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I cut a fret work box a few years ago that I really liked. It was made out of Bubinga wood and had a great looking redish color. I have used up most of my Bubinga and come to find out it has become very hard to get. I had some 1/4" Mahongany left over from another project and decided to give a try. The pieces I had were not as wide as the original project, so I had to go a little smaller. Lots of repetitive cuts and I liked adding the funiture style feet. I dadoed the edges 1/8" on all side but the top for a stronger fit and glued in place with CA glue including the bottom. I recessed the hinges 1/8" on the base and flush on the top and used my 2 sided tape technique for positioning the hinges. Waxed and pretaped the screws and then ground down the screws for the top so they would not pass through the the 1/4" material. Finish is Shellac and Gloss lacquer.

A puzzle box with a twist; there's a magnet in the bottom of the hole for the pin, with panel nails in the pin to hold against the magnet. And you need a magic wand to open it. The pin was originally a standard heart, I flattened the heart so I could cut the pin in the shape of a key. Wood: 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 inch oak Blades: FD Polar #1 for the pin and sliding dovetail, Polar #5 for the inside void, the outside of the heart shape and to rip the 1/8" bottom. The only tricky part of the puzzle box is the order of cutting must be followed. 1. rip the bottom piece, 2. cut the pin, etc...

First puzzle box. Followed the directions from the latest issue of the Scrollsaw magazine, mostly. It was a block of basswood from KJP woods. Didn't add the 1/4" layer because I knew I was painting it. Finished with beeswax butter (beeswax mixed with mineral oil) 20230612_185413.mp4

My wife wanted me to make another tissue box. I found a nice fret pattern for the sides. Made from 1/4" oak and fits the standard size Kleenex Tissue Box 8.2 x 8.4 inch / 20.8 x 21.3 CM. It has a 1/4" gap on the bottom for easier lifting. Finish is shellac/ gloss Lacquer.

I had looked at Pedro's finescrollsaw.com several times and wanted to try one of his patterns. Purchased one of his patterns called the Wiseman Coffer. (9 euro) It was great working with Pedro and he did give suggestion that I either use European "A3" paper or have it converted but retain the original size. My local UPS store made it happen with 2 sets of 17 x 12 prints. I decided to kick it up a notch by going with Bubinga wood $$$. It requires both 1/8" and 1/4" wood. I had some of the 1/8" but I needed 2 pieces of 8" wide and the 2 sq foot packs were only 5.5" wide. I contacted Richard at Richards Craft wood in Clemmons NC. www.richardscraftwood.com. He was able to mill up the pieces I needed and had them in a few days. Lots of cutting and lots of broken blades (Bubinga is hard !) It took about 3 weeks to finish. I used a Lacquer finish and it really brings out the color of the wood. I did used a temporary light wood backer on the inside to accent the fretwork for the picture but removed it afterwards.

Yesterday I finished my first 'box' of any kind. It's from a 1928 pattern of an Egyptian Biscuit Box offered by Hobbies at that time. For those of you who remember, my wife loves ancient Egyptian artifacts and art. So. I decided to try my hand at making something Egyptian for her birthday. It's made mainly fro 1/2 inch birch plywood with oak corner pillars and trim. The cartouche I copied from a bracelet my wife got from Egypt and is her name in hieroglyphics. The cartouche is the front and the winged scarabs are on the other three sides. The darker stain is English Chestnut from Minwax and the lighter woods are just clear satin finish. The main box is 7 inches square and the overall height is 10 inches.

