Creative Woodworks & crafts 2004-08, страница 45

Fig. 1. Slats for lid and bottom glued up at the same time.

Fig. 3. Four 3/4" x 3/4' square layout lines.

Fig. 5. Cut the dividing lines.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Making the bottom and lid

Three of the 18"-long aromatic cedar pieces are used to make the lid, and three more are used for the bottom. Soften all the edges of the six pieces with a 1/8" roundover bit and a router table. Hand sanding after rounding over the edges will lessen the machined look and make the three glued-up pieces look like old slats. I used a set of twin clamps I got from PS Wood to do the glue-ups. The 4"-wide body on each clamp makes it easy to layout and align the pieces without having to fumble with clamps and a bunch of wood pieces at the same time. Having a clamp on both sides of the 4" clamp body allows you to do two glue ups in the space it takes to do one (see Fig. l).

Drawing the layout lines for the fin-ger-jointed box body slats

Eight slats make up the body of the box: two 9" slats for each end, two 18" slats for the front, and two 18" slats for the back. Determine which pieces you think look best together and mark them so you can keep them oriented to each other when ytou cut the finger joints and assemble them.

Draw layout lines on the wood for cutting the finger joints. Use a square to draw lines 3/4" in from the edge on both ends of the 18" front and back pieces and on the 9" end pieces (see Fig. 2). The next layout lines define the fingers and notches, and are drawn on both ends of on y the 9" end pieces. Draw three lines dividing the 3/4" x 3" space on each end into four 3/4" x 3/4" squares (see Fig. 3).

Cutting the finger joints and assembling the box body and bottom

The first cuts to make are on the lines dividing each 3/4" section. Make the dividing line cuts for an end slat and the front (or back) slat for each corner at the same time by taping the pieces together and stack sawing them. Cutting them at the same time ensures that the fingers and notches will match up properly (see Fig. 4). Cut each dividing line and stop at the layout line 3/4" in from the end (see Fig. S).

•Lay a front or back slat so the edge that will be towards the bottom of the box is facing you. Mark the second and fourth 3/4" squares up from the bottom on both ends of the slat. Lay an end slat so the edge that will be towards the bottom of the box is facing you. Mark the first and third 3/4" squares up from the bottom on both ends of the slat (see Fig. 6). Mark the rest of the slats the same way.

The marked squares will be cut away on the line at which you stopped (3/4" in from the end) when cutting the dividing lines.

Fig. 2. First layout line.

Fig. 4. Front (or back) piece and end pieces taped together.

Fig. 6. Squares marked