Mother's Day present (2)
A recent Fine Woodworking Magazine article gave step by step instructions for making great looking miter boxes. I adapted the idea to making a couple of shadow boxes. The first step was to figure out what mommy might want to put in the boxes. That was pretty easy. Hannah and Grace were born 10 weeks prematurely, and we like to show people the first tiny outfits they were allowed to wear in the hospital. One box each from each girl.
I figured a roughly 8 X 10 opening would be ideal for a picture background, if wanted, and provided enough space for the little outfits. Materials were scrap maple and jatoba for the frame, scrap whiteboard, some 1/8" clear acrylic I had leftover from another project, and a few #6 screws. The scrap maple came from old flooring odds and ends, which were planed down to remove the backside grooves from the flooring, and a close shave to clean up the face side. I cut the width down to about 1 1/2", then ran the pieces narrow side up through the planer to clean up the edges. I finished preparing the framing stock using a 45 degree chamfer bit. One extra set of frame pieces was made so I'd have something to test cut setups and the final construction methods.
I decided to cut the prepped stock to rough length before rabbeting for the back and slotting to accept the clear acrylic window. The smaller pieces were easier to handle. Both cuts were made on the table saw. A 45 degree miter cut was made on one end of each rough cut stock. One of the short sections was then cut to finished length. I used this piece to set up a stop block on my miter saw fence, and the rest of the short pieces were cut to length. This was repeated for the long sections.
The woodworking article mentioned using splines or biscuits to strengthen the joints prior to cutting the keys. I didn't have a mini-biscuit joiner, the local Sears was out of them, and I'd had difficulty making good looking splines on another project. Mother's Day was tomorrow. I decided to just glue up the butt joints and hope for the best. I did get a new tool while at Sears-a $20 band clamp, good up to 4 yards circumference. Here's how the glue-up looks on my test piece: