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woodezine - Volume
II - Issue VI - June 2004
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Spline This handsome keepsake box features mitered moldings, decorative splines, brass hardware and a quarter-matched bird's-eye maple lid. |
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Originally designed to house a 2,000-year-old Lakota artifact, this handsome box is essentially a collection of mitered frames stacked one upon the other. It is not a very complicated project to build and it makes a wonderful repository for personal treasures - anything from old love letters to prized baseball cards. And if your passion is cigars, you can line the inside with Spanish cedar to create a very personal humidor. The box is built with traditional American hardwoods: walnut for all but one of the moldings, birds-eye maple for the lid panel and soft maple for the miter splines. |
| The first step in construction is to cut the walls (pieces 1) to the dimensions shown in the Bill of Materials at the bottom of this page. Try to match the grain pattern as it flows around the box: this is a lot easier if you cut all four parts from one long board. Miter the ends, then apply glue and band clamps. Make sure the assembly is flat and square as you apply pressure. After the glue is dry, give the frame a thorough sanding, being careful not to round the corners. The decorative splines (pieces 2) add both beauty and strength to the frame, and they're easier to install than one might think. The key is a simple jig that runs across the table saw (shown at right), guiding the workpiece through the blade as it cuts 1/8" wide slots. Cut the two slots in each corner, at the locations shown on the full-scale drawing. This drawing is a PDF file: it will take a minute to download and print. |
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To make the splines, you'll need some 1" wide strips of maple that are a hair thicker than 1/8". You can rip these from a 1" wide board, with the board on edge as it goes through the table saw blade. Make each cut in several passes, raising the blade about 1/4" each time. Clamp the strips to a flat surface and remove the blade marks with a belt sander. Dry fit the strips in their slots in the walnut frame as you sand, stopping when their thickness is a perfect fit. Band saw the strips a little bit longer than their final dimensions, then glue them in place (shown at left): a gentle tap with a mallet will seat them. After the glue dries, belt sand the splines flush with the walnut sidewalls. |
| The base of the box is essentially two mitered frames set on top of each other. The top frame is comprised of two moldings glued together and then mitered to length before assembly. The first of these moldings is a walnut ogee (piece 3). This is a piece of 3" wide stock with an ogee profile routed into each edge (shown at right), then it's ripped down the middle to create two separate lengths of molding. If you have a router bit that is close to the decorative profile I used (see the full scale drawing), that will work fine: you don't need to duplicate it exactly. The second half of the base (piece 4) is milled from a length of maple. This is simply a rectangle with a rabbet milled along the top face (see the full scale drawing). It's easier - and safer - to mill the rabbet on the table saw first, then rip the molding off the edge of a wider board. |
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Face glue the two parts of the base together, making sure that the rabbet is lined up with the top of the walnut molding (shown at left): this will leave a small, square maple tongue on top of the completed assembly. After the glue dries, miter this compound molding to fit around the bottom edge of the sidewall frame you built earlier, then glue and clamp it in place. The second part of the base is a splined, mitered frame that holds a floating panel. The frame (piece 5) is walnut. Begin making it by ripping a 4' length of stock to the dimensions given in the Bill of Materials. Sand the stock, then miter the four sides of the frame to length. Apply glue and band clamps. |
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After the glue on the corners dries, sand the frame. Use your splining jig to create slots in the corners for maple splines (pieces 2), and glue these in place. After this glue dries, sand the splines. Then chuck a 1/4" radius roundover bit in your router and profile the top edge of the frame. Glue and clamp this subassembly to the bottom of the box. Looking down from the top, make sure it is centered, then add a heavy weight on top of the assembly (a gallon of finish?) to ensure a sound glue bond. The bottom panel (piece 6) is a square of 1/4" maple (or birch) plywood. Trim this panel so it is about 1/16" undersized in each direction: this will allow the hardwood elements around it to move slightly as they adjust to changes in humidity and temperature. Rout a rabbet along its top edge (see the full scale drawing for dimensions), then glue it in place. Rip a small angle fillet (piece 7) from some scrap soft maple: this is just