What Really Matters IMHO

   
 Those of you that follow my blog will recall the series of them that dealt with this custom project:

Pandemic Game Box

    It was a total internet communication process to design and create this for my client who wanted it for an anniversary present.  Being able to be creative and design things for others brings me lots of joy and satisfaction.  It's the process that excites me and then when I get a response like this:

I got the box today! I absolutely love it. It's better than I even imagined. The board and petri dishes fit perfectly! We are going to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky for our 1st anniversary, I don't think I'm going to be able to wait till the actual day to give it to him. I want to take the game to Kentucky in the new box.

Thank you.
Danielle

Well, that's just the icing on the cake!!

Pandemic Box headed to Michigan

   
     Well, it's time to wrap up another project and as is the case with most of them it brings mixed emotions!  This one was particularly interesting because it was something I'd never heard of and all of the communication was done via the internet.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out and hope it meets all of the requirements my client has.  She's been watching the process of the construction via my blog so she knows how things are looking.
     Here's a view of the box completed with the hardware attached.

Completed Project

     When you open the box, there is a compartment underneath where the game board will be stored, notice the pieces on the inside of the lid?  Those will close against the game board and keep the lower section intact.

Inner Panel, Game board Area

     You remove this inner panel with the finger hole in the middle to access the storage area for all of the cards.  The section in the middle is for 6 petri dishes that are used to hold the game pieces.

Box Interior

     The final stages of a project is where sometimes things can go wrong so there's always a bit of stress.  This is most common when installing the hinges.  I use a router and template to get them almost sized but the final fitting is done by scribing and chiseling to the exact size.  I recently had a student and we discussed why a marking knife is a much better choice than a pencil for this step.

Scribing Hinge Mortise

     When you have a scribed line it's better because you can set the edge of your chisel in that line.  Your chance of success is much better with a scribed line then with a pencil line.  Well, it's time to change the blade on the tablesaw and cut some foam pieces to protect the box on it's way to its new home in Michigan.

Are We There Yet?

 
     Remember your kids asking that when you were on a road trip?  I sure do and my standard answer was usually "....eh, twenty minutes".  That's the feeling I get sometimes when I'm getting to the final stages of a project, seems as if you always need just another  20 minutes, then another, and another; well, I'm sure you've been there.

Twenty Minutes Ago?

      Well, not quite but this is the latest of the major steps that needed to be done.  The pieces that are against the box sides have just a spot of glue to anchor them in place.  That's pretty much located by the clamps.  At our last Sin City Woodworkers meeting the subject of wood movement came up and since this box is leaving the dry arid desert and headed east I want to make sure the wood can move if it wants to.  There should be enough play in the center pieces and all of the dividers to allow for that.
     The last blog I talked about assembling the box and then cutting the slots for the splines.  Here they're being cut off.

Trimming Splines

     There are two splines in the box section plus one more for the lid.  Once these were cut and planed smooth I was able to separate the two pieces and cut the mortises  for the hinges.  There is a huge range in the quality and pricing of brass hinges.  Even locating the once prevalent Stanley brand is difficult and they're not the quality they once were.  It's a huge jump up to the Brusso ones at $35.00+ a pair!  Since this box has internal dividers a fold down stay isn't possible so that leaves Brusso's quadrant hinge as a $50.00+ option.  Neither of these options are in the budget but I was able to get a good quality, solid brass hinge from Rockler.  It's made in India and pretty robust, not like the Stanley stamped or extruded style.  Sizes were limited but the one I selected will allow the lid to open all the way back for easy access to the game pieces.

Separated with Hinge Mortises Cut

     The last few steps needed to complete this project is to finish the interior.  The exterior has Danish Oil and my hand rubbed top coats but for the interior of boxes my preference is to use shellac.  It protects well and is odorless, also my finish of choice for drawers.  Lately my method of applying the shellac to small surfaces has been with a simple air brush.  The first time I used this was on carved picture frames and I really like the ease of application without any runs or build up of the shellac in the carvings.  It's pretty easy to set up an area to spray in the side yard.

Shellacking the Interior Pieces

    The only thing left for these parts is to rub them out with a bit of synthetic steel wool and wax.  In the meantime the dust check for the front of the lid needed to be installed.  This is a perfect task for using a good, old fashioned gimlet to pre-drill the holes for the small brass screws that are used here.

That's a Gimlet

     That screw needs to be about 5/16" from the top and it's impossible to do that with a conventional drill -- the chuck gets in the way.  The tape on the gimlet is to set the depth, wouldn't look too good to have the hole go all the way through.  The plan is for the front, full length dust check to hold down the inner lid.  There are two other pieces on either side of the lid.  If our long distance measurements and planning is correct, these will put pressure on the game board itself and all of the cards and playing pieces will be secure inside of their custom box.
     The remaining interior portions of the box have been shellacked so after curing for a couple of days they can be rubbed out and waxed.  Apply the hardware and ship it off to my client.  It's an anniversary gift needed on the eleventh of November so no problem making that deadline.

Glad It's Not a Production Job (yeach!!)

