March 16,

This one used no nails of screws, not that any in this whole series do, and attempts to get at an old-fashioned toolbox.  The wood is scrap pine ad a one inch oak dowel.  The end pieces were not flat, I had to use a plane to get them not to rock before I fastened them.  The crowning accomplishment here, very small, is you will notice two small dark dots near the top of the ends by the dowel.  These are smaller dowels which go through the larger dowel preventing it from turning or from sliding out to either side.  That felt so technical.

The too box itself is a trifle too heavy to contemplate using.  It would probably be better as a planter or a knick-knack aggregator.  It’s up for give-away.  A good sense of accomplishment though.  It’s funny how basic basic things are.

March 1 2013

This one began as part of a grand plan to be able to make ‘Regular Polygon Houses’ having N sides, where the base would have walls of a height of H and a length of L and a width of W,  and the roof a length of RL  as measured from a base vertice. From these measurements I wanted to be able to spit out of a spreadsheet the angles (easy enough for the base) and the angles of each roof section and the angle of the bevel between a roof panel and a wall. Anyone having such just lying around in a spreadsheet please contact me.

All winter long we had stink bugs, or stink bug cousins, just a few, staying in our house and they were very polite and very slow moving, never giving us a stink or getting in the way at all, just minding their business.  When I made this box and put it on the counter I’d never seen one move with such speed or purposefulness.  He was up and on the pyramid quicker than jack rabbit, as they say, and stayed there for quite a while.  It made me imagine that stink bugs were some people cursed and turned into bugs in the times of the Pharaohs and that seeing a pyramid, after so long, it was just unnaturally compelling to the bug.  There are probably better explanations.

There is little special to remark about the box, the construction is quite sloppy and flawed, barely sufficient to get to the idea that it was trying to portray.  It gave me a little bit more insight into the equations necessary to produce that spreadsheet, not that I have done that.

Delighted as I was with the first box the very next day, Feb 17, I tried another.  Here the 45 degree corners are supported by biscuit joints.  The walls are cheap pine 3/4 inch thick.  I routed an inset for the lid which is 3/4 inch cedar while the floor is 3/8 inch cedar.  On the lid I tested a roman ogee bit and for a handle I doweled and glued a piece of orange osage.  Not sure what purpose there was, other than to test further capabilities and refine present. Call it a pistol box if you like, not that I have pistols.

February 16.

The purpose of this box was to test if I could make a box.  The walls are of 3/4 inch sassafras, the top and bottom are of 3/8 inch cedar.  The corners are cut at 45 degrees, imperfectly, naturally, and glued.  The bottom has a routed groove in which the cedar is slotted.   Relative to the goal this was a success.