Had some slabs laying around, and a the CNC sitting idle so worked up a design for a completely CNC cut box. Still a little fine tuning on the square ones to make them fit perfectly right off the machine but they come out pretty decent!
Boxes without a saw or a lathe
- Thread starter Schroedc
- Start date
Cool! What size are they? A buddy of mine has a cnc and is considering boxes. I have this nasty habit of stacking wood back and might talk him into a trade... I have a brother who LOVES dragons. I will have to start wrangling playtime. (If I ever get done with my animal houses.) (And sawmilling.) (And you know, the rest of it)
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- #3
The round one is about 4 inches diameter for scale
Nice boxes! I made a few a couple weeks ago but I need to do a little touching up on mine also. What size bit did you use to cut the inside?
@woodtickgreg
Just realized there was a Singer logo. Chuck
Just realized there was a Singer logo. Chuck
Rather than start a new thread, I'll post these here, since I didn't use a lathe or band saw. Just took some nominal 1 inch thick crotch figure walnut, curly myrtle and maple. Using a pattern bit route out the inside of two book matched sets, leave around 3/16" sides and bottom. Mortise small hinges and glue in a 1/8" magnet for a closure. Take them to your local friendly lazer engraving guy who has a new technique that transfers photos to permanent hard resin coated aluminium disks. Inlay the disks into the cover of the boxes and this is what you get. I think they're really cool and different than any other fly boxes I've seen. I have some slotted foam and some ripple foam to make the inserts. But these could also just be used as is for small stuff, guitar picks, sewing or craft tools, etc. The picture transfer is done using a heated press and achieves super clarity and detail and colors true to the photo. I'll probably put a few coats of tung oil on these before I give them away.
White-throated toucans we see where we fish in the Amazon.
White-throated toucans we see where we fish in the Amazon.
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Outstanding transfer of images! If you get a chance, please put together a tutorial on this. Thanks! Chuck
I bought a couple 4 inch squares of canary wood from John with the intention of making them into fly boxes. I'll have to make a new template for the router so maybe when I do that I'll take some pics. It's a pretty simple process. The hardest part is securing the template to the wood so it doesn't slip around while you're routing. It's actually easier to start with a bigger board so you have plenty to clamp on to and still have room for the router bed. But you can sandwich the fly box board between two other boards of equal thickness, use double stick tape, and usually get it secured. Once you have that, it's just driving the router around, increasing the depth, driving the router, etc until you reach the depth you want. Then trim any excess off the sides of the box, sand it, and make the mortises for the hinges.
Ah, well, I don't do that part. The guy who does lazer engraving does it. But from his description, you can use any photo or drawing you want. Select the size of resin coated disc you want and size your photo to fit. Then he prints that image on special paper that comes with the resin coated discs. Then he tapes the resin coated disc onto the paper, resin side in contact with the printed photo. He can do multiple discs as long as they fit on the page. Then he places them into a heated press for about 30 seconds. The image is transfered into the resin. He pulls them out, lays lays them on a flat cool surface, and then peels off the paper. That's all I know about it. Except the image disc are permanent and very durable. The resin can be scratched but otherwise it's pretty solid.
Finally finished these. 5 coats of tung oil then buff polished. Glued in the toucan inlay with Gorilla glue. The ripple foam isn't glued in, in case the recipients want to use the box for something other than flies. I think these turned out really well and will probably make a few more.
Outstanding! What are the dimensions? Chuck
Thanks. Around 3.75" X 4.25", but there's no special dimension. I made a pattern for my router some time ago so I just reused it. The thickness is just double whatever the wood you use. I try to leave around 3/16" thick on the bottom, top and sides when I route out the inside.
That Singer engraving is way cool! Great idea to utilize all the small scraps around the shop.
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- #15
Thanks, I do a lot for the vintage sewing machine folks so I've digitized a lot of vintage artwork. I start with a scan of a 100 year old piece of art and then a lot of photoshop work.