Weighted Base Box Build Process

3/10/2021

Putting the hinge decision off for a while, I went out after lunch and sanded the top down to see what the filled-in mitres look like:

I think that'll do.

I then experimented with some different ideas for lids, a thick one:

...and a thin one:

I think I prefer the thin (5 mm thick) lid, but of course that means I need to use a butt hinge rather than the cylinder sort, so I'll have to figure out a way to deal with the problem of the nail heads (I'll probably just have to buy better quality hinges!)

In the meantime, I thought I'd get on with sticking the base in. Do you remember that bit of maple that I cut up into strips and used to make the splines? That was the base of the box. D'Oh!

Anyway, I still had plenty of the 5 mm thick maple, so I cut a new bit roughly to the right size and then used the shooting board to square it up and get it to be a snug fit in the rebate:

My original plan had been to have the base flush with the padauk rim, but seeing what it looked like with the slightly thicker maple, I decided I rather like it. When the box is the right way up it lifts the edges off the base slightly, which looks good to me:

With the new base prepared, I fitted the large neoprene square into the pocket, followed by the block of lead surrounded by neoprene on all four sides. It took a little bit of hand filing to get it to the right size, but it didn't take long as the lead is really soft:

I put the other large square of neoprene on top:

I then ran glue around the rim and used the vice to push the base into place. It won't be a very strong joint holding the base in, but I'm not planning on lifting the box very often, so it should fine. If the joint ever fails, I'll remove the neoprene above and below the lead and replace it with some appropriate glue so the base is glued to the lead which in turn is glued to the other piece of maple. Hopefully that won't be necessary though.

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