also helps me to get the correct labeled cap back on the bottle if I should happen to open more than one bottle at a time (I try to never do this). I bought some 3/4" round sticky labels and put one on the cap of each bottle. The blade size, type, and manufacturer information is written on this label so I that can quickly find the blade that I want when the bottles are stored next to each other inside my tool box,. I can only readily see their caps when they are in the tool box. So far, I have seen no need for color coding, since my cap information tells me all that I need to know about the blades that are in the bottle under it. I made two tool boxes to keep with my scroll saws from 12 mm Baltic Birch plywood. The right half of the smaller box holds 9 of these tall pill bottles containing my more frequently used blades. The left half holds a roll of double sided tape, blue tape, rubber cement (I do mostly compound cutting so there is no need to remove the glue after cutting), magnifying glasses, a pencil with eraser, a sharpened d1/8" dowel rod, and a piece of paraffin wax for blade lubrication. In the lid are stored my blade angle gauges, scissors,, and two of my shop made compound cutting clamps. The second and larger box holds 30 of the same sized pill bottles. This second box contains all of my less often used blade sizes. Both of these boxes sit on top of a soda crate right next to me when I'm using my scroll saws in my shop. When I do demonstrations at trade shows or training sessions away from my shop I usually only take the smaller tool box with me, and it's placed on a small folding table next to my scroll saw, but I may swap in and out a few bottles of blades with those in the larger box before I leave my shop, to have the blades with me that I think I will want to use on that trip. Both of these boxes were made with traveling in mind, to look nice and professional at shows, be strong enough to survive rough traveling and handling, and to keep my scroll saw blades and tools near me and well organized for easy access when I'm scroll sawing. I've made quite a few similar tool boxes for keeping other tools and their accessories together and well organized. These two boxes are just natural birch color with no stain and just several coats of clear poly on them. The others are stained different colors to help me find what I need quickly in the shop whenever I want it. Function determines stain color, so tool boxes used for scrolling are one color, tool boxes used for routing are another color, etc. Charley

I have a magnet on the side of the upper arm of my DeWalt saw. If I'm temporarily switching to another blade for part of a project, the blade not in use is held by this magnet until I need it again. For very tight areas I sometimes switch to a spiral blade, clean out the tight area of the pattern, and then switch back to the first blade with the blade not currently in use being held by the magnet. As a general rule I don't switch blades often, and I replace them frequently when they become dull. They are worth only about $0.20 - 0.30 each in gross quantities and I hate it when a dull blade begins burning the wood or it begins wandering off the pattern line. I would rather trash a partly worn blade than put up with the problems that a dull blade causes. I always begin each cutting session with a new blade, since I usually fail to leave myself a note as to how much use the blade in the saw has seen. Blade costs are one of the smallest expenses. Why waste project quality and your time because you used a dull blade that burned the work or caused a wandering cut. Not every new blade in a bundle is perfect either. If I begin cutting with a new blade and have any problem at all with it, I'll replace it before cutting any further too. Again, they are one of the smallest expenses in the project. Charley

When it's smaller than the smallest thing that you might want to make with it. My off cut stash has some very small pieces of wood in it because I'm frequently making very small items with my scroll saws. Off cuts from larger projects end up in the scroll saw stash if it's wood that cuts well on the scroll saw. If it's too small for making even my smallest projects, then it gets tossed. My neighbor likes to take what I throw away for lighting his wood burning furnace. He says that most of the time he can just use a match to get it burning because most of the pieces are small enough to light that easily. He uses it to get his BBQ charcoal fires burning too. I don't heat with wood and I have a gas BBQ, so he gets all of it that he wants. I put my scrap in two plastic trash cans outside the door of my shop. He takes what he needs from them when he needs some. I have never needed to empty these two plastic cans and I have never completely filled them either. It seems like the perfect solution. Charley

