The First Box
After making several prototype panels and boxes out of pine, I wanted to make a "real" box from some nice figured cherry wood I found a while back. Working from no plans, I just held a ruler up in the air a few different ways and decided that the box would be 9" long x 7" wide, and about 3.5" tall. The sides of the box were to be 0.75" thick. To make a long story short, several unacceptable corner joints and a few judicious saw cuts later, I ended up with the final configuration of 6.5" long x 4.5" wide x 2.75" tall, with 0.375" thick sides. On the positive side, I was able to use some of the trimmed-off scrap to make the top for the box.
The "finger joints" in the top are non-functional. The top is made of the pieces I sliced off the long sides of the box, so the finger joint was included in the slice.
The red-colored wood in the top is satine (a.k.a. bloodwood). It has a very nice luster and iridescence when it's polished up.
This shot shows the bottom side of the top (with the little rails to hold it in place). You can also see the green felt lining on the bottom of the inside.
Here's another look at the closed box. I like the way the finger joints in the corners look after I cut the coves (curves) in the sides of the box. It was one of those little surprises woodworking springs on me occasionally. Another experiment gone right.