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Cedar Box Pt.1

I was watching Doug Stowe's box making video for the 27th time when I finally decided to try my hand at a simple box.

I have some Aromatic Cedar that is already surfaced to 1/2 and thought that I would start with a simple box. Plus I wanted to test out my idea of making the miter cuts on the radial arm saw. I reasoned that it would allow me to leave the table saw blade registered to 90 for all the other operations and might save on setup time.

The operation seemed simple enough. I set my RAS to 45degrees and make a pass to give me a reference kerf in the fence and on the table. I then set a stop my desired length from that time.



Flipped the board face down to make the first bevel


flipped and registered it against my stop for the second. Wash rinse & repeat.



The last two cuts were a wee bit dangerous without a change of plan.


So I used some double stick tape in lieu of my hands.


Worked like a charm! So I took off my riot helmet & Kevlar body suit and pretended like I knew it would work the whole time!!


The grain looks great, and the miters are tight. I ran dadoes in the top and bottom of the inside and moved on to the next step.


Next I needed some stock for the base and lid. I thought with the busy look of cedar, oak would compliment it nicely. I re-sawed some 3/4 stock on the Uni and readied it for a final thickness pass on my planer.


It should be noted at this point that I've never used my planer before. I've had it for about 2 years. It's a Ryobi AP12. I need a little more time getting comfortable with the workings of this tool...


...needless to say I no longer have stock for the top and bottom of my box. Hopefully I'll remedy that soon.

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