I'm new to this site, but not new to scrolling. I have been scrolling for about 25 years now. The DeWalt 788 type 1 that I have was bought off Craigslist about 3 years ago and it has become my preferred scroll saw, because of it's easy blade changes and smooth speed control. Shortly after buying it I replaced many of the bearings with higher quality tighter tolerance bearings and the operation of the saw improved significantly from this. It has seen some relatively heavy use in the later half of 2015 making mostly compound cut Christmas gifts, ornaments, and jewelry. My estimate for the saw's running time for this period is about 450 hours with no problems, but it's beginning to sound like it needs some new bearings again. Last September I added 2 goose neck type LED lights, one on each side of the upper arm of the saw, and these have eliminated the blade shadows and the upper blade grip strobe flickering shadow from around the blade cutting area that has always affected my cutting accuracy. I'll be adding these lights to my other scroll saw, a Delta Q3 40-650 soon. Charley

Many if not all of the old scroll saws used a spring to tension and pull the blade up, and a reciprocating mechanism to pull the blade down. If the blade jams in the work, the spring isn't sufficient to pull the blade back up. The reciprocating mechanism continues to push the blade up anyway, and buckles the blade, resulting in blade breakage. The newer style scroll saws have two powered arms, one moving each end of the blade, that work together to both pull and push the blade together, reducing the tendency of the blade to bend or buckle. There is also a blade tension adjustment that truly maintains a constant tension of the blade. This type of scroll saw was a total game changer over the old spring return type scroll saws. You can use much smaller blades with these newer saws and achieve long blade life with very little blade breakage. Charley

A few related suggestions 1 If your clothes pins are made from wood, add a coat or two of shellac or poly to them and it will keep the wood glue from sticking to them. 2. Plastic clothes pins also will not allow wood glue to stick to them. 3. Plastic clothes pins can also be found in areas whee they sell the snack bag clips for keeping your potato chips, etc. fresh and there are wider ones available too. Charley

I don't sand drywall. I use a large dampened sponge and rinse it out frequently. No sanding dust to breathe or need to clean up. The sponge surface texture removes he high spots very effectively and blends the edges into the paper. I also wipe the paper surfaces with the sponge to leave a small amount of the mud on the paper. This creates a similar texture making the seams stand out less when the wall is primed and painted. Charley .

