Wednesday was the last day of woodworking class. I didn’t finish assembling my jewelry boxes because I hit a pretty big snag. (As I am wont to do.) But more on that later. First let me show you want I did get accomplished.
My teacher recommended using dowels for the hinges of the boxes. So I taped the lids in place, using a block inside the box to keep the lid aligned correctly, and drilled through the slides of the box and into the lid.
Little did I know that this was when it all began to go wrong…
(A close-up of disaster in the making.)
Using a bottle cap to mark the half-circle for the front of the box.
Carving out the niche in front with a grinder.
The tray sitting inside; it slides side-to-side.Everything looks good, doesn’t it? But there’s a little problem.
Because of the way the holes were placed, the back edge of the lid hits the box and can’t open all the way!It was pretty frustrating to discover this little development an hour before class ended. My teacher didn’t really know how to fix it other than re-drilling the holes. So next semester I’ll either have to plug the holes in the lid with dowels and re-drill or make new lids (probably what I’ll do).
So that’s that. It’s a little frustrating to not finish the project. This is the first time I wasn’t able to use the shop outside of class hours at all (our new instructor’s policy) and I think I was really accustom to getting extra time.
But I did learn a lot of new techniques this semester, which was fun. Oddly enough, making the trays was probably the most satisfying part of this project. All in all and lid-problems aside, I think I improved quite a bit this semester.
Wow Faith! The box is beautiful! How long before the class starts up again?
Thanks, Mindy. The next semester doesn’t start until September so the boxes will just sit in the basement until then.
It looks really great, Faith, all snags aside. Bummer about the new instructor! It seemed like you and the previous one were pretty tight – he was always giving you extra time to come in and work and stuff. Did he leave the school or was this just a different class?
Thanks, Gwyn. The new instructor’s actually really great and in one way I appreciate his policy that you only work in the shop during your own class time because it means that we didn’t have a mob of daytime students crowding our classes the last few weeks BUT I had had just 4 more hours I think I could have finished the boxes.
My previous instructor retired. He’s not teaching anymore, but he still does cabinets and counter tops for people. I’d love to have him redo our kitchen counter tops some day.
LOVE the slidy tray thingies!! So rad!