Weighted Base Box Build Process

30/9/2021

I had an hour or so free this evening so I decided to do a little more on the box. I started by taking the masking tape off:

There had obviously been a bit of glue squeeze out under the tape, which was a bit of a shame, but it was easily sorted by putting some 240 grit sandpaper on the bench and rubbing the box on it:

The next job was to start cutting the slots for the splines. I started by marking where I wanted the splines to get to on each side using masking tape:

This is my spline cutting process (this is the third box I've done in a way that's basically the same as this):

The saw is a Dozuki dovetail saw. The small block of maple is the wood I'm going to use to cut the splines; the other block of wood is a random offcut of cedar that's 12 mm thick: this seemed about the right distance to offset the splines from the top and bottom of the box. On the right is a spare blade for the Dozuki. It's been taped down to the bench with masking tape and a couple of layers of masking tape added to account for the fact that the kerf is slightly wider than the thickness of the plate.

The first step in cutting the splines is to put the cedar spacer on top of the spare saw blade and then put the Dozuki on top of the cedar.

I can then press the blade of the Dozuki down onto the cedar and rub it back and forth to cut one side of the spline. I repeated that on each corner and with the box both ways up, so each corner had two cuts, each a little over 12 mm from the edge:

To cut the second side, I replace the spare blade with the maple that's going to be used to cut the spline. This effectively moves the blade up by the maple thickness minus the kerf.

After cutting all four corners in both box orientations, I end up with a set of slits all round the box:

I use a square and knife to join the two saw cuts together:

I can then use my 3 mm chisel to open the slot out, checking with a 150 mm ruler that there are no ridges in the middle of the slot:

It's then ready for a test fit: if it's all gone well (which it did on the two I've cut so far), the maple piece pushes into the slot with light pressure and stays there of its own accord.

I've only chiselled out two of the spline slots so far; I'll hopefully get some time at the weekend to do the remaining six and get the maple glued into place.

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