Ray, I'm glad that you found this older post and are planning to follow my advice. Using two sources of light was a game changer for me. Using LED lamps makes the lamp temperature much safer than the quartz halogen lamps that I was using before these. I was frequently burning my face, head, and hands when I was using them. Long cutting sessions when using them also gave the backs of my hands a sunburn. The LED lights barely get warm, even when on all day, so no more burns from them at all. Their design, with the multiple LEDs producing the light in each one makes the light much more even with less shadowing than the single point source lights too, and having two good light sources, one on each side of the blade, almost completely eliminates blade shadows, a problem that the original DeWalt light made worse than no light at all when I tried to use it. My DeWalt light is now mounted to my son's 2 wheel grinder. It does a much better job there than it did on my scroll saw. I'm still using the same Lowes LED lights and metal bracket that I made for them on my DeWalt 788 saw. In fact, I have purchased more of these lights and now use one on each of my band saws, my belt sanders, and I have a few that I move around the shop when I want more light for something. I also bought three of the other version of these lights, those with the weighted bases, to use on my display tables when I have a booth at shows, if the show lights in my location aren't bright enough . The Lowes LED lights that I used on my scroll saw now have a different shaped lamp head, but they still seem to be the same design otherwise, so those considering LED lights should still be able to apply these lights to their scroll saws in much the same way that I posted earlier in this thread. Getting even light from two sources, one on each side of the blade is what is most important, no matter what lighting choice you make. Using light weight LED lights mounted to the upper arm of the saw adds so little weight that my Jim Dandy brand arm lift didn't even need a spring adjustment when I added the lights and bracket to my saw.The arm still stays in any position that I want, when lifting it. Having the lights go up at the same time that you lift the saw arm gives more access for blade threading/changing too. Then they are back in position and ready for cutting when you drop the arm again too. To make my aluminum bracket, I just bent the 1/16" thick piece of aluminum using my upper saw arm as the form to shape it. I left extra metal on both ends of the piece so that I could bend the right angle on each end of it at the same position (about 1/8" above the bottom of the saw arm) and then trim off the excess from each end of it. I then used 1/8" thick aluminum to make the light mounting bracket, since it did not require bending and it needed to be a little more rigid to hold the lights. Both pieces of aluminum were also bought from Lowes. My bracket design requires un-wiring of the lamp head and removing the spring clamps from the bottom of the goose neck, then attaching the goose neck to the bracket, and finally installing and re-connecting the wires in the lamp head. This is easy if you have a small soldering iron and some "electronic suitable" flux core solder. The two wires must be connected correctly, so I always leave a short 1/2" long piece of the wires on the lamp PC board. This lets me re-attach the wires in the correct places, by letting me see where the wire with the white line on it's side came from and where the solid black wire came from. These LED lights run from small DC power supplies in the wall plug and the polarity of the wiring is important. If re-connected improperly the LED lights will not work. @WLDraper Why do you say that modifying the new lights from Lowes that you used "Is not possible"? I have looked at these lights in Lowes and they are the same design that I used, except for the shape of the rear side of the lamp head. Removing a couple of screws in the face lens and the lens and PC board containing the LEDs will lift out of the lamp head. Cut the two wires free from the PC board about 1/2" from the PC board, leaving enough of the wire on the PC board to be able to see which wire is all black and which wire has the white line on it. Pull the wire down and out of the goose neck and the spring clamp. Remove the nut on the end of the goose neck that holds the spring clamp on and remove the spring clamp. To re-assemble, attach the goose neck of the lamp assembly to the new metal bracket using the same nut an lock washer, then thread the wire up through the goose neck and into the lamp head. Now re-attach the wires, using a small soldering iron and electronis flux core solder, making certain to match the wire with the white line tracer to the place where the stub of the wire with the white line is located. Do the same with the black wire, attaching it where the stub of the black wire is located. The stubs of wire can be discarded as you do this, but only remove each one as you attach the correct wire to that location. Now re-install the lamp LED PC board and plastic lens using the two screws, and the lamp is ready to use. Your wooden bracket looks good, and if it works for you, great. But I didn't want the original clamps, their weight, and the space that they occupied. My only issue is with your statement that modifying the lights "is not possible", because they can, and it's relatively easy to do. Charley

Getting the top of the mailbox to turn out round and smooth. Every one that I've made so far has required sanding. The door handle and the flag (if left in the original position) prevent a single round cut. You are approaching this area from three different directions and the cuts need to line up perfectly, or significant sanding is necessary. The rest is quite easy, if you can cut straight lines with your saw. Charley

Diana has published three books, that I know of, on compound cutting with a scroll saw. They are the best that I've found and I have bought every book that I could find on the subject. I have one book by Frank Pozsgai and I don't think he ever cut most of what is in the book, because they are full of errors. Everything that I've made from Diana's books worked out perfectly, with no design errors. I have two more of her books, but no time tonight to scan the covers. One is "Compound Scroll Saw Creations" and the other is "Compound Christmas Ornaments For The Scroll Saw". Fox Chapel is the Publisher, so you might find copies by contacting them if you don't find them elsewhere. In the front of each of her books is a tutorial on compound cutting. I have my own unique way that I've developed myself, but it's close to how she teaches it. Her way is fine for most. You can develop your own short cuts as you go. Charley

This one. There's even a picture of the mailbox on the cover and a bunch of easier to make patterns for other projects n it too. I had to turn the photo sideways to get it to post the whole image. SSV kept cutting the top of the image off when I tried several times to post it upright, even though I had reduced the resolution, size, etc. The title is " 3-D Patterns For The Scroll Saw" by Diana Thompson. The picture should make it easier to spot in the book store. Charley

