Heart shaped candy box

Valentines Day is fast approaching. I thought it would be fun to make a candy box, one the recipient could keep and not have to throw away after the candy is gone.
It was an interesting challenge. Thankfully, a couple people on Facebook suggested I try bent lamination to create the curves. It seemed a bit daunting at first, because I always thought it would be very difficult. In fact, it was very easy and it opens up a whole bunch of possibilities for future projects.
The only trick it to plane your wood down as thin as possible to allow it to bend. Then glue up several pieces and let them dry around a form. Plus, scrounge up every clamp you can find.
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Puzzle box and Christmas ornaments

Puzzle boxHave any of you ever made any puzzle boxes? They always just fascinate me and one of these days I want to get around to designing something. Ryan Umber sent over pictures of one he made out of walnut and bodark. Its very clever. If youd like to see details, heres his SketchUp file. Thanks Ryan!

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Christmas is right around the corner!

Heres a crazy thought: Christmas is now within sight. Its a good time to start in on any gifts youve been thinking about making. Karl Taylor over at Scroll Saw Video is already in the Christmas spirit. Heres a free PDF download for us Mere Mortals containing seven of his original ornament patterns. Thanks Karl! Let me know if any of you make any of these.

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Wood chain

Heres a preview of tomorrows video. Yup, its a wood chain. No idea what to do with it, but its pretty easy to make. 

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Make a wooden book keepsake box

Valentines Day projectI started this project with the idea of making a wooden "book". It would open to reveal a heart-shaped picture frame on each side and could be displayed open on a table.

The logistics of pulling that off were a bit more than I had time to deal with, so about halfway through the build, I decided to just make a simple frame insert and call it a keepsake box.
Most of my time on this project was spent in the design: specifically how to make the box look like a book, yet let it to swing open. Since real books generally dont have visible hinges, I didnt want any to show on this one either.
Thankfully, I have a terrific bunch of helpers on my Facebook page who came up will lots (and I mean lots) of ideas. The one I decided to go with was using a dowel as a hinge. It works out great and doesnt require any glue.

This is a pretty easy project to make. Mostly, you will spend your time on the hinge mechanism and shaping the cover and spine so that it swings properly. Take your time to test it along the way and youll be fine. Most importantly, resist the urge to force the cover to swing if it sticks: the dowel holes are so close to the edge, it will likely cause a split. And by the way, use a hardwood. Pine will almost certainly split.
Download plans:

• PDF plans
• SketchUp file
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Working on a sliding lid box

I finished up a sliding lid box this weekend. Its funny, because I was originally going to make this using a router for the inside. Unfortunately, my router bit wouldnt dig deep enough, so I decided to cut it out on the band saw. Then I decided to use a scroll saw, so I could avoid cutting the entry point that would require gluing.
Well, I screwed up a key part cutting the lid and ended up having to make the box much shallower. I could have done it on the router to begin with! I like the way the lid works out, though. Video on Friday.

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Make an itsy bitsy teeny tiny wood box and earrings

Mothers Day is approaching!Well now that you have let that sink in and have entered into the panic stage, heres a project that is easy to make and will finally buy your mothers love.
Okay, that was a joke. Seriously, we all want to build handcrafted items for gifts. Why not use some of that special scrap wood youve been saving and make a little box. If you are ambitious, put some earrings in it.
No one needs to know that they were made with cutoffs that we considered tossing out.

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Rustic flower box

Special mid-week video. I made this using scrap garden edging. Old pallets would work well, too.

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A magic box with help from the Grr Ripper

Contest time! Microjig sent me a couple of Grr-Rippers recently and asked me to try them out. They improve not only my safety, but the cuts of my wood. Heres the best part: Microjig is offering up a Grr-Ripper to one lucky Mere Mortal. Entering is simple, but you have to get a little creative.

Please enter the Mere Mortals Haiku Challenge here! 

Get to it quick. Enter by next Friday...the 10th!

Heres my video about the Grr-Ripper. Not only that, but a cool magic box you can make in your shop in a day. 

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Make a Shut the box game

I really enjoy making wood games. They make great gifts and are a great way to try out some new woodworking techniques to customize them. This time last year I made a Quarto game, which holds endless design possibilities. Like some chess boards, they become works of art as well as pastimes.
Shut-the-Box is a very old game dating back to the 12th century. Im going to guess that it is most popular as a gambling game, since it isnt very involved and each game lasts a minute or so. I think it would also be a good early-learning game for children to reinforce simple arithmetic.
I made mine out of cherry and paduk left over from my recent cheese cutting board project. I used all 1/2" thick wood because 3/4" boards always look "heavy" to me on smallish-sized boxes. I like to add inlay on lids such as this, where I drop a plywood panel into a rabbeted frame. It looks good, but the main reason is to conceal any gaps where my cuts arent perfect!
Plans:

• WWMM Shut-the-Box plans (pdf)
• SketchUp file
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Guitar pick box

This turned out to be a pretty simple box, once I figured out how to make the swiveling lid. Mostly, I didnt want any hardware to show, so I decided to use a dowel attached to a nut. The box itself is really just a bandsaw box; the lid and base are sliced off a single chunk of wood. Then I used my scroll saw to cut out the inside.

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Puzzle box

Hey guys, Ive been out for a few days and am now pondering something to make this weekend. Hmmm...Ill let you know when I come up with something.
In the mean time, heres a great little puzzle box someone recently send over to look at. I love this sort of thing!

