Wood Composition:
I first wanted to plane & glue together my box so that I could get a feel for the dimensions of it before I designed anything. In the end I decided to go for:
Walnut || Plywood || Maple || Plywood || Walnut
Design:
I personally prefer straight lines and edges in my designs as I like to adhere to numbers to make things more even. Given the need to use the bandsaw, however, it was impossible to make the box drawers rectangular without having to make a lot of cuts on the outer frame. In the end I tried to keep a similar design with more rounded corners but unfortunately I was not completely used to making turns with the bandsaw and the boxes all came out very uneven. I’ve thought of ways to adapt the design around this unevenness but I have a feeling it will come out looking a little odd.
I’ve yet to finish turning the drawers into actual drawers (hollowing out a space) but something I wanted to try for this project was to have the handles on the side of the drawer rather than the front, this then requires me to thin the handle for each drawer and save the front to reattach to the main body so that the handle cannot slide out like a normal drawer. Something I know I’ll need to watch out for is friction and angle of pressure applied to the drawer from the handle, since its on the side and near one end it can cause the drawer to try to go downward into the frame instead of forward. Hopefully, with enough sanding and perhaps a thicker coating this won’t be a problem though.
Week 2 Update:
I cut out small pieces to bridge the gaps in the front of my box, by cutting new pieces the grain of the wood doesn’t really match anymore but it’s better than having a gap from the cuts.
Now that I was done with all cutting work, all that was left to do was sand, glue and finish the piece.
Final:
Unfortunately, I didn’t plan out my time very well and I still need to sand the backside down and use filler for a bad cut because the glue needs to dry, but that shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. In the end I was fairly satisfied with how it turned out, because the drawer cuts from the bandsaw ended up being very unsymmetrical I was worried that it seemed very strange, but once everything was put together it doesn’t seem as bad. Two problem in functionality persist, however. The first is that the side handles should be placed further in, which would make the drawers smaller but leave room behind as guides for the drawers so they don’t droop and jam when opened all the way. The second is that I cut the inside of the bottom left drawer so that It did not have a partial cover for the slot above, meaning that even when closed you can see/access the contents inside. It would’ve been nice to catch these problems in the design earlier on but it will be a useful experience to refer to in the future.