Small Gift Boxes-The Camphor Box

Whew, ok, I'm back.

I've completely re-done the camphor box, which should come as no surprise as I've re-done the other two boxes.

Let's take a look at the photographs:

Reshaping the Bottom

Here is the box to begin with. The sides are a little convex and there isn't any other detail other than the grain and color of the wood. I decided to straighten out the sides and make this box more square in shape:

So back on the lathe it goes:

Here is the box several minutes later. I've straightened out the sides and left wood on the bottom and the rim for beads:

And here is the box. There is a single bead on the bottom and a double bead area around the rim. I'm satisfied  with this design so the turning for this is complete:

The Lid

This lid is going to be shaped totally differently from the other lids. It has to be more square in shape to carry this design element through the entire piece. I created a turning blank from a piece of scrape white ash wood that I've had and used for several other projects. It has a wild grain pattern and being ash, it will finish really well.

Here is the blank on the Nova chuck:

Here is the blank spinning on the lathe. I'm creating a tenon on the surface so I can re-attach it to the lathe and work on the underside:

 Here is the top for the moment:

I've flipped the lid over and I'm going to create the underside:

Here is the tenon that fits into the inside of the box:

Here is the lid thus far. There is enough wood to accomplish the finish turning:

Turning the Lid to Shape

The first thing to do is to cut the lid blank down to the same diameter as the box rim and to do that I'm going to turn the lid and the box together as a single unit and you can see them both mounted on the lathe between centers:

The bottom edge of the lid is now approximately the same diameter. Next the upper rim of the lid was shaped. I created a small bead along the edge which you'll see in the next photograph:

 Now for the top of the lid. I wanted to create a sharp pyramid-shaped finial first and then create a secondary ring around it. You can see in the picture the beginnings of this part of the turn:

 Here are those two elements on the surface of the lid:

In looking at the lid I think the design would be helped by adding a third, outer ring but to do that I will have to cut away the surface of the lid and this in turn will remove the bead. Should I do this or not:

 I did:

And here is the lid without the bead and with three rings on the surface:

I'm rather happy with this. You can see how the rings distort the grain pattern a bit. I like that too:

 And here is the box with the lid on top:

Ok, here is where we stand at the moment:

All of these boxes have to be finely sanded in preparation for finishing. The box on the Cedar of Lebanon box has to be sanded, sealed and stained so there is still work to be done on the boxes.

Stay tuned and I'll walk us through the finishing process and you can see how they come out.

Tomorrow I'm going to make a bed frame out of wood using construction brackets so stay tuned, grab a cup of coffee, and drop by the wood shop. There's always something going on around here!

See you soon,

VW