I use the 5 1/2 tall pill bottles that I can get free from my drug store just for the asking. Each will hold about 4 gross of blades and still allow a finger to reach in and slide a single blade up the inside and out. I have one bottle for each blade size and source. I use round labels on the caps so I can pick the right bottle quickly, but cut the label that comes on the blade package out and insert it into the bottle so I can order the exact same blade when I need more. It also helps geth the right cap back on the bottle if you should accidentally get them separated. Charley

Ray, If just starting in compound cutting, don't try this one first. Pick something easier, like the reindeer that I make. I have posted considerable into about how to make the reindeer on this forum, and the pattern for them is available free on Mathias Wandell's website www.woodgears.ca Dianna Thompson has published several books of compound cut patterns and the mailbox pattern is in one of them. All of her patterns that I've cut are good and most are much easier to make than the mailbox. Do yourself a favor and cut a few of the simpler patterns before trying her mailbox pattern. Even with as much experience as I have doing this, the mailbox has been one of my toughest to cut well so far. I'm totally hooked on doing compound cutting, and rarely do any 2 dimension work any more. Charley

Same cutting technique that is used to cut the reindeer and other compound cut patterns. You have to cut from two sides while keeping all the pieces together, and in alignment with each other using a clamp, until both cuts are complete. Then it's kind of a chicken hatching out of it's shell. The loose pieces come off and the project comes out of the center of the block of wood. An advantage to compound cutting is that all of the pattern falls off with the scrap, so you never have to remove it from the finished piece. Thanks Scott, I'm impressed with the result too, but it's quite a challenge to cut this one. The need to follow the pattern lines perfectly is an absolute requirement when cutting this one. Since each side of the mailbox is cut separately and the handle of the door sticks up above the curved top on the mailbox I have had to sand this area on every mailbox that I've cut so far to blend the cuts together and make the top of the mailbox smooth and round. I'm using a fingernail file board for this. This curved area has been the most difficult part to get right. Dianna Thompson has published several books of compound cut scroll saw patterns that are all fun to cut, but I think the mailbox is one of her most challenging of them. The vine piece that sticks out at the bottom is extremely fragile, because of the narrow vine width and the cross grain condition there, so this piece breaks off very easily, sometimes even while being cut, but the missing piece isn't obvious, so I may just modify the pattern to eliminate it. The only other significant change that I've made so far was to remove the flag from the top of the mailbox and make it a separate piece to attach with glue after the pattern is cut out. I did this because I just didn't like the flag in it's original position. There is no way to do the cut and keep it all one piece of wood if the flag is located on the side where I put it. I did make it as part of the same block of wood though. It's located off to one side of the mailbox in the waste area on my pattern, so it's cut at the same time as the rest of the mailbox. Then it gets glued on later. Charley

My method is less visible, but works quite well, for me. I have several red carabiners and hook one around the blade leaving it on the table. I've been doing this for over 20 years, but Steve Goode just posted it on his website. Oh well, I'm glad that he thinks it's a good idea. You sure can't use a saw with one of these around the blade, be it a band saw or a scroll saw. I hang them on some highly visible protrusion of the saw when the blade is tight and in use, then place it around the blade and leave it on the table surface when I release the tension. Charley

I'm experimenting with some new projects to make for this coming Christmas Season. One of these is the mailbox attached. The pattern is a slightly modified version of one by Dianne Thompson. I made a few small changes, but it's mostly the same as her's.. It is about 3 1/4" tall and was all cut from one piece of wood, but the flag and shaft were cut out separately from the same piece of wood and then attached with a small spot of glue. No other glue joints exist in it. The original pattern has the flag sticking out of the top center of the mailbox, which allows it to be cut as all as one piece., but it just didn't look right to me there This mailbox was cut from poplar, but I have made a few others from pine. The red flag and the leaf color was done with marking pens. I'll be trying to find a better way on future mailboxes. I used a Flying Dutchman #1R blade for this. I'm also trying different cut sequences and blades, hoping to be able to cut it faster and easier in the future. It took about 50 minutes to cut this one. Line following accuracy is absolutely necessary for this to look good. Making these is quite challenging. Charley

