Vondrak Jewelry Boxes

This is almost where I'm at now. I have all 3 boxes out of the clamps, I did plane the pins flush with a plane, (sorry no picture) sanded smooth, and I've also made a molding for the lid. I felt that the distance between the top of the box and the top of the lid needed a little help. I'll get a picture of that later.

Tower 'o Boxes.

Here is what I did to glue the boxes up. I cut some small pieces of wood that fit between the pins and tails, and taped them in place. Glue on the pins and tails, and a few clamps. Pretty straight forward.

Gluing up a Box.

Well, its not handmade without a little opportunity. I've got a double whopper here. First, I had a little tearout on the tails. I'm thinking that the way to fix that is either with a little black epoxy, or glue in some walnut endgrain. I'll do some research on that and I'll take pictures along the way. The other one, I thought was going to be a design feature of the piece. The knot looks really neat, and has a lot of nice grain around it. The problem is that I haven't cut the box apart yet, and guess where the cut needs to be...you guessed it, right through the knot on the right.

Opportunity.

Here is the veneer saying hello to the plywood substrate. Both sides got 2 coats of contact cement and were then stuck together. Even with both windows and the door open, "Towely" from South Park showed up and asked me if I wanted to go get high. Those fumes were pretty strong. I'm thinking a good mask might have to be in my future if I do this again...or wait until summer.

Getting Ready to Glue Veneer.

I was a little slow on the picture taking, so imagine taking rough boards and running them through the jointer, planer, and dovetailing them. The result is what you see here.

Stack of Boxes Ready for Glueup.

Along for the ride is my prototype box. This box is built a step or 2 ahead of the other boxes so I can figure out things like assembly procedures, finishing, everything and anything that can make the other boxes go together quickly and easily.

Test Box.

For this project, I was given creative license (thankfully) and I've always wanted to try my hand at veneering. I ordered some Carpathian Elm Burl off of ebay and this is what I got. This should look really good when it gets its finish on.

Veneer for the lid.