{"id":102,"date":"2014-01-12T01:21:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-12T09:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2014-03-02T03:28:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-02T11:28:25","slug":"lisas-geological-specimen-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Lisa’s Geological Specimen Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCN3895\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Christmastime was rolling around, I had some gifts (almost all of them, I guess) that would require access to Schenk’s laser cutter.\u00a0 But then he was called out of town at the last minute.\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 Fortunately, his wife was kind enough to allow me to stop by and finish my gifts in time for Christmas.\u00a0 When I was walking out the door with my arms loaded with gift parts, I told her that I would design her something worthwhile.<\/p>\n

The BPAL Box for Isaac’s wife Cyl.\u00a0 The Needlepoint Box for Pete’s Wife Sarah.\u00a0 I decided to continue the tradition of box-making tailored to the recipients specific hobby.\u00a0 Something that makes them unique.\u00a0 For their wedding centerpieces last year, Lisa deployed some of her finest mineralogical specimens to support the rustic, natural theme of their reception.\u00a0 But visiting their home a few months later, I saw some of them in a bucket.\u00a0 That just won’t do.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN3900\"<\/a>I doodled a couple ideas for what I wanted the box to look like.\u00a0 I knew I wanted shallow sample trays, so each specimen would be easily visible and accessible.\u00a0 I wanted doors on the front so that the trays wouldn’t slide out during transport.\u00a0 If the doors were deep enough, I could make space for smaller containers for sands, soils, and agates, along with specimen maintenance tools like brushes and loupes.<\/p>\n

Withe dimensions roughed out on paper, I translated the design into Sketchup so that I could get some hard numbers.<\/p>\n

I didn’t want visible screws, so this box marked my foray into plate-joinery.\u00a0 I received a plate joiner as a gift last year, but haven’t had an opportunity to use it.\u00a0 The box was going to have rocks in it, and I didn’t want it coming apart when moving it.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN3904\"<\/a>The carcase is made of 1\/2″ sandeply joined with biscuits, and the trays are Poplar fronts with 1\/4″ MDF joined using my 17-gauge pin nailer.\u00a0 After assembling the third tray, I finally got the idea that the MDF wouldn’t split if I pinned it closer to the middle of the boards.\u00a0 Better late than never.\u00a0 I didn’t trust myself notching all the tray dividers on the table saw, so it was a perfect job for the laser cutter.<\/p>\n

Each tray got a wipe-down of paste wax on the bottoms and sides for a smooth ride in and out of the box.\u00a0 The drawers fit so snugly that they give a little owl “hoot” when pushing them back in; the escaping air has to pass over the tops of the sample compartments, in effect creating a type of whistle.<\/p>\n

Brass hardware keeps everything together.\u00a0 Even though I wanted to use nickel hardware, I was kind of forced to use brass hardware since I couldn’t find the handles I wanted in nickel.\u00a0 Lisa’s keeps the collection secure with an antique brass lock.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN3903\"<\/a>The box was finished with Dark Walnut stain and two layers of semi-gloss poly.\u00a0 Before applying the poly, I cut out stencils on the Cameo for each side of the box and applied a quick spray of rattlecan white.<\/p>\n

For maximum personalization, I created a name plate so that there would be no question or confusion as to who owned the box, and what was inside.<\/p>\n

Lessons Learned<\/strong><\/p>\n

When working with plywood, if I’m making something nice as a gift, I need to either apply edge banding to the exposed plywood edge, or paint the whole box.\u00a0 I finish the plywood surface because I wanted to give a ‘finished wood’ look, but the exposed ply edges really take away from the whole aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Also, I got to use my plate joiner for a practical project, which was fairly easy and fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Christmastime was rolling around, I had some gifts (almost all of them, I guess) that would require access to Schenk’s laser cutter.\u00a0 But then he was called out of town at the last minute.\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 Fortunately, his wife was kind enough to allow me to stop by and finish my gifts in time … Continue reading Lisa’s Geological Specimen Box<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,7,2,6,3],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-box","tag-cameo","tag-gift","tag-laser","tag-wood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}