a 45¡ cut on your table saw. Sand the fillet and glue it in place. It will act as a glue block and add a lot of strength to the assembly. Before the glue sets, predrill and counterbore for eight screws (pieces 8) that attach the lower frame to the upper frame. With that done, you're ready to tackle the top of the box. The last frame on the display box Ð excluding the lid Ð is the top frame molding (piece 9). Aside from its decorative merits, this mitered walnut frame provides a wider base for installing the lid hinges later on. It can be cut from a single length of molding. Miter the molding to fit, then apply glue and a band clamp to assemble the frame. After the glue dries, lightly sand the frame and attach it to the top of the box with a thin line of glue and eight brass screws (pieces 10). Predrill and countersink for these screws. |
| The lid panel is easier to build than one might assume. This is a quarter-matched panel, made up of four triangles with grain running parallel to their longest edge. Start with two 1/2" thick bird's-eye boards that are 8" square, then draw diagonal pencil lines across the top of each. Band saw along these lines, as shown at right. Each square yields two triangles with vertical grain, and two with horizontal grain. (If you decide to build a second box, save the cutoffs and you can create a second lid panel where the grain runs from the edge to the center.) |
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True up all of the edges by sanding them on a disk sander (shown at left), dry assembling the panel as you work. The disk sander will eventually yield an absolutely perfect fit along the angled edges. (If a disk sander isn't available, you could clamp on a fence and trim them with a bearing-guided laminate trimming bit chucked in your router.) |
| Use biscuits, glue and clamps to assemble the lid panel (see photo at right). After the glue dries, trim the panel to fit. The easiest way to do this is on the band saw, followed by the disk sander. Then set up your table saw to mill a rabbet on all four edges, top and bottom, as shown on the full scale drawing. |
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Next, rip the walnut frame (pieces 12) to size. The outside edge of this lid molding is bullnosed, and you can create this profile by using a roundover bit in the router table (shown at left). Be sure to use a fence to guide the workpiece, and not a bearing. If you make the first cut with a bearing-guided bit, you'll remove the bearing surface for the second cut and the two arcs won't align. My personal preference is to use a bullnose bit (shown) and a fence. Make several passes, to avoid stressing the cutter and/or the workpiece. Stay on the router table and install a 1/4" straight bit to plow the groove in the inside face of the molding. It's a good idea to do this before you miter the four parts to length, as it's both easier and safer to work with a long piece of stock, rather than four short ones. |
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Install the panel in the frame (but don't glue it as it needs to move to accommodate changing humidity). The fit should have about 1/32" of free play all the way around. Glue and clamp the frame together. After the glue dries, sand the frame. Use your splining jig to create slots for the miter splines (pieces 2), then glue the splines in place. Trim and sand the splines after the glue dries, and you're ready for some hardware. I chose brass cylinder hinges (pieces 13) for this project because of their low profile: as the lid is cantilevered over the box sides, more traditional butt hinges could have been a possibility, too. The ones I used are very inexpensive (I got them at Woodworker's Supply) and they have an added appeal: brass hinges, in combination with the eight brass screw heads on top of the box, lend the case an air of antiquity and grace. Apply two small strips of masking tape under the lid, locating them approximately where the hinges will go. Center the lid on the box, then use a pencil to mark the box location on the masking tape strips. From this, you can determine and mark the best locations for the hinges. Drill two holes in the top of the box at the hinge locations, using a 3/8" Forstner bit and a depth stop. This latter can be as simple as a piece of masking tape on the bit. Pop a pair of 3/8" dowel centers in the holes, then align the lid on the box using the pencil marks on the masking tape as your guide. Press the lid down hard enough to imprint the hole center locations on the bottom of the lid, then use the same Forstner bit to drill these holes. Rotate the hinges until they are in the correct alignment, then gently tap them into the holes in the box with a small mallet. Use a clamp and a soft jaw pad to intall the hinges in the lid holes. I cheated: I used a countersink bit to cut a very slight bevel on each hole, to make alignment a little easier. I also left the higes about 1/16" proud of the surface on the lid, so they would never bind. Final Thoughts |
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Bill of Materials
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