Interior Almost Done

     Since today is Sunday it was an easy day in the shop between church and working out.  You can see in the picture above that the interior is almost complete.  All that's left is to cut slots in the uprights about every inch to put dividers.  These will separate the various game cards required.  The center section is space for 6 petri dishes and there'll be two dividers there that they can use to contain them, that's an option but seems as if it'll be a good thing so they don't move around when the box is carried.
     Whenever I work on a project it's the thinking and planning part that is the most intriguing.  I'd hate to have a job where I'd have to perform the same task over and over and over .............. yeach!  I've talked to several custom woodworkers that feel the same, what we do is more about the process and figuring out how to accomplish it than the final product.  Years ago Diane and I were talking about her approach to completing a painting.  What she told me is that basically she works on a painting until she encounters a problem, then she solves that problem and continues on until the next one comes along. That's stuck with me and really makes a lot of sense.  Even though my work is pre-planned before starting there's always that part of the work where you have to stop and think it through.
     As you can tell, the box and miters are fitted and ready for glue up.  That's on hold because I'm finishing the top and bottom panels before glueing the box together.  In the mean time the dividers and interior partitions needed to be done.  I had thought of mitering them but decided against that for a couple of reasons.  This box is leaving the dry desert climate and headed east to a more humid one.  Everything needs to float and be able to move with the atmospheric changes.  I decided to use interlocking joinery instead.  The only piece that will be attached to the box itself will be the front and rear inserts.
     The first step was to notch the ends of each piece.  This was done with a dado blade on the table saw.  A stop block was attached to the fence to control the width of it on each end.

Initial Steps for Notches

     Notches were also cut on the ends of the center dividers.  Since the blade couldn't cut the entire required size, the pieces were clamped together and marked as needed.  In this instance I used a Japanese razor saw to complete the cuts, first in one direction:

Increasing the Depth

and then the other way.

And the Length 

     Even though this saw leaves a pretty fine cut a quick pass with a paring chisel brought it up to par.

Joint Details

   





     When you look inside of the box this joinery won't be evident, it'll just appear to be butted together.  Here is is mocked together, now you can tell that the front and rear pieces will lock down the side ones.  They also lock down the two dividers for the card sections.










     Tomorrow will be time to lay out the slots for the dividers.  Seems like a good thing to do first thing in the morning when I'm fresh.  It'll probably take some work with dividers to get them as close to evenly spaced as possible.  Glueing the box together is in the plans as well, don't think I'll have any problem meeting the November deadline.

Shooting Miters & Other Hand Work

Front & Bottom Panel for Box Freshly Oiled

     Up until about a week or so ago I'd never heard of the game called Pandemic but here I am, making a custom case to hold it and all of its component parts.  Of course I had to find out a bit about this game so consulted Wikipedia, here's a LINK from them explaining the game.  It sounds pretty interesting, especially since my daughter has a degree in microbiology and told me years ago that we don't need to worry about the big things (lions, tigers, bears oh my!) getting us it's the little bugs and viruses that'll do us in.  Having Valley Fever I can definitely relate and agree to that statement.  In any case, the game pits the players against 4 viruses that they need to stop before it turns into a pandemic and wipes out the world -- pretty cool!
     When I was first approached (via my Etsy store) about this project I just had to see if it was possible to carve the gas masked icon for the game that I found doing an image search.  It was printed out and since I had an 8" wide piece of Alder I decided that's what I'd use.  It came out well and the client liked it so work began.
     Alder is a nice hardwood that is sometimes considered to be a Cherry substitute although it's not nearly as hard.  There are a lot of cards used with this game that are the same size as a regulation playing card.  That was the basis for the over-all sizing of the box, really designed it from the inside out to make sure the cards, components, and game board would be custom fit inside of it.  The box will be an anniversary present so I have a deadline.
     The construction of the box will be mitered corners with Walnut splines for strength and decoration. You know how every time you do something you usually end up learning something as well?  You may recall that I recently re-adjusted the top of my tablesaw to the blade, it was off just a very slight amount but now it's cutting dead on.  Well, it didn't dawn on my that I'd need to also re-adjust my miter and crosscut sleds because they were dialed in to the miter slots being off a tad.  Of course, this had to be learned when cutting the miters not the 90 degree cuts; they would have been much easier to true up than the miters!  To make a long story short, I needed to do more work shooting the miters than just the few passes to true up the miters as I usually do.  Here's how I go about cutting them.  First, I'll use a scrap piece of wood to dial in the length of the piece:

Scrap, Test Piece to Be Exact

     Whenever possible I like to lock in the rip fence with a block clamped to it at the correct length.  Once the scrap piece of wood is correct, I'll then cut the actual box side.

Actual Side Piece

     No matter how accurately the miter is set up,  it's always good to shoot the miter to remove any saw marks and just clean it up a little.  To do that I have a small shooting board that uses a block plane; works well.

Shooting Miter

    I needed to do a little more than I really wanted to with this since I re-calibrated the tablesaw but it's well worth the effort.  Here's a close up of one of the boards that seemed to be out the most.  The sides of the box are 5+ inches and this piece has a very slight crown to it which compounded the problem in the miter.

Miter Close Up

     Now that's done I can concentrate on the panels for the top and bottom.  The bottom panel was glued up from two pieces but for the top it was necessary to laminate a piece to both edges to get the required width.  Then it was some careful hand planing to level it out without messing up the carving.  I like how the piece at the top of the gas mask guy has a grey streak, almost like there's some sort of virus or fungus up there!

Making the Top Panel

     Before oiling the piece I took the time to enhance the carving and deepen the cuts where needed.  Since the top will float in the box another thing was to soften the edges of the rabbet.
     Now that the first coat of the finish is drying it gives me at least three days to work on the box interior.  There will be partitions and slots to organize all of the cards.  The reason for waiting is to give me time to get the first couple of top coats, hand rubbed into them.  It's so much easier to finish them before the box is assembled.