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Simple box joint jig

Handy Woodworking Tip TimeHere is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing feature. I often have viewers ask me how to make certain jigs or perform certain techniques. Frequently, I have covered these topics in my videos but its difficult to sift through them to find a certain tip. So I decided to start compiling these tips into their own short videos on my Mere Minutes channel.
I was inspired to do this because viewer Per Almered took the time to create a brilliant little jingle for me. I thought it was funny, clever and decidedly quaint, so why not build a series out of it?
Per is quite talented. Please listen more of his music here.Box JointsI thought I would start out this series with a simple box joint jig I used in my Knitting Box video back in February. I doubt many of my viewers are into knitting and may have missed this technique.
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Electric cigar box ukulele

Ive been watching Jack Reads progress on this for while on my Facebook page. He and his son Gabriel just completed this totally cool cigar box uke. Plus its electric! I asked Jack to compile the history of this build, so here it is in his own words. Thanks Jack. *********

1) The build begins. Gabriel (my son the musician) coping the head piece from a piece of 3/4" oak.

2) We glued two pieces of the same oak for the neck and cut them to a taper 1 1/2" at the top to 1 3/4" at the bottom. 

3) I built a jig from Charles Neils website to make the cut 

4) The neck was too thick so we lopped off 1/2"

5) Then came some sanding.....lots of sanding. He asked bout how much more sanding dad? I replied just a little more. I said that about ten times one day.

6) I got in on the sanding act.

7) The neck and head are nearly complete. They each got a 5 degree bevel on the end grain to produce the set back. They were bored for dowels, glued and clamped. This worked very well on the previous build. 

8) The neck is finished. The cigar box body is in the background.

9) The first fret board glue up. I ended up botching this fret board cutting the frets. I botched up one more, before cutting the frets first then gluing to the neck.

10) I ended up buying a new saw to cut the frets. This produced perfect frets (.023 kerf in 3/16 ply)

11) Gabriel is setting the frets into the fret board.

12) The tuning machines were installed.

13) Nearly complete front of the Uke

14) Nearly complete back.

15) This is the under saddle pickup. It is soldered to the endpin jack. The amp cord is plugged into the endpin and to the amp. Gabriel got a little belt amp that allows him mobility.

16) The Ukulele is finished. It needs to get strung, but the bridge and saddle are freshly glued. He can string it on the cruise ship. He leaves for Alaska tomorrow. Done in the nick of time.

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Sliding lid box

Heres the box that began as as a router box and then got skinnier. First time Ive ever used a scroll saw to make a bandsaw box, but it seemed to work. It got me thinking about challenging myself to make the tiniest bandsaw box ever, using the scroll saw. I might try that. Maybe start with a 2" block of wood, or even smaller.

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Make a heart shaped box

Please welcome Micro Jig as a new sponsor to the show! Great products and people.

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For Valentines Day, I decided to make a heart-shaped box with a little extra. It has a tray area, for sorting change, holding rings or whatever. I wanted the design to flow together as one unit and repeat the sweeping arcs of the heart shape.
If youve made a band saw box before, you will recognize the techniques. This is sort of like making two in one. Just consider the tray area as a second box: instead of slicing off the back, you will just add a separate base.
I used purpleheart and padauk and it really looks nice, although I wouldnt recommend using such hard woods. Bandsaw boxes require a lot of sanding to smooth out the blade marks and your will struggle less with a soft wood.
PlansIm quite proud of this cutting template! It includes all the steps you will need to perform to make this box. Just print it out (make sure you set your printers scaling to 100% size) and paste it to a block of wood.

• Download WWMM Heart-shaped box template. (pdf)

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Build a 20 planter box

Now that Spring is here, Ive really been wanting to make an outdoors project. Planter boxes make great projects for woodworkers, because they can be made so many different ways. Do a quick Google search for tons of ideas.
One of the reasons I havent made one before is because "outdoor" wood, wood better able to withstand the elements such as teak or cedar, is pretty expensive. Even with those woods, a planter box will eventually rot away.

Planned obsolescence I decided to not fret over its fate and built my planter box using 2x4s and garden edging. Including the 16 lag screws, this planter cost me a little over 20 dollars to build. At that price, I dont have to worry about rot. When it happens, Ill just build a new one!
If you really want to save money, use wood from old pallets. You can usually pick them up free!
So I suppose this is a bit of an experiment too. I have applied no finish to the wood whatsoever. It should all become silver-gray in a year or so. Itll be interesting to see how long it lasts. Ill keep you posted.
Of course, if you want to make something more permanent or if you want to make a planter box for a gift, I would recommend using teak, redwood, or cedar and applying a protective finish. The actual techniques I used for this project would certainly apply.

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Knitting box

Heres a project my wife has been asking me to make for quite some time. She had very specific ideas for her dream knitting box. Making custom  projects is fun and a great reason to learn some woodworking. No store sells a box like this one.

I suspect very few of you (if any) have a need for a knitting box, but I hope you can pick up a few ideas from it. Its really just a box that can be modified for all kinds of storage purposes.
Table saw projectI wanted to build a project this week that was almost entirely made using my new table saw. I am a believer in diving into new tools with a purpose, rather than running boring tests on scrap wood. Wow, the difference between my old saw and this one is like comparing a poodle to a greyhound. Ill shoot a separate video this week showing you more of the saw.
Finger jointsAlso, if youve never made finger joints in boxes, they are really simple. Ive made them on my router, but this is the first time Ive done it on the table saw. In this video, Ill show a quick jig you can set up on your saw and cut them using a dado stack.