Oval Boxes

Oval Band Saw Boxes

This was my first attempt at creating boxes on the bandsaw.

My mother asked for a small jewelry box to house a special watch.

She saw a piece of zebrawood in my home and requested the box be made from that wood. I decided to make two, in case I messed one up.

Fortunately, they both came out well. She has one, and I kept the box pictured above.

Here are photos of the build process. I'll try to add some more detail later.

Click on small images for larger photos.

Glue up a sandwich of zebrawood and maple. One piece of zebrawood already had a thin piece of walnut glued on from another project... it gets cut off later.

Attach oval paper template (made with Sketchup). On one blank, I aligned the template parallel to the grain pattern. The other was placed on a diagonal... just to be different. The template was attached with spray adhesive, and also covered with clear packing tape (a trick used by scrollsawers to help lubricate the blade)

Cut out the oval blanks on bandsaw

Sand the outer surfaces, label surfaces and slice off the top of each blank.

Attaching the ovals to a rectangular block made the slicing easier.

Attach new templates to the new top of the blanks.

Cut out the core, then glue the entry point back together.

Sand the hollow oval.

Glue the bottom back on and sand to fit (because closing the entry point kerf changes the geometry slightly).

Clamp the top on and sand to fit. Scrape off the template and smooth all surfaces.

Slice the top off of the remaining core, this becomes the "bottom of the top" and insets into the box.

Glue up the two pieces of the top.

Now that pieces are assembled, apply boiled linseed oil to bring out the grain.

Next I used some walnut wood filler to fill in the open pores.

Then I used Tru-Oil Sealer, followed by several coats of Tru-Oil finish (light steel wool between coats). Tru-Oil is generally used for gunstocks, and I've used it before as a finish for the octave mandolin I built earlier this year.

Here are some photos of one of the boxes. I kept this one for myself, the other went to my mother as a jewelry box for a special watch.

I was going to apply flocking to the inside of the box, but she decided that it was too nice to cover up, so she'll likely add a piece of silk to protect the watch.