For what you are doing, I've found that finger nail sanding boards work quite well. I frequently trim them narrower when sanding in tight places too. Different brands offer finer and coarser grits, and you get a choice of fine or coarse grit depending on which side you use. I have files, riflers, and burnishers, but for most scroll saw projects I've found that the fingernail sanding boards are what I use most.If you want small files, a Google Search will bring up many sources. Charley

I use my real name plus the first letter of my last name. My mom spelled my name different than most other Charlie's, so my name is how my mom and I have always spelled it. Charley

For really clean cuts you need a flat tooth grind and the Freud SBOX8 blade set has it. The set is actually two blades. Assemble them like a dado blade with the printing facing out and it cuts a 1/4" clean box type joint. Assemble the two blades with the printing facing in and the blade set cuts a 3/8" wide box type cut. Te teeth of both blades extend further out from the blade blank on one side further than the other, so they fit into each other when assembled to cut the 1/4" kerf width. But this blade set can't cut clean if you aren't using a sacrificial backer and a zero clearance insert in your saw. The sacrificial backer is designed into the Incra I-Box jig and you can slide it sideways to expose an un-cut area after the jig is set up and the saw blade height is correct for the joint that you will be cutting. Just before you make the first box joint cut, move the sacrificial strip until an un-cut area is in line with the saw blade. Tighten the two screws to hold it in position, and then pass it over the blade. Then you can cut your box joints and they will all turn out perfect and nearly splinter free, until you make a change in blade height or the pin/cut width setting of the I-Box jig. Freud also makes a 10" flat tooth blade for ripping that cuts great 1/8" wide box joints. The tooth width is actually 0.126, a thousandth wider than 1/8", but when used with the I-box jig (the bottom limit of the I-Box capability), it makes great 1/8" box joints that look great on really small boxes. (Freud # LM72M010). Stumpy Nubs did a review of this blade and he is recommending it for not only ripping and box joints, but also for general cabinet making over the ATG (Alternate Tooth Ground). Blades. I haven't yet tried this. To my knowledge, there aren't any dado blades that will cut perfectly flat bottomed kerfs, but I have used my I-Box jig with my dado blade set for cutting 3/4" wide box joints and the size of the box and the joints made the non-perfect joints less obvious. Charley

Thanks. Yes, I make many boxes, with different designs depending on the intended purpose. For shop tool boxes, they are almost always built the same as these, but with different dimensions depending on what will go inside them, and different stains, so I can quickly find the tool that I need by box color. For the box joints, I use an Incra I-Box jig on my Unisaw, usually cutting them with a Freud SBOX8 box joint blade. These boxes were made from 1/2" Baltic Birch for the sides and 1/4" Baltic Birch for the tops and bottoms. The first two photos are a gun box that I made for my daughter-in-law. The third photo gives you a pretty good idea of how good you can make box joints using the I-Box jig and the Freud SBOX8 blade set, even in Baltic Birch plywood. Who ever said "you can't cut box joints in plywood"? I don't have any problems when doing it this way. The last photo is a box for another tool, but it's not finished inside yet, so no stain or poly on the outside either. I like using box joints for general purpose boxes and tool boxes because of their strength, I have a lot of Baltic Birch drops left over from making larger projects, so I'm using it up to make boxes. I'll be making a bunch of parts bins for staging "in process work" from 3/8 Baltic Birch this coming week. I just have to decide what the best dimensions will need to be for them, but they will all be the same size, and stackable.. Charley