Create a beautiful Shaker-inspired Dovetailed Pine Box. A perfect way to increase your comfort & skill in more advanced woodworking techniques, this project combines working with hand-tools & power tools and uses hand cut steel nails. We will learn two methods to create dovetails, first learning finer hand-tool techniques working with a mallet, chisel and hand saw, to cut dovetails, hinge mortise and rabbet joint (see below for complete project description), then working with router and dovetail jig.
Dovetails are known as one of the strongest, most attractive, and most difficult ways to join two pieces of wood together – but they don’t have to be intimidating! In a reversal of the usual progression, we will first cut “pins & tails” for dovetails using a simple, common router jig. Then, we will try our hand at cutting a few traditionally, by hand, with a saw & chisel.
Also in this 2-day class, we will practice the rabbet joint we learned in the first class, look at different methods of edge-joining (to make a wide board out of narrow ones), use a pocket-screw jig, and more.
Our project for this class is a wooden box with hinged lid, adapted from a drawing that was made in 1929 of an early 19th century American piece. Like many of our projects, it is Shaker-inspired without being a strict reproduction.
We will be starting with lumber, not a kit – so we will dive right in on the morning of Day 1 by edge-fastening pieces of local hardwood together to make the lid.
Then we will cut dovetail joints for the box with two methods: first, we will use a hand-held router and a dovetail jig to cut a large number of small dovetails for the back corners of the box. Then we will hand-cut a small number of large dovetails – that will be combined with nails – as was common in simple boxes before industrialization.
For these visible nails, we will use cut steel nails from the Tremont Nail Company, which has been making nails in Massachusetts since 1819; so our nails may well be made on a machine that could have made the nails for the 19th century original chest.
We should end Day 1 with the lid made, and the four sides of the box assembled.
Day 2, we will plane, scrape, and sand the box smooth. The bottom will be plywood, attached with “pocket screws” using a jig.
We’ll make the feet by cutting a decorative edge on the bandsaw, and cutting a mitre joint with a mitre saw.
Back to the hardwood top – we will cut a decorative edge for the lid on a router table, and make simple wood hinges.
Final assembly & sanding, and we’ll apply a simple homemade finish.
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