Several years ago I made 4 compass roses from various woods. I used one for a table top and one for another box. The other two had been laying around for a while and after finishing the previous black lacquer round box, it was time to find a home for these two Compasses. I wanted to try something different. I had several pieces of exotic woods, (Purpleheart, Bubinga, Brazilian Rosewood and oak) and wanted to do the 16 sided box again. I cut long strips 1.5" wide. First pass on the table saw was off by a degree on each side but second pass got me to the 11.25 degrees (78.75 deg. on table saw) to make a correct circle. I cut strips into 1.5" segments and laid them on blue tape for gluing. For the bottom, I double sided taped a long strip of wood to the lower segments and Routered a 1/4x1/4" groove and cut a matching disc for the base and glued the segments with titebond glue. I used 2 hose clamps screw together to form a circle to hold the 1st level in place. Glued up the other 2 layers with the blue tape to hold together along with the clamps. On the top I cut a dado rather than a groove for the compass to rest on. Glued all the layers together and double side taped to the top to the base so I could sand them all together on occillating sander. I cut 3 very thin strips on the table saw to form the insert lip for the top and glued together and sanded to fit in the base of the top. I cut 1/8" disks for the top and bottom and attached the felt and dropped them in place. Finish was several coats of clear gloss lacquer. Need to find another scrolling projects and give the boxes a rest.

Recent rainy weather held me off from assorted outdoor projects so I decided to cut a project I had in my pattern library for quite a while. It's a narrow fret box made from Bubinga 10 x 4.5". Original pattern had straight sides and I decided to add furniture style feet. A little tricky cutting these small parts but I got it done.

I got it done. What a struggle for me. Took longer to put it together than it did to scroll.... well almost. It is made of 3/16" Maple, the interior is lined with what I think is Cherry Veneer. Measures 11" x 11" x 3". I used the largest leaf from the pattern, redrew it a little and made the feet on the bottom. The plans do not call for the feet. This a Finescrollsaw.com pattern. I am making a second one out of 1/4" BB. Got it almost cut out. I use a piece of 1/4" BB as a backer when I cut out the lid, because I didn't want to just cut 3/16" Maple, thought I'd have better control with thicker wood. The scrap backer turned out so good, I decided to just do another box. Gluten for punishment.... Sorry for so many pictures, I was trying out my new photo tent and having fun. Not the wrinkles in the blue clothe Hope they can be ironed out, other wise I will just have to toss them and get something else.

I finally finished the Renaissance Keepsake Box from the Creating Wooden Boxes book. I had actually done this box a few years ago when I still had my old Craftsman Scroll saw. That had taken me a month and I used Padauk wood. Bottom feeding with this fine pattern and using hex nuts to tighten the blades was a pain. Love my EX. I found some nice 1/4" board Bubinga at the Klingspor expo last month and wanted to use a wood that didn't darken like the Padauk. I really like the deep color and luster of the Bubinga. It was a lot easier top feeding with my EX-16 but it still took a while to cut over 600 holes and broke a whole lot of .02 blades. One of the included pictures is the darker Padauk box.

My latest; a small heart box. the lid has a sliding dovetail joint holding it to the box and a heart shaped pin keeping the lid from sliding by itself.

G'day all, Well finished the box for my Sister's birthday. It's late but better late than never Radiata Pine, Jarrah inlay, blue felt lining with blue flocking in the tray. 3 coats of lacquer, cut back with 320g between coats.

Having a lot of fun making boxes lately. The pattern for this one comes from Craftsmanspace The fretwork is plywood, backed with purple card and 3mm MDF. The same card is used to line the box interior. 24 x 21 x 9cm or 10 x 8 x 3.5 inches approx made from an old drawer box. Thanks for looking. Rob

G'day all, 2 more tissue boxes, I don't think I've shown this pattern before. The Rose is backed with green and red felt, the Cowboy black felt. I like backing him with black felt and glitter, looks like the stars at night, but i'd run out so a starless night is.

Another 3 tissue boxes hot of the press (out of the spray booth). The patterns in these are ones that came with the basic box pattern I purchased many years ago, to see how they fitted them to the front of the boxes. Curiosity hasn't killed me yet, but it has given me few close calls

Finished 3 tissue boxes on Saturday, Sold the Elephant one at Sunday's markets. The dragon design I have cut before, The butterfly and Elephants are new designs and 1st time cuts. Pine with Jarrah Trim. I use felt to back the cuttings.

