Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Packing Box Done (but Unfinished)

The first packing box is complete!  I do intend to add an oil finish to it, so it is "unfinished", yet its structure is complete.  Its far from perfect, but it came out rather well.

Here's an image of the packing box from the book, followed by how mine came out:


Here you can see the clinched nails on the bottom's top, I tried to hammer them as smooth as possible but one may not want to put the most delicate of items in here without a liner.  I'll do a post on clinching when I make box #2:


Here it is loaded up.  It is actually quite ideal for books because it matches my golden moving tip: Don't put more books in a box than you actually want to carry.  Its easy to pick a huge box and cram it so full that its ridiculous to lift.


Box closed.  Its intended to be nailed shut, and true to the book, I drilled pilot holes for that.  Modern folks would probably want hinges and a hasp added.

I have 2 more of these to make, plus a possible 3rd one which will be sized according to the scraps.  I hope to add a little more detail with the different lessons learned and the basic operations involved with each iteration, so stay tuned and if you have questions about how/why, please leave them in the comments.

4 comments:

  1. Nicely done.

    Also, it's good to see a fellow PNW fellow on a similar track. I'm up in Seattle, and I see you're down in Oregon.

    Badger
    http://badgerwoodworks.com/blog

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  2. Sweet, I might have to build one just for some hinge practice. It would make a great addition to the Jeep to keep odds and ends from rattling around. I think I'll try the 5 hour time limit mentioned in the book.

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  3. What's the thickness of the boards, 1/2"? Did it list possible uses for suck a box?

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  4. The box as specified uses 1/2" pine. I used 1/2" poplar since that is all that was available near that thickness. The box is incredibly sturdy and rigid as it is. The intended use was to pack books for a journey by carriage; but I think it could be used to safely hold almost anything that would fit within it. Hinges would make it into a decent toolbox. I wlll probably make a smaller one with the scraps, add some dividers, and keep shop odds-and-ends like extra bench plane irons, routing plane irons, etc in it.

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