I made this 8'x6"x2" cedar box for a donation item for a Local university's Christmas event for children. The theme this year is "The Grinch" . Woods used are: bubinga, poplar, bois d'arc, basswood, and cedar. Image is inlaid into the hinged lid using the "double bevel inlay " method with a scroll saw.

Had a load of 1/2" thick offcuts of ply and thought I'd make some pencil boxes 4 3/4" x 3 1/4" with a nice piece of teak for the base the bird scrolling make a rubbish ply look good. Roly

I posted this in the thread for 2017 homemade gifts, but it was a rather late entry in the thread and I expect that a lot of folks who might want to make something like this box, did not see that entry. This box, a Thiers-Issard chef's knife, and a sharpening stone will be a gift for my 15 year old grandson Ethan who is well on his way to becoming a very good chef. Thiers-Issard is the French company that makes Sabatier knives among other things. First of all, here is a photo of the completed box with its lid off: The box is made of Pau-Ferro wood and is finished with several coats of polymerized Tung oil. Below, I outline the steps I took to make the box. (1) Outlines slightly larger than the knife and the sharpening stone were marked on a board of Pau-Ferro which is slightly thicker (14mm) than the thickest part of the knife's handle. Half circles were added to allow one to easily lift the knife and stone. A thin perimeter (3mm) was also all around the outside of the board. Once cut, the interior of this board will be the middle part of the box and the thin perimeter will be glued to the top of the box in order to form the box edges. I designed patterns for Ethan's name and for the Thiers-Issard logo and glued them to a 2mm thick board which is going to be the top of the box. (2) The two boards were cut appropriately on my scroll saw. (3) After gluing a 1mm piece to the top, I pushed FIMO bake-able clay into the cavities: This was baked for 30 minutes in a 265 degree Fahrenheit oven. After cooling down, the clay saw sanded off to the level of the wood with 120 grit sandpaper. (4) The edge was glued to the top and the middle was glued to a 3mm thick bottom. (5) The edges were roughly sanded with a belt sander in order to make everything uniform and rounded. (6) All parts were further sanded down to 320 grit using both a rotary sander and hand sanding, as appropriate: (7) Several coats of polymerized Tung oil were applied: Edited Friday at 05:47 PM by Frank Pellow

Same pattern , different woods. One, Pine, maple, and bois d'arc and one cedar, basswood, and bois d'arc. Boxes measure 6"x8"x3" 3/8" thick wood.

My latest project:

There is nothing special about the jigsaw puzzle, it's just a 100 piece of the San Xavier mission. But I feel real good about the box. I needed the box to be big enough to hold the puzzle. I had a piece of 8/4 (1.75" thick) spanish cedar 5-3/16 wide, with that as a lid width I got just at 5" wide for the box itself and the only way the puzzle would fit would be if I could use the entire 1.75" for the box walls. I cut the inside of the walls, glued a 1/4" bottom on it, and ran it through the sander until it would just fit in the scroll saw without the arm banging on top of it so I could cut the outer profile. Dewalt says the max depth is 2". My box (not counting lid) is a skosh over 1-15/16" thick and the puzzle pieces fit perfectly. Thankfully cedar cuts like butter - I can't imagine doing that thickness in a hardwood or exotic.

Everyone's starting the Christmas stuff, thought I'd be different. Here's a couple of Easter egg boxes just waiting for the flocking. Size is approx 5.5 x 4 x 1.25". One walnut with mesquite root lid and the other bubinga with bubinga/yellowheart/maple lid.

The heart is African Mahogany (looks/cuts like Luan, but at twice the price???) The box part is 1.75" deep. The butterfly is cherry with a eucalyptus lid, the box part of that one is 1" deep. Both patterns from a book (Custom Wooden Boxes on the Scrollsaw). It's a good book, but those were the only two patterns that I felt like making. The christmas stocking (my pattern) is Bubinga with a little bit of maple on top. The box part is 1.75" deep. It will hold a lot of candy canes during the holidays and then will be used to store some fretwork ornaments I made last year.

I made this Valentine's Day box out of hard maple and walnut. The hard maple was hard to cut slow going and had #7 blade to